what's up family and friends!? how is everyone doing this week? very well i hope! this week has been a pretty good one here in the desert oasis of fallon NV! looks like i'm on my own this week in letting you all know how it went so let's see what we can come up with!
first of all, i'm in the family history center today. it has been opened back up so we don't have to go all the way to the library anymore! saves us like a 2 mile bike ride, which is super good. the first thing to note is the weather! how has it been for you guys!? cold? we had a couple days that were cold enough for me to break out the winter coat. course, on bikes it makes it a little colder .. probably wouldn't have needed the big coat if i wasn't cruisin around on the two wheels! it's been nice though.. sweater/cardigan weather for the most part.
so yesterday was fast/testimony meeting with conference being next week. elder Shaw and I were heavily involved! we were asked to teach both hours, sunday school and priesthood. i was sitting in sacrament almost overwhelmed at the responsibility we had to teach those two lessons and after a testimony or two i got a strong impression to get up and share my testimony on the power of the scriptures. so i did! i've never had a sunday where i had so much on my mind! we taught a lesson in gospel principles about Faith in Jesus Christ, then we taught the priests on missionary work! it was an eventful day.. but i almost felt more spiritually tired than rejuvenated. what do you do!? but it was fun. i was once told that a testimony is strengthened in the bearing of it and i had a lot of opportunities to share my testimony yesterday, and even this morning at 630! which leads me to my next point.
we went on splits again last wedensday. i was working with Elder Hannig in his area (Fallon 3rd ward). we get along so well! it was a lot of fun to teach with someone that i could talk to about everything. he's kindof a goofball but we get along. anyway! our dinner appointment was with the former stake president, now just a member of the 3rd ward. he's such a solid guy. his name is brother Hyde.. in my opinion he's general authority material.. just rock solid! but anyway we had dinner at his house (he makes a great amount of money doing a million different things.. jack of all trades) beautiful home right on the carson river! so we got to talking with he and his wife and they asked us the question "why did you decide to serve a mission?" and we both took a turn telling our little stories. well he looked at me afterwards and just said "my seminary class needs to hear that story." needless to say he teaches seminary now, and does an awesome job of it. so i told him i'd be happy to come speak to his class he would just have to let me know when. well i saw him at church yesterday back in our building on richards street and he asked if i would come in tomorrow (today, this morning) . so i pulled Elder Shaw out of bed at 530am to get ready and head to early morning seminary! when we got there we got right to what we were there for! Brother Hyde asked elder Shaw if he would share his story first then i shared my story and testimony. It was a great experience! i loved it. i prayed last night and this morning that i would portray the parts of my story that would be of the most help to the students in the class and i can't say for sure.. i just know it was a blessing for me to relive it and walk through just why i decided to come out here! i figured it might be kindof a fun idea to relive and re-tell that story to you guys today although most of you might have a pretty sound understanding of just what my "story" entails.
So i'll try and keep it short because i know nobody wants to read a big long novel.. but here it is. Growing up i was never super active in the church. I was never really converted to the gospel because i didn't really know what the gospel was. I didn't know where the Book of Mormon came from. I didn't understand Joseph Smiths role in restoring the fulness of the truth to us. I didn't understand what set the "mormons" apart from the rest of christianity..(Priesthood) I had literally no understanding of why this church is the true church. i just knew it was. well becuase i was surrounded by good influences i never really got into anything that would hold me back from serving a mission. A lot of people that i loved and cared about had made the decision to serve the Lord so i decided to start really considering it. the fact of the matter was i had always said i would serve a mission, i just never actually took the steps to get out! it didn't really come and sweep me off my feet.. i had to work for it as a lot of you know. anyway! i was sitting in singles ward one day because my good friend Jameson Ricks invited me to come with him.. it was a pretty spiritual meeting and as i was feeling the love of the Savior through the spirit in the meeting the thought occured to me.. some people don't have any idea what this feels like. i knew that i had a responsibility to serve and i didn't have any real restrictions, nothing holding me back. so i went in to my bishop, Bishop Dastrup and i shared the good news, that i was ready to go out on my mission! Bishop Dastrup, being an inspired man, gave me a list of things to accomplish before he would allow me to fill out my papers. at the time i was devastated.. i spent about a week wallowing in self pitty before asking the Lord for help. well to make a long story short, with the help of the Lord i was able to fulfill the things my bishop had asked of me. one of the things he asked me was to read preach my gospel 3 times cover to cover.. though that seemed steep to most everyone i talked too i decided to give it my best shot. well this was a pivotal thing for me. i didn't realize at the time how much of a blessing it was for me to spend time in preach my gospel everyday. i was studying the very material we relay to investigators to help them come to know of the truth. my time spent in that book before my mission was to convert myself to the gospel. The Lord knows that i needed that time. it's an ongoing learning process and i'm fine with it, but had i not spent that time in preach my gospel i would have gotten out here and dwindled, and failed. So my testimony on this matter is pretty simple. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the Lord is mindful of me. i know that he is mindful of all of his children. He provides a way for us to accomplish the tasks that lie ahead of us. it happens in a myriad of different ways, maybe most commonly working through his servants who follow the Savior and as a result, are in tune with the promptings they receive. what a blessing! this is, in essence, the testimony Brother Hyde asked me to share with his students. looking at all those words on the computer screen i hope nobody falls asleep while trying to read that whole thing.. sheesh. but needless to say i'm so grateful for bishop Dastrup for his being in tune with the spirit, and i'm so grateful for all the priesthood leaders and disciples of Christ that i was surrounded by whilst growing up in the vital years of my life in Lindon Ut. I know that because the Lord is mindful of each of us he gives us opportunities to learn, and to grow, and he won't ever suffer us to be in a circumstance that we can't endure through he power of the Atonement. it's true my friends! i know it is.
gosh if you aren't all exhausted from reading that whole thing i will tell you about the rest of our week. well i'll give you a really short version. we had zone conference on obedience, awesome. our lessons picked up a little bit this week working with less active members of the church and some of the investigators i've mentioned. we are still getting to points in certain days when we kind of look at each other and say "what do we do now?" i'm sure most missionaries have been there before. we are still learning the ways of being a missionary and just loving every minute of it. sure there are hard times, you can't avoid them. but the good news is, we have a Savior that knows us personally and is there to lift us up when we rely on him. in brother Hyde's seminary class today he made a point that rang true to me. he said that we just don't understand and use the atonement for as much as it's worth. the Atonement has a very real enabling power. it's not something we use once or twice or three times in our lives when we really mess up. it's a gift that was given to us but God, and by his son Jesus Christ, not only to give us an opportunity to repent of our sins, but also to give us the knowledge that someone, a person, loves us so much and has felt what we feel in this very moment. we learn in the scriptures that we are to ask of the things we stand in need of and we will be blessed in whatever manner we need. the Atonement is the greatest blessing we have. Our Savior loves us and can carry us through "deep waters." I love the gospel and i love this glad message! this is the good news that we share with people everyday. i feel so blessed to be a part of it! i think that's all i've got for the day... haha gosh goodluck to the readers.. i hope you can make this far in the email without falling asleep. :P i love you all at home! i hope you're all enjoying life and acknowledging the Lord's hand in your lives. have the best week, we'll talk to you all next week.
-elder Sykes, stoooz
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