Hey Guys!!! It's Almost Christmas!!
This has been a special time for us here in
Zacapa. The works's been moving along pretty slowly, but its been
rewarding.
To start off, we STILL don't have our own
house...
ugh...
There's nothing worse than living in your zone
leader's garage. ESPECIALLY when the zone leaders don't want you there. We've
been struggling to find a house, but there's literally nothing left in our
area. Right now, whenever we can, we're scouring the neighboring areas to find
a house closer to our people.
Christmas time is a special time of year for
us. The elders are all excited about Skyping home. We still haven’t found
anyone willing to share their computer with us, but hopefully I'll be able to
give you more info on that later. I can't wait to see you guys, but I’m afraid
I might feel a little baggy (missionary term for homesick) afterwards...
Also, welcome to the ward Elder Carter! We were
in the CCM together, and he got transferred this zone after he finished his
training. For the first three months, he was in the capital, and had plenty of
adventures over there, now he's with us in Zacapa, enjoying the heat and the
laid-back environment.
Yesterday, Elder Franco and I discovered a new
village in our area! Out past Frutillo, one of the local villages, is another
village called Tapataz, and basically no one has ever worked there since 2
years ago. People had told us that it was about 3 hours away from the main part
of Zacapa, but yesterday we went from Cruz de Mayo (our area) to there in only
thirty minutes. And I've never been stared atr more in my life. We barely saw
part of the village, and yet there were so many people who acted like they'd
never seen gringos before. Either that, or they didn't believe that gringos had
the potential to walk for more than thirty minutes. Elder Franco and I are
going to spend a day working out there this week.
A scripture I found this week in my studies
(Psalms 139: 23-24): "Search me, O God, and
know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way
in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." I love this scripture. The
Gospel of Jesus Christ truly is a gospel of change. IF we honestly try to
follow our Savior, we will change. There's no other option. Everything we do as
followers of Christ is dedicated to improve our lives. God doesn't want us to
just wait for the next life and say that we believe in Christ. It's good to
have faith in Christ, but "the devils also believe, and tremble." If
we follow Christ, we will ACT. We do Everything we can, and I mean absolutely
everything, to help the people around us. How does this help us become better?
The secret is this: When we give everything we have to other people, we feel
happier than when we give things to ourselves. Our nature changes, we become happier.
But most of all, we learn that we have a purpose in this life, far greater than
anything we could have made up for ourselves.
I love all of you guys! Keep
writing, and I’ll see you soon!
--
Elder Jeffrey Reed
No comments:
Post a Comment