Week 51, July 17, 2017

Disagreements Howdy y'all! So its been another week which makes six in total in the belleview ward. As many of you might be wondering why that is important, that means it's transfer time! Tomorrow I will be heading to transfer meeting to drop off my companion Elder Lunt and pick up my new companion Elder Wildun ( I believe that is the spelling I have never met him so have no idea.) I will be staying another transfer in the amazing Belleview ward! So my address will not be changing! That being said this week has been full but not super productive when it comes to sharing the gospel. It has however been extremely helpful in preparing to share the gospel. On tuesday we had an amazing lesson with Emily a recent convert who is extremely well versed in the gospel. Honestly I love teaching her because her faith is amazing! She has every reason not to join the church or to remain active and yet she doesn't ever waver. Someday I hope my testimony can be as strong as hers. Then we spent the majority of Wednesday cleaning. We did a deep clean of the apartment. Its all nice and clean. Well it was..... Elder Lunt is getting ready to leave so his stuff is in various stages of being packed. Anyway that night we had a lesson with a man named Josh. I mentioned him a week ago. He had excellent questions and we had a good lesson. It was great. However he says he is not interested in joining the mormon Church so we might not want to waste our time teaching him. He did however commit to reading the book of Mormon so we will see what comes of it. We will probably refer him to other elders. Technically He is not a YSA but I still enjoyed teaching him and introducing him to the gospel. Thursday we were jam packed with district meeting, an appointment and then interviews with president. The appointment was with a young man named Hunter who is progressing really well. He just works on sunday which means he goes to the family ward instead of ours but we are trying to get that changed so he could be more involved with the ward. Friday we went to Vail! it is a rather remote part of our area so in three transfers Elder Lunt had never been out there. We decided we would go and visit a few people and see the sights. It turns out when you cannot check the traffic that things take longer than you think they will. It took us 2 hours to make what is usually a 45 minute drive. So we only got to try a few people. The frustrating part is that the addresses we had all didn't exist or weren't accessible. So It was rather disappointing. But Elder Lunt got to see Vail and we learned some valuable information. Saturday was spent getting Elder Lunt started on packing, then we had a lesson with Tony sailas. Tony is a great guy and a convert of about a year. He went into the army but got hurt in basic so was not able to pursue that. Because of that he is in a state of flux that makes it hard for him to get to church. But we hope that we can get him to start coming soon. On sunday we met with Sarah and Chrissy Page. The Page's are an awesome family and it was so much fun to teach them. We hope to get them more involved in the ward as they struggle to come to activities or church. Hopefully one of these days they will come. And that was the week. So onto the lesson I learned. There is a difference between disagreeing and being disagreeable. Disagreeable people are no fun and are hard to hang around with. But you can disagree with someone and not be disagreeable. The way I learned this is that me and Elder Lunt have disagreements. Not that we don't get along (don't tell anyone but he has become a very close friend and I admire him greatly) But we don't always see things the same way. But that is not to say that that is a bad thing. We can see life differently and still get along well because of two things. First the Atonement of Jesus Christ allows us to forgive one another and to change. And secondly our difference of opinion does not necessarily mean one of us is wrong or one of us is right. We can both be right and yet not agree. Now I am not going to say I am perfect. I am not. In fact I am a stubborn, bull headed, strong willed individual who likes things to work the way I want them to. Which means If I disagree then it is likely that I will not back down until I feel that I have either proven my point or until I feel it is pointless to continue the conversation. Now that is not always the best thing. I tend to refuse to drop things and so can be rather annoying. Elder Lunt can testify of that. But at the same time I know that I don't know everything so I tend to accept other peoples view of the world so long as I can understand why they see things that way. I think that is important. Sometimes we are not even truly disagreeing but because we as humans don't know everything we don't understand why the other person cannot see things our way. We need to understand that not everyone thinks the way we do. And that is okay. Part of what makes humankind so special and amazing is that we are all so different, and yet we can get along despite those differences. In fact it is a part of our Heavenly Father's plan for us to disagree. But it is integral that we overcome those differences and learn to love one another. That is why we are here on earth. So the take away here is we can disagree with others, and not be disagreeable. I love all of you so much and hope that You know that. I want you all to know that I think of you and pray for you every day. I love you. Love Elder Lindh