Torture at a ward activity

Bueno....

This week was a gooood one. Lots of lessons again and blessings from
the Lord. It's been busy but really rewarding.

Today we have been at a ward activity. That's why I didn't really read
your emails before writing some of you because I had to download some
early in the morning, and I didn't get to read all of yours in time.
Just for the future, this happens sometimes on p days, so if you have
time to send your emails before like 10 pm Sunday night, there's a
better chance I'll be able to read them in time every week when I have
wifi Monday mornings and respond.

Anyways.... This ward activity was at a natural pool. They told us
they wanted us to go to give a spiritual thought and do activities
with the people who could not swim. So we went. Oh man it was brutal.
It was the equivalent of going to the beach in the middle of the
summer and being told you cannot swim. Plus we were surrounded by
people in bathing suits which made things awkward, but I did my best
to keep entertained eating and talking to our two old investigators
for like 4 hours straight hahaha.

Francisco and Ligia are their names and they are both awesome.
Francisco talks a ton and let's me mess around with his cane and
pretend like I'm an old man and Ligia loves to talk to me about my
life and family. Two super huge blessings from the Lord with a lot of
potential. Francisco is actually 65.... I thought he was way older
because of the sickness he has which doesn't make him super mobile.

One of the most spiritual experiences I had this week was in Zone
training. The Zone leaders put on this football video I'm sure all of
you have seen where this coach tells a player to do the death crawl
with a player on his back blindfolded. The coach tells him to make it
as far as he can and they kinda come to an agreement that the player
can max out getting to the 50 before he collapses. The coach tells him
to go until he can't any more and they will see how far he makes it.
The football player begins to complain at about the twenty without
knowing how far he has gone. As the yards go on, the player keeps
complaining saying how bad it hurts. The coach stays with him the
whole time and constantly gives him encouragement and tells him to
give him the very very best that he has got. By the end it gets way
intense. The coach is screaming and the player is yelling in pain
until finally he collapses. The player asks his coach if he made it to
the fifty, and the coach takes his blind fold off and tells him he
made it all the way to the end zone. The coach then talks with the
player about how he's gotta give it all he he's got and don't look at
any of the things that appear to tell him he isn't strong enough or
can't make it far enough. This hit me hard.

I had to ask myself How easily do I give up when everything around me
tells me that I can't achieve a goal or have success? Where is my
faith?

We got to give it all we've got and put the rest in the lords hands.
If we give it all we've got to the end, he will help us do incredible
things we didn't even know we were capable of. In the name of Jesus
Christ, Amen




Elder Baron