It is SO much warmer outside of Logan!

Hello Family!

Easter? You mean there is a holiday coming up?!?! I lose track of those anymore these days. It is weird being in Syracuse. Families are everywhere! Huge houses! with Yards! and Children! and Old People! I am not at USU anymore!

I am still adjusting, and Syracuse is good, but USU campus was a totally different type of missionary work. I have no IDEA how to be effective now.

So the first day here we had a baptism. It is always fun to see those getting baptized and even though I didn't know the girl getting baptized this time, I am excited to keep teaching her and her mom. I have missed that part of teaching. Teaching families is after all what the gospel is all about.

There is a lot of work to do here. It is hard for me to see it sometimes because of all the baptisms, but we are in the "finding time". It is harder to get out unplanned contacts here too because there are not as many people on the streets as there are on a college campus. We really have to go out of our way to talk to people on the street. But with summer coming up there should be more people outside.

This new library has time limits, so my time is cut short, but I love you all, and I know that God is personally mindful of all of us. I started the Book of Mormon over again and there is such a power in that book. Please, Please never let your testimony of the Book of Mormon become static! In our complacency we will lose the value of the truth that we have! If you have not prayed about it recently, and asked God if it is true then do it! We continue to learn and grow as we do it again and again!

The Oven is on Fire Downstairs!

The day has come when I have to pack up and leave USU. It is absolutely heart breaking. I feel as if there is still so much that I can do here. I am leaving for Syracuse. President Olsen would like to make transfers a "non-event" and wants to keep people in their areas for up to 6 months.

I have been so blessed with wonderful areas so far on my mission that I am a little hesitant about Syracuse. Woods Cross is "Ghetto Fabulous" and USU has kept me on my toes with students everywhere. Syracuse, I anticipate is much slower paced with families in large wards and houses. With the students transferring in from the globe, I will miss the diversity, and the feeling that I am a teaching at the United Nations.

It has been interesting to see how things have changed on my mission. I have realized that I can be pretty ignorant. I thought a one point that I would be done "learning" after 6 months in the field, and could then just "teach" working in a missionary groove, but as I have prayed, and as I have talked to people about this new area I realize that more trials are yet to come. I wonder if I have experienced my hardest moments on my mission or if they are yet to come. These learning experiences are never over.

It is exhausting and pointless to trust only in yourself. We need the Lord. We cannot get though life without Him. How do we get this strength? Easy! He give it to us in blessings as we keep the commandments and follow His words as closely as we can. If life is tough, then it is time to buckle down even more. It is important to kick it up in gear and give more energy to being a disciple of Christ. Have more "mighty" prayers with God (Enos 1:4)! We can only receive blessings based on our ability to keep the commandments...(D&C 130:20-21). Diligence is working hard, giving it your all even when you are tired and all you can think of is going home to take a bubble bath. It is often only as we push that final extra mile, when we do as so many prophets have suggested to "forget about yourself and loose yourself in the work" that we see the blessings of heaven unfold before us.

I have been taught and learned these things before, but only at surface level. Now the Lord is teaching me at a deeper level. A level that will drastically effect my life, perspective and testimony.

Isaiah 64:8 ~"Thou art our father, we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand."

I am in a time of molding and I just have to be malleable enough to allow him to work his magic. It is sometimes hard to be malleable. I am working at it though.....still in this "learning experience".

I am truly enjoying this experience, not just enduring it. I love my mission. I love the growth as difficult as it might be at times. Everyone should serve a mission! It changes lives!