Feasting

Hello All!

This week was a HOT one. I am beginning to understand what Nephi means when he talks about how he is bound and it is through the strength of the Lord he breaks them. When we don't have strength for a task, the Lord can give us strength to overcome it, that does not mean that he breaks the bands for you or he does the work for you. He gives us the strength we wouldn't have to keep pushing and keep working and in Him we can continue past what we normally couldn't.  This is shown in Alma 31, "38 And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in faith." As we do our best for the Lord he blesses us immensely. 

I gave my first blessing this week as well. I was nervous but it was an amazing experience. It is so important to be worthy when the Lord calls. 

So the Dallas Daze this week (hopefully y'all are liking the name) is when we were tracting a neighborhood. We got there and locked our bikes up and up trots this little kitten. It then proceeded for two hours to follow us from house to house as we went. When it lost sight of us it would start pretty much the equivalent of screaming until it found us again. It got some people to talk to us and so it was pretty handy. I don't know what it was about us but the cat was along for the work for a bit. 

One cool thing that happened was my temporary bike was starting to fall apart. The shaft that holds the pedal on kept falling off so we were wondering what we were gonna do when a roofer stopped and through broken English offered us some help. We loaded up our bikes and he took us home and accepted a Spanish copy of the Book of Mormon as well as a DVD on the restoration. So we got home and were wondering how we would fix the bike. We tried calling the whole ward and finally a less active we have been trying to contact answered and came over immediately to help. He proceeded to fix the bike good as new as well as talk to us about how he wants to get to the temple and that that is his goal from here on out. We were so excited for him and he showed up to church yesterday too! It was a very unconventional day but it was extremely successful. 

Our president asked us to come up with a vision of how we can use the Book of Mormon more effectively in our mission and our lives. So as I thought I thought of Dan Jones. What does the picture of him depict? He isn't standing and declaring the word with a pamphlet in his hand, or a video, no, it is the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion and as I thought it can be the keystone of the mission and my life. By reading it we truly come closer to Christ and can have personal revelation daily. So I tried instead of having pass along cards and pamphlets in hand to rather have the Book of Mormon in hand and what a difference it has made. Don't get me wrong, we still hand out all the other stuff and use them to help but the most powerful tool in conversion is the Book of Mormon. We must ask ourselves, are we converted? Could we become more so? The Book of Mormon is the start and as we study it we come closer to Christ and begin to see how we can make changes in our life to be happier and attains eternal life. Read with real intent. Real intent means reading with the willingness to change our lives according to what we learn from God and the doctrine of Christ. As we do so the Lord will open up what he has in store for you. I invite all to give it a try and to keep doing so. "20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen." Faith, repentance, baptism, and enduring to the end. Learn, live it, love it, it is the way of happiness in this life and the way to eternal happiness in the next. I love you all and will talk to you again in a week. 

Later y'all!

Elder Hiatt

Ps

So we had these shakes at a restaurant, called sCRUMBtious, a member in the ward owns. He shakes are called Pie Shakes. They blend up a piece of pie into a shake and HOLY COW IT IS BOMB. Everyone thinks I'm really weird eating fry sauce as well. It's pretty hilarious. Food is just ridiculously good here. If you could send me the recipe for baked pancakes that'd be awesome too. We need good cheap breakfast.