Monday, January 9, 2017

Satan Can't Stop the Work!

Hey Y'all! 

Man this week was hard! Satan had really tried immobilizing us by keeping our car in the shop all week but we made due anyway! So ha Satan! You are nothing! 

Dallas Daze:

This week was lovely because we have been having quite the ant problem. So we put out ant house things to poison them and thought that'd work. Well Sunday morning there were all the sudden tons in the bathroom, and we looked and saw they were literally just crawling under the ant traps and avoiding them. So we said enough was enough. We had a box of bug foggers in the apartment and it was time for this party to end. So we cleared out the bathroom, placed the fogger which if you don't know what that is is basically a smoke grenade filled with Raid, and set that bad boy off and promptly left for church. So we vacated, after church we came back and aired out the house for a couple hours as directed on the box and made our house a warm 54 degrees.....wooooo. But man, The ant genocide that occurred was awesome. Let me suffice to say that there is no longer an ant problem what so ever in our apartment. :) we cleaned it all up and it looks great but woo doggy was that fogger cool. Little can of miracle spray that solves bug problems. It was fantastic. We think the ants came in like they did because it went from a nice hot and humid 76 to a 28 in like a night....yay Texas weather! Predicting east Texas weather correctly is like winning the lottery, twice, every month, for a year. 

So yes this week had no car and were on foot and at the will of members. It was awesome. The thing I want to talk about this week is a very exciting testimony building experience and to do so I want to share what I shared in testimony meeting yesterday. It was kind of lame but it got my point across I feel. 

There was a man that was in his 20s, pondering deeply about his future and how to achieve success and happiness. He was facing college and it was a big decision to choose what path he'd follow into the field of life. A wise man walked by and noticed his face contorted in deep thought. He asked, "what is troubling you young man?" The younger man said, "well I want to be successful and happy in life, I want to prosper, but there's so many unknowns and so many decisions to make and if I choose wrong it could jeopardize that. I'm not sure what to do, I'm not sure of much of anything." The wise man said, "well here is what I will tell you, take it if you may. If you will wake up each morning and at 7 am, eat an apple, you will have prosperity come." He then walked off. The young man sat confused but the task seemed harmless and he decided he'd try it. For the next many years he did just that. Every morning at 7 am he had an apple. As he lived, he went through college, developed a family, found work at various places, and walked the field of life. Through trials and storm as well as sun and shine he never missed a day about the apple. As he grew older he looked forward to the day to receive the promised prosperity he had been told of. The years went by, he still looked for the day it would come. Older he got and as he did, he began to wonder if it was ever going to. He began to doubt and the light dimmed of the prosperity ever coming. As we sat outside one day on his porch the same wise man walked by his home. Startled, he ran to talk to him. When he came up he exclaimed, "sir! I have done what you said, you told me many years ago that if I ate an apple at 7 am every morning, I would receive prosperity but I have been waiting for that day to come! How long must I wait??!" The wise man put his hand on his shoulder and said, "turn around and look." The young man did and he beheld his home, confused he looked deeper and realized, he had lived it. He could see his beautiful wife in the window doing chores, he saw his home that comfortably fit all his family, he saw his youngest son outside playing with their dog, he thought of his oldest son married and doing well, he though of his grand kids, he beheld all the blessings before him and realized, the prosperity had come. It was here, he is living it. He turned back around and the wise man was gone, but the heart of the man now changed, went back in and enjoyed such life he had been living. 

This I relate to my Sunday yesterday. I had not made the greatest decisions growing up and finally began before my mission to read the Book of Mormon and take Moroni's promise, that is ask God if it is not true. He promises a witness by the Holy Ghost and I hear of so many witnesses people have of the moment they see it's true and exclaim with joy. I was looking ahead to the day I would receive mine. Two times more through the Book of Mormon I stood still without such a witness. But Sunday during sacrament and testimony meeting as I pondered the topic, I heard the words, "turn around, and look." I did. And how I marveled at what I saw. Since I had began a study of the Book and asked, my life changed. I enjoyed the comfort of the Holy Ghost promised to me, I had strength during trials I never had before when I had went at trials alone, I had received blessing both temporally and spiritually and truly through the Holy Ghost had been living my witness that the Book of Mormon was true, and it changed my life. It does so because it points us to Jesus Christ and sets us on His straight and narrow path. It has pointed me to God and though there are trials I have lived still, the strength is there because I read that book each day. Because it turns me to God each day. And through Christ, the source of all strength, we have the ability to endure with joy. The Book is true. I know it, I can finally declare I know it. The fruits are too evident. They are from God, it is from God, Jesus Christ lives and has restored the Book of Mormon through Joseph Smith so that we may learn of Him and apply His infinite Atonement in our own lives daily. We must daily, or it does not come. But I witness to you that I know that Book is true and I know that it points us to Christ. Christ is everything and I invite all to let him be that. In the words of a now favorite hymn of mine I the 4th verse of Hymn 185, "At the throne I intercede; For thee ever do I plead. I have loved thee as thy friend, With a love that cannot end. Be obedient, I implore, Prayerful, watchful evermore, And be constant unto me, That thy Savior I may be." I pray we may allow His Atonement in our lives. There is joy to be had in all times of our lives, so long as we tap into the source of all joy. In Christ's name, amen.

Elder Hiatt


Cam found someone Stock went to college with!

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