Family,
I have felt my letters have lacked substance as of late. For this I apologize. Perhaps I can add some this week as I share some insights and stories from the week prior.
As you know, I am serving with Elder Sparks again. We are enjoying every moment of our time together. He is preparing to transfer to the new Reno Mission as one of its first Assistants. It is a great task to undertake but he is qualified and ready to make a difference there. We have been running two miles each morning for the past week. I feel so alive!
The morning of a mission conference we were running down the street. A small dark object in the gutter caught my eye. When I looked closer I realized it was a cell phone. It had been mangled and cracked. Whats more is that this cell phone was the exact same model as the mission issued phone. During the conference later in the day we made the announcement displaying the mangled phone and asked who might be missing their phone. A few hours later a companionship of sisters called the mission office looking for their phone. Poor sisters.
So far this transfer we have made two road trips. One to Ely, NV and the other to Alamo, NV. Elder Sparks and I are natural road trippers. I attribute that to the many hours we spent on the road during family vacations.
During our first trip we had plenty of time to chat. We came to the topic of hope. We had a great conversation and the spirit taught me. I learned that hope for Eternal Life is anchored by the Atonement. Meaning, at one end is hope, the other end is Eternal life, and what connects the two, and what helps us endure to the end is the Atonement of Christ. With a hope for Eternal Life, we can never fail. Maintaining such hope is a different story and perhaps what I struggle with the most. It is easy for me to sit in a sacrament meeting, read my scriptures, teach a lesson, invite someone to be baptized, or in general just find myself in an environment filled with the spirit and remember that I have hope for eternal life through the Atonement of Christ. However, through the week, I struggle to maintain such an eternal perspective. As we talked about this Elder Sparks helped me see how I can overcome this temporary blindness that seems to come sometimes. The reason I can so easily remember my hope for Eternal life in those moments I mentioned is because I can feel the Spirit so strongly. The key is to have a spiritual experience every day and hang on to that throughout the day. The starts and is catalyzed by a personal scripture study each morning. It is so true. Some of the best days of my mission have begun with adequate physical exercise coupled with spiritual exercise as well which always brings the spirit. Neal A. Maxwell, an apostle of Jesus Christ once said that we are immortal individuals striving to apply immortal principles in this short period of mortality. Only the spirit can guide us to know what those immortal principles are. Jacob 4:13 teaches us this. Anyways, these insights have been very beneficial to me lately as I continue to progress in my mission and anticipate the decisions I will need to make in the future.
I love you all and am grateful to call you my family, friends, brothers, and sisters.
Love,
EC
