Zone Conference

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Good morning everyone!

wow.. so this week was probably one of the fastest weeks I have had of my mission. we just finished the Zone Conference round of 4 different conferences. Yeah Odessa was fun! and so was the plane there :D I loved it. it was interesting to see all the different conferences, all were the same but there was more given of different points in each of them. I actually wanted to share a little bit of it in this email and the weird part is, is that I think it might help. I also included Presidents letter in the email so you can read. He sends one every week.

so yeah as we were flying to Odessa I was just kind of thinking about the mission... how we can be better, how I can be better, because we all do have those times where its like "GOOD GRIEF!!!" you know give me a break. but I've learned a lot serving by President Klebingat. We have been talking about discouragement and disappointment and how they are different and should not be seen as the same. Discouragement is when you you lose courage.. exactly what and how the word is spelled "Dis-courage.." when you give up, and disappointing happens at a certain point, hence "disa-ppoint-ment" but its then that we feel like all the missionaries who ever lived.. Alma, Paul etc.

If you think about it, before everything great comes something tough to kind see how bad you really want it is a way of looking at it. When we try to do what is right, when we try to change or continue doing what is right of course we wake up adversity and honestly that is not really news. Jesus Christ was tempted when he went out into the wilderness to converse with Heavenly Father... The starting of the Restoration began with an attack on a persons life.. to shut his mouth... I kind of thought about this from another perspective, his one is to Bryndon and Christopher for prep on the mission haha I took it as a video game analogy. you know if you were trying to stop somebody from going somewhere on the game map, as if it was your sole purpose to stop a people, or an army and and destroy them. would you not put up outposts, walls , barriers, opposing forces in place or in their path to slow them down? and would you not place those "trials" on the tops of hills therefore trying to take the advantage and break the moral of those people? knowing that if they took these hills from you that they would have a better view, a better understanding of where they are on there journey, receiving a better sight and even a boost of confidence with the sight of their end journey up ahead. And if they continue on taking and making advantages would you not at that point gather your forces and unite them for a last desperate attempt, at the gate of their goal, and with all your might fight and break moral so that they might pack up and go home, retreat, and not get or catch the sight of how far they have actually come. Indeed it is with the children of God and all his future, present, and past missionaries on our journey to the awaited kingdom. And its going to be like that before the mission, on the mission, and after the mission. The message has been given, the decree has been sent all throughout the land on how we can return to the kingdom of heaven. We are to gird up our loins and put on the breastplate of righteousness having perfect faith in our Older Brother to lead us and give us the map and compass of how to get there.

The mission has really been struggling on that note.. you know just getting down when trouble comes. "hanging down our heads" as Alma says. And honestly its natural to get disturbed, and disappointed. but if the devil can discourage you than your done. Also on another point we can get discouraged sometimes because righteous decisions do not work out the way we want... something we have to remember is that the Lord is the Lord of the Harvest. We may think that if we do this, this, and this, Heavenly Father will bless us with this, that and the other. Honestly 1+1 does not always equal 2 right away, He will grant unto us what He seeith fit, not how we add it up. And all throughout this we have to remember that the Gospel is still true.. no matter the opposition. as alma says "it mattereth Not". Our homework is to do it how it has been given to us or not to find our own way around Gethsemane or Calvary because we will all go through it. That's the beauty about the gospel is its "yes or no" not a "well I would like it this way" gospel. When Copernicus went on about telling the world that the world was actually round he ended up getting burned for it because nobody believed him and hated him for his beliefs but his last phrase right before he died was "but its still round!" lol you see it mattereth not, everything is still true and happens for a reason. Heavenly Father wants us to learn why we are here on the earth,... a lot of things may be hard, and we may want to get out of whatever it is... Joseph Smith after seeing Revelations and be visited by not only Heavenly Messengers but by God himself, he found himself in a jail cell with a bucket for a toilet wondering where the Lord had hid himself. The Lords response was "peace be unto thee my son" Peace be unto you does not mean OK I'll get you out of this, it means hold on , stay faithful, your doing whats right, and don't let the circumstances try to tell you differently. Hold on with your teeth!... because the Lord is close by. And even when we do all we can and expect the results to happen as fast as process went... we should not limit the Lord in giving unto us our reward ... success should not be confined at all. We are not only storing up treasures here on earth, but also in Heaven.. its His call on when we get them.

I had this thought that came to me as we were flying to Odessa...

A pilot will fly at the indicated airspeed through the sky, he will rip through the clouds, adjusting for micro bursts and tail winds. And at times if needed he will increase and decrease the airspeed as President Uchtdorf informs us. At times in our life as we fly through we will have our fair share of clouds and micro bursts that will trouble us and try to knock us off course. They will try to discourage us and make us retreat, turn around and go home, or even worse just stop! lol a pilot knows that that is not even an option :P . We have prepared our vessels as the brother of Jared speaks of and we know where we are going. It would be foolish to waist it all, the effort that was taken to get you off the ground because of a few bad looking clouds or a few air pockets. "Let the wind blow" president Klebingat says. Its honestly going to be a huge factor in making your fly higher, the altitude of blessings will keep coming, the more faith you use to keep going the further and higher will be the result. so how will you use your wind? are you going to let it push you around? will you worry about the weather of life outside the windows? or will you prepare and adjust for the coming storms that in reality will bring you to a knowledge of God's "higher ways". We can be surrounded and will be by life's lessons, and at times it may seem that some are coming at you out of order or to many at one time. the scene will tell you to "go around" when you dials and altimeters will tell you to increase your speed, line up, adjust the flaps, and keep going!

My message this week is keep going! dont get discouraged! I love you all and hope that your finding joy in your "flight plan" lol have joy in your journey. love you all

 

tell everyone that is writing from the ward thank you so much! and that I dont have anytime to write back... I'm way busy. Also I need to know when you would like to Skype on Christmas. schedule with everyone and then let me know what you want to do

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Старійшина Джонсон