Elder Alexander Boone
10:05 AM January 6, 2014
To: Cheryl Ekins Boone
Hello everybody!
I guess
we need to get the most important item of business out of the way first. Happy
Birthday, Parker! It's crazy to think that you're 8 now! That means I'm getting
old! And happy birthday to Brace on Wednesday. I'm pretty broke from Christmas,
so no presents for your birthdays, guys. Sorry :P
This
week was pretty eventful. With a "blizzard" coming (we only got like
4-5"), transfers got moved to Saturday. But all the new Missionaries still
had to go to their areas on Thursday. So Elder Slade got his Greenie, Elder
Pennington, and still had Elder Hermosilla for like 3 days. The Spanish trio
was pretty crazy. We were red-dotted (couldn't go outside) for like 2 days, so
we played lots of dominoes, Monopoly, and foosball. Not exactly the ideal start
for a new Elder, but it can only go up from here, right?
One
cool sidenote: with transfers, we just got a couple new faces in the District.
One of them is Elder Guymon from Cleveland, UT. As in, he's in
"UncleDanan'AuntAnnette's" ward back home. Small world in the Mormon
Church, isn't it?
I just
wanted to share a really cool insight that I gained this week. I was reading
this talk by Elder Holland, and he mentions one of my favorite Old Testament
stories, found in 2 Kings 6. Israel is at war with Syria. The Prophet Elisha is
telling the King of Israel all about the Syrians' strategies, camp locations,
etc. The King of Syria doesn't like this, so he sends "horses,
and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city
about." (2 Kings 6:14) When Elisha wakes up the next morning, he sees the
Syrian army around the city. So does his servant, who begins to lose faith. He
asks, in essence, "Now what? We don't stand a chance!" But then
Elisha says something seemingly bizarre: "Fear not: for they that be with
us are more than they that be with them." (2 Kings 6:16) Elisha's servant,
and the whole of Israel, are in serious doubt. They are the only ones in the
city, and they are not as many as the Syrian host. But then "Elisha
prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the
Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." (2 Kings
6:17) Elder Holland then explains: "In the gospel of Jesus
Christ you have help from both sides of the veil, and you must never forget
that. When disappointment and discouragement strike—and they will—you remember
and never forget that if our eyes could be opened we would see horses and
chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to
our protection. They will always be there, these armies of heaven, in defense
of Abraham’s seed." ("For Times of Trouble," 1982)
Another
great quote I heard this week came in Elder's Quorum, and it caused me to
reflect on it a lot. "Don't lose the important to the tyranny of the
urgent." Especially as Missionaries, we have a lot of things that are
urgent. We are constantly trying to beat deadlines and follow up with people on
time, but that's not necessarily what's important. What's important is that we
fulfill our purpose: to invite others to come unto Christ, and for myself, to
let others feel His love through me. We all have urgent things in our lives,
and they do bring about a form of "bondage," if you will. Ofttimes,
we forget the things of greatest value because we have other things that we
"have" to do. I've had a million more thoughts about that, but my
wrists hurt, so I'm gonna stop typing :P haha
Love all of y'all, and Happy New Year
Eldah Boone
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