August 25

August 24, 2014

          I guess this week's recap has to start last P-Day. We went fishing with Nate Eberly, one of the youth in our ward. All we really caught were a few bluegill, but it was fun to just have a pole in the water again. 

          Elder Wright and I have also been asked to do some digital missionary stuff. We are using a nifty tool to track social media topics, and leave comments on big articles/websites, guiding people to an LDS site to answer their questions. Unfortunately, we won't have Facebook clearance until we get an investigator. That, sadly, means that we have to use Pinterest to communicate in the meantime. I'm still totally new to the Pinterest world, and I feel more than slightly effeminate every time I'm on it, but it's for a good cause, right?

          We also found some unwelcome news-bedbugs in my mattress. We put the old mattress and boxspring out on the deck, and vacuumed the whole room where the beds are. When the exterminator came (and he came twice), he found no evidence of bedbugs anywhere. Small miracle there. Then I got a new mattress-which is so much more comfortable than the old one!!-so life is good, and bedbug free :) When the Office Elders came to deliver the new stuff, Elder Wright and I took them to J Timothy's-this wing place just down the road. They have the 2nd-best buffalo wings in the USA, and we got two buckets of them (6.5 pounds of chicken in each) Between the 4 of us, we put it down, easy :) And they really are the best wings I've ever had. By FAR.

          President Packard came to our stake and gave a fireside on Joseph Smith last night, and it was AWESOME!! He explained what we now know because of revelation given to Joseph Smith, and how that explains many of the contradictions in religious theory, especially during his day and time. It was absolutely incredible!!

          We had something of a "last hoorah" with the Schrivers as well. It was great to be able to talk to their entire family before Steven heads off to Utah (they're starting today, actually...) It's really weird to think that A) the next time I see Steven, I'll be home, and B) it sounds like he's taking my room... =/ haha They're going to love going to the Ogden temple open house, too! Sister Schriver was really excited for that :)

          During DM this last week, Elder Sutherland told us a pretty neat story. I'm gonna totally paraphrase it here, cuz it's just that cool (and how often do I get a chance to shout-out my MTC comp? haha)

Down in hell, Satan runs a weapon shop. He sells weapons to his demons, so that they can use them to tempt men and bring their souls to hell. One demon comes up to the shop and sees a shiny, fancy-looking weapon. He sees the pricetag: $200. The demon asks Satan what this tool is. Satan tells him, "Oh, that is lying! If you can get people to lie, then nobody will trust them, their relationships will fail, and they will be weak." The demon buys it and leaves. The next demon comes to the shop and sees a big, sharp weapon. The price is $700. He asks Satan why this weapon is so much. Satan explains, "That is pornography. If you can just get that into homes, the family will fall apart!" The demon is satisfied and buys the weapon. A third demon walks in, and he goes to some of the older-looking weapons. He sees a rusty, slightly bent weapon with quite the hefty pricetag: $5000. "Look, I know you're Satan and all, but this is ridiculous!" the demon cries. "How can you charge this ungodly amount for such a useless tool?!" "Oh, that is one of my most trusted and useful tools," Satan responds. "I have used that since the dawn of time, and once it enters a person's life, it works almost every single time." Thoroughly intrigued, the demon asks, "What is it then?" Satan grins and gives his one-word answer: "Despair."

         I have more musings on that than I care to enumerate, but there are so many lessons we can learn from this story. Shout-out to Elder Sutherland! :)

Love you guys!

-"Eldah" Boone