Dear Family and Friends, Monday, June 16, 2014
This week has been a good one. We have been really busy lately which is good. I had one cool experience this past week.
On Thursday we were trying to find people to teach. The Freeport Community Center called. We do service for them and they sometimes call and ask for odd jobs. A gentleman in Freeport needed his window fixed . He is 88 and couldnt do it himself. We did that for him. He was a funny guy. Freeport is home to LL Bean. He said the new motto for Freeport should be "Freeport has a lot of Beans... so fart proudly." It was pretty funny.
He lives clear out there, so we were trying to find something we could do in that area. As we were driving back I saw a road sign for Old Flying Point rd. I felt that we should tract it. We had already planned on something else so i pushed the thought aside. But then the thought came again saying that we should probablly knock the houses on that road. So i turned down the road. (Thats the nice thing about being senior companion is I get the keys to the car so I have the final decision on where we go) As we drove down the road I saw a house on a hill and I felt that that was the house we needed to knock on. We knocked on the door and met a lady. She was busy but she was very open to learning more. It was a testimony builder for me that we need to follow spiritual impressions.
I have also been thinking a bit
about the experience I had before coming on my mission. In November
2012 the High School Auto Shop had a 1996 Ford F-250 donated. The fix
was cheap and the school said I could have it for $2000. It was a good
truck with a 7.3 Powerstroke Diesel engine. I decided to buy it. My
parents encouraged me to pray and ask if I should purchase it. I did so
but didnt really receive an answer. But I knew I probably shouldnt
purchase it right before leaving. but I decided to anyhow. The night
before I was to purchase the truck I had a dream. One part in the dream
reminded me of the parable of the Mote and the Beam.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Recently i was thinking about that scripture in relation to our sins and weaknesses. Often we have big weaknesses that take a lot of our attention. We also have little weaknesses but we dont really see them until we remove the big ones from our lives. I have really noticed that. sometimes there is a big weakness that i have that doesnt allow me to see the other little problems. no matter what there is always something a little smaller that needs attention. But the only way we can do that it to get rid of the big problem first.
It is like purchasing a vehicle that has a bad engine, but also has some exterior damage. The unwise person would fix the exterior damage first. But what use is the car if i can't drive it? The logical way to fix the vehicle is to replace the engine first and then fix the exterior damage. My employer at Maxxed Out 4x4, told me about a car show he went to. All the cars looked really good. When you lifted the hood the engine was all bright and shiny. But all the cars were being trailered in. He asked why they didnt drive them in and the owners responded that the vehicles didnt run. They were just made to look nice but they had a lot of engine problems. Well those cars are useless. There are a lot of people like that in the world. They fix all their exterior problems first. Others dont see it but those people could have some very big internal problems. What use is it to us if we have a big problem and dont fix it. So that is the idea I had.
Elder CWJensen