January 20th, 2020 Week 15 Scales and Hearts, Layton Utah Week 5

皆さん!

Hope everything has been going well! Staying safe? Anything fun happen? 

As missionaries, we don't get a chance to check news or anything like that (we don't even have access to the internet except for whitelisted sites), so we don't know much about what's going on right now. And the members of the church here are pretty good about keeping us in the dark about a lot of things - which helps us to focus on our missions and helping other feel peace. Stay safe, everyone! There's a lot of confusion and violence out in the world right now - make sure you're all taking care of each other. Above all, make sure that those that are struggling are getting the help they need. Let's band together - and try to find peace, even amidst chaos. 

I love the remarks from President Dallin H. Oaks from the most recent General Conference:

"The Savior’s teaching not to “contend with anger” is a good first step. The devil is the father of contention, and it is he who tempts men to contend with anger. He promotes enmity and hateful relationships among individuals and within groups. President Thomas S. Monson taught that anger is 'Satan’s tool,' for 'to be angry is to yield to the influence of Satan. No one can make us angry. It is our choice.' Anger is the way to division and enmity. We move toward loving our adversaries when we avoid anger and hostility toward those with whom we disagree. It also helps if we are even willing to learn from them."

Take care of each other - you all are amazing.

This week, Elder Cope betrayed me and almost made me milk a goat. 

We did service for a family in the ward who needed to repair a fence. It looks like their goats were busting through the fences and wandering off into the town. We helped reinforce it and drive new posts in to make sure they couldn't escape again. But I asked Elder Cope to not ask for me to milk a goat - not yet, at least. (Most of you know I'm kind of a germaphobe - poor immune system doesn't exactly help that much. I know they're decently clean but... uh. yeah. maybe later.) He promised he wouldn't... 

Then literally the first thing he blurted out was "Elder Decker wants to milk a goat!" 

Thankfully, we didn't have time, but I didn't appreciate him going back on his word... 

But this week's been good - hard, but good. 

It seems the scales of justice have to be met somehow. It feels like I've had either really bad mornings or just really bad evenings. There hasn't been a day where I haven't felt stressed at some point.

I've found that every day has brought some sort of miracle. 

Some of them are small - a good lesson where the Spirit is strong, and has led us to a scripture someone really needed. (That's happened on more than one occasion - and it's happened enough to know the Lord is using us to help others, which is extremely humbling!) But others are really big - like a family we're teaching recognizing the love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for them. It's been an amazing week, despite the difficulties, and we've really seen miracles happening here. 

We've had opportunities to meet with some some of the families here that have missionaries out, and we've been teaching the Restoration lesson with them! Sometimes they'll role play as people not of the Church, and other times we'll have discussions on it. It's been amazing to hear their insights, and we're improving a lot! 

We've also begun filling time with serving others! I don't mind it, honestly, but it feels like my companion only makes effort to schedule service, rather than lessons... I'd much rather be teaching and healing emotional wounds, but for some reason he is adamant about filling our schedule with service... 

I'm more than happy to help if there is a need. And there definitely are families we're helping that genuinely need help! But we're doing service for people who really don't need the help, but just give us things to do because they feel bad when he says we're looking for ways to fill our schedule. I'm not sure how to feel about that. I don't mean to complain on my emails, but it hasn't sat right with me... 

I mentioned stake conference, and honestly, it was amazing. So much good stuff. I have... too many notes. But one of the thoughts I loved the most was from our stake president, President Barfuss!

"The darkening skies around us can focus us. It can take our level of preparation of a new place of urgency. And it can help us understand the urgency and the importance to be ready for the events coming around us."

We are in the midst of the thunderstorm - the darkened skies have been amidst us for a long time. So now that the storm is here, how do we prepare? For these storms of sorrow, what is our recourse?

Love. Love as Christ did.

Be kind to others, even if they haven't been kind to you. Forgive them. Love them. Show them that you understand that they are struggling. And not only that, but help them in whatever way that you can!

Show them love. Show them patience. And show them that their struggles are not forgotten. Their sorrows are not forgotten.

They are not forgotten.

And we'll find as we reach out, we will heal parts of our hearts we never knew were broken ourselves. And we can be a light unto others - showing them kindness, mercy, and love.

Take care, everyone - you all are amazing!

Elder Decker

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