Anyway, so onto the week! Unfortunately, I am short on time and will have to be brief.
It's been a crazy crazy week. I really don't know where it went again. It seems like it was just Monday yesterday or something and we were talking about how crazy it was that we would be learning about transfers in a week's time.
Tuesday I had the unique privilege to go to Foley on an exchange. Usually I don't get to go and this was only my fourth time doing so. 11 exchanges and only 4 out of my area? Crazy huh? It was pretty fun though. Elder B (seen in picture below) is a great guy - I like him.
We spent a large portion of our day in a trailer park. Elder B is a Spanish speaking missionary so we were looking for Spanish speakers. It was a good day. I was rather mystified as we were in this trailer park and I noticed a fence filled with chickens, goats, and two bulls. All together. In the middle of a trailer park.
I guess that's how they roll in the south. I learned much on the exchange and met some great folks. I really relearned the importance of following the spirit and keeping things clean. Elder B made me a delicious breakfast with part of it consisting of a fruit smoothie of some kind. I know it had carrots in it. It was surprisingly good though. It made me want to try and eat healthier.
Another highlight! We GOT NEW CHAIRS! Our old chairs were your standard metal chairs from the church. They had some padding on them but it didn't help much. Our apartment was inspected on Thursday and the senior couple asked us about our chairs. They looked at them and decided we needed new chairs. THEY ARE AWESOME!
We assembled them and luckily it was pretty self explanatory. I enjoy it as it swivels and goes up and down. It's nice. Plus, it's quite comfy.
Picture time! We were trying to contact some folks when I saw this super green field and we decided to take a picture. Yes. It was that green.
But yeah. Doing pretty good down there in the south. I'm working on just becoming a celestial missionary. That means that everything I got goes to the mission. It's hard. Really hard. But the thing that has been impressed upon me over and over was the simple two step process of humility and faith. Ether 12 is the best example of this yet there are dozens of other examples of this concept in action. Being humble and having faith in the Savior and His Atonement is the key to overcoming any sort of weakness. Does the Lord expect immediate perfection? No. But He does expect immediate progress. Just like conversion is a process that often takes a lifetime, so is perfection. To quote my friend Elder Alex Thomson on pickles "It is but a cucumber- perfected". President Lorenzo Snow once compared conversion to the concept of pickling. The conversion of a cucumber to pickle is a long and drawn out process. You cannot pull the cucumber out just a few hours after it's placement into the pickling solution and expect it to be converted. Even waiting a while, you will be disappointed to find that the pickling effect has taken place only upon the rind. In order for the pickling effect to completely and fully take place, the cucumber must be allowed to soak in the solution until it has permeated the very substance of the cucumber. We are saved (or made perfect) by grace, after all we can do.
I would submit according to my understanding and experience that the pickling solution that we must use is a mixture of the spirit, trials, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Those are the things that refine us and allow us to throw off the natural man and become saints.
I love and miss you all! Sorry I don't have much in the way of detail. Someday I'll go through all my pictures, journals, and planners and explain.
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Elder Matthew Carlson
