Out in the sticks

 

Oi pessoal!

 

Being in La Jara has been pretty great. Elder Anderson and Elder Dunn are awesome, we've already become great friends, even though being in a trio is a bit different. The members here are amazing, sadly we can't help them out with a lot of things because of the weather, but you can bet as soon as they start working in their fields again, we'll be right there with them.

 

We've still had a few opportunities to do service here and there. One morning, our Bishop invited us to help move someone's heavy furniture into a storage unit. I managed to mess up my back, so I was really missing not having a nearby chiropractor like we did in Castle Rock, but I survived. It was still so worth it to help an old man that couldn't lift those things himself. That Bishop also told us about some service he and his family were planning on doing for a nonmember neighbor of those, but he said if we beat him to it that'd be ok. We went the next day in service clothes, and the lady came out looking like she was ready to shoot us, but after we explained who we were and what we were doing she welcomed us gladly. She had a broken leg, so she really appreciated us helping her husband put away their many giant Christmas decorations in their front yard. We had an amazing conversation with them, and got to meet a few of their 28 cats, the cats were super cute, but I don't think any animal is cute enough for me to have nearly that many. 

 As missionaries, the vehicles we use aren't ours, and we have certain standards to maintain these vehicles, one of which is the number of miles we can use per month. Elder Anderson and I realized we had quite a bit of miles left, so we took a tiny trip into the mountains that surround us to a reservoir. There was enough snow that I didn't even realize I was on a frozen body of water for a minute or so. We went to a spot on the edge where the ice wasn't covered by snow and tried to see how far we could "skate" in our boots. Naturally, I ran up the slowest and was still the only one to fall. Needless to say, when my companions mentioned we could go ice skating for real some other time, I declined immediately. The views were super cool, but it's pretty weird being in an area called "the valley" when we're nearly 8,000 feet above sea level without going into the mountains, hopefully my fitness level goes up while I'm here, but it doesn't feel like that's happened yet. 

In my studies, I've been reading a lot about repentance, both in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. There are a few times where prophets are told to "preach nothing but repentance" unto the people. Why is repentance so important? Well, Jesus Christ wants us to follow his example and be like him. However, we can never be perfect like he was, we constantly sin and make mistakes. This is the reason he atoned for our sins, so that through repentance we could become clean and return to live with him and our Heavenly Father. Being a follower of Christ means that we strive to be like him, and that includes repentance, forsaking our sins and doing our best to not do them again. Repentance is improvement, it doesn't have to be a guilt and shame filled moment, but rather a joyful process of becoming more like our Savior as we continually commit be like him and love as he did. I've come to realize how wonderful repentance is on a mission, and how it can bring us and others true joy as we change the focus of our lives. I invite you all to allow the atonement of Jesus Christ to work in your lives and strive to repent and come unto him.