Week 46

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty great. The highlight was that I got a lacrosse stick from the thrift shop for 77 cents! Lacrosse is huge on the island. Every once in a while we will run to the field for morning workouts and play 1-on-1 lacrosse.

Okay, well the real highlight of the week was some great news we got from P. He told us that his mom is going to come up from Peru in July to visit him, and that she wants to see him get baptized while he's here! It seems like his Grandma has warmed up to it enough, and his mom is pretty interested in the gospel herself. We were so stoked when he told us.

Wednesday night we started the run club! We only had one member show up, but that's OK! You've got to start somewhere! This week we did a better job publicizing it and got more commitments. Knocking doors on the island has been mentally tedious and unfruitful, so this is our bright shining hope for missionary work here. We ended up running about 5 miles total including the run there and back. We invite people of all physical ability to join us though! Get active Mercer Island! Let's go!!

This week I was reading in Alma 41 when I found this gem: "Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again."

Alma's talking to his son Corianton, who hasn't been the most observant of God's commandments. What really hit me in this verse is that he's not just going to repent and then go back to what he was doing before. He's invited by his dad to repent and change his nature. I've been thinking about overcoming sin and what it takes to do so, and I've found that it's usually not enough to just focus on not sinning, but you have to focus on doing to opposite. Doing good. This morning I read Romans 12:21: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." You can't just throw up your shield against it, you have to fight it to beat it.

I love you all a ton!
Elder Robb