Week 42

Fam and friends!

Another great week!  I'm getting the hang of biking; there's only a couple hills that I can't keep up with Elder Anderson on.  haha  I don't remember if I mentioned in last week's update that we were going to teach Z X and her daughter, but we went over Tuesday to drop off a Book of Mormon in Chinese and met her daughter E.  We taught them a little bit about it and then they both came to church this Sunday!  The ward members are just swarming them with love, it's been so awesome.  Tomorrow we're going to teach them with the member who teaches the Mandarin gospel principles class.

The missionaries here in Seattle used to refer to Mercer Island as "the rock."  This area has only baptized once in the last few years, but it's just booming right now.  M is getting baptized next month, V is getting closer and closer and has a real desire to get baptized, P is ready and wants to be baptized, Z X and E are loving the church and coming every week and we have other really great people that we're meeting with, too.  What's really cool is that none of these people are meeting with us because of our own efforts.  We work hard and do our best but these people are coming because God prepared them for the gospel and prepared a way for them to receive it.

I don't know what else to say about this week.  I lost 8 lbs. on a 3-day no carb diet with my companion.  Protein shake for breakfast, eggs for lunch, fish or turkey for dinner (we cooked and ate an entire turkey we found in the freezer over the weekend).  We had a fireside at the Seattle Stake Center last night, it was great to see old friends from that area.  Tonight we are going to the Ensign Symphony at Benaroya Hall in Downtown Seattle with V and M and a friend of theirs.  Good times!

This week I read Alma 15 and its become one of my favorite chapters.  Zeezrom literally had a scorching fever because "his many sins, did harrow up his mind until it did become exceedingly sore, having no deliverance."  Alma and Amulek were guided to the city that he was in and when they visited him, Alma took him by the hand and said, "Believest thou in the power of Christ unto salvation?"  It got me thinking about grace and Christ's atonement.  We may believe in Christ, but do we believe Christ?  Do we believe that we can literally be cleansed through his atonement?  That even when we continue to slip up and fall short of doing our best, that His grace is enough?  The problem with a lot of members in this church is that they get discouraged and think of themselves as unworthy of God's grace.  They keep themselves out of heaven.  If you read the rest of Alma 15 you see that Zeezrom's faith heals him immediately.  All it takes is faith.  Something Sister Schofield always says is, "the first principle of the gospel is not faith.  It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

Hope you all have an awesome week!
Elder Robb