Week 44

Hey all!

This week started with a flat tire for me.  We took my bike to Dan the bike man, he fixes up bikes for missionaries pretty cheap! (That reminds me, I still have to go back and pay him. . . ) He looked at my bike and said, "If you keep riding this thing, you're going to meet your Mormon God real quick!!"  I guess there was some other stuff wrong with it too.  It rode much easier after he fixed me up.  The very next day, we were right back in his garage fixing a flat for Elder Anderson.  An unlucky week for us!!

Thursday night we had a Jewish Mormon event at our church building called B'nai Shalom.  They did lots of Jewish culture stuff that was pretty neat.  We only stayed for the dinner because we had a lesson to go to.  After our lesson, we went and watched W's baseball game.  He's a 14 year old kid we stop by and see sometimes.  His mom loves us and the church because her other son got baptized a while ago and the church really helped him.  It was fun to watch him play ball, makes me reminisce my little league days!  All the baseball moms were really cool with us, sometimes it's better to get out in the community than it is to pound on doors.

Yesterday Bishop drove us to Emmanuel Episcopal church on the island, where we helped serve food to disabled people here on the island!  It was a lot of fun and they sent us home with a ton of mac and cheese.  Funny how it's just tradition to send loads of food home with us missionaries.  This week we also started preparing for an English second language class that we'll be teaching every Tuesday.  Should be good!

This week I was reading in Alma and I found a couple of verses that talk about joy.
27:18 "Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness."
29:10 "And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hat heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me."

True joy comes to people who feel like they want to improve and change, and then act on that desire.  Verse 10 is used a lot in missionary terms, and it is really cool to see people change and become converted to the gospel "from scratch" so to speak, but I've been thinking about the motivation that I feel every time I go to church and see people who recognize their shortcomings and strive to be better.  That's what this church is here for, it's not for the perfect people, it's to help people become better.  Anyways, that's why I love the church, because it's helped me feel motivation to improve.

Have a good week!
Elder Robb