Week 11- The Three Great Commandments

 Hello Everybody!

     Week one in the field has been amazing. I'm serving in Indiana currently, Elder Jones and Tapp are showing me the ropes. We've been teaching like crazy it seems like. 

     There have been so many people on Facebook or over the phone or in person that we want to contact. We don't have enough time to reach all the people we want to. That is a very good problem for us to have. 

     We had a baptism with Mia which was great! Hooray for baptisms. We have another baptism with Abbey coming up this Saturday. Our zone will have had 1 baptism each week for the month of March.

     The diversity here compared to Tri Cities is so drastic. A lot of times, me and my companions are the only white people around. Our area covers a wide variety of people ranging from people living in small run down homes with little to nothing, to families in Gigantic houses that seem like Castles almost. Seeing everyone's perspective on God and prayer has been really eye opening. 

     Highlight of my week was finding Vladimir! Vladimir is an awesome guy from Ukraine, and actually he lives there right now. I found him through Facebook and have been reading the Book of Mormon with him. He speaks decent English and wants to speak better English. When we meet, he reads the Book of Mormon in English and I read it in Russian. He agreed to pray and read the Book of Mormon everyday. I think eventually I'll need to pass him off to missionaries in Ukraine so thats sad.

     Fun story of the week: We went to do some Bible studying with a member in the ward. He had invited a drunk lady in from the street to have dinner with him but told her she had to leave when we came for Bible study. She wasn't super excited to leave so when we showed up, we had to show her out kindly. She was drunk and off the rocker so on her way out the door she told us "you have no rights to my kids", she tried doing a card trick and then unexpectedly groped Elder Tapp. He was really shocked and so we showed her out the door a little quicker. Everyday has been a new adventure and you never know what kind of people you're gonna meet here in Indiana. 

    This week we've been doing member visits and teaching about the 3 Great Commandments. Most people are familiar with the 2 great commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart, might, mind and strength and Love thy neighbor as thyself. However, we had a devotional given to us about the 3rd great commandment, loving yourself. It can be really hard to see ourselves as children of God when we make dumb mistakes. Its easier to get down on yourself looking in the mirror and only noticing your flaws. If we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves, and we don't not love ourselves then we will not love others. Seeing your divine potential and recognizing your self worth will boost your ability to see the same things in the people you interact with. A quote from CS Lewis, "humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of your self less." Love yourself as God would love you. Extend the mercies and forgiveness that he would grant to you.

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