The Warmest Winter!!!

 As a missionary, it can be very difficult to measure your own success. In "Preach my Gospel" it talks about success as a missionary and how it should be gaged. Overall, it is a very confusing matter that is pretty much dependent on the individual missionaries own goals and growth. The phrase "planting seeds" is used so frequently to talk about the future effects of our efforts when we can't see anything immediately happening. It is a great sentiment but...it is much nicer to see progress and not just know it is there. Which is exactly where faith ties in! We have to recognize the fact that it isn't our work, but Heavenly Father's, and his work stops for no one. This was a really long tangent which leads me to service, which is super awesome because we actually see results for our work the day that it happens!! With some of the service we have recently done, sometimes I just stop and think, "Wow! I am just over here in Florida helping a man I have never met before build a patio." The thought then follows that everyone should have an opportunity to serve a mission. The blessings that come with doing your best to bring peace and joy to other peoples' lives are indescribable!!

There are also the weird experiences, like how we helped a family move a piano by transporting it on an open trailer that was not meant to transport anything like a piano. Literally ten straps and forty-five minutes later we were on the road and it was stressful to watch. The piano swayed, tilted, and threatened to tip many times, but it ended up being OK, if not a little out of tune!

Pic #1 - a selfie of us on our way to deliver cookies to some Sister Missionaries

Pic #2 - Elder Moses and I by the papers we layed, it isn't perfect but definitely better than when we got to it

Pic #3 - an aloe vera plant I got from a member that I am trying to save!!