May 1

 Hello to all my... avid readers?

A lot of our life here at the mtc has been shaken up the past couple of days. We moved from our new classroom, to our new new classroom, and then we were moved back to our oldest classroom. It's weird, at first, we complained from moving from room A to B because we liked our rolly chairs and our ginormous desks. We thought of this room as our home, where we were closest to all the other south east asian languages (Thai, Viet, Laotion, and Cambodian). Then they asked us to move to a different building! We hated it!! The desks were small (seriously, clipboard sized...) and we had 4 flights of stairs to walk up!! My companions said we were just like the pioneers... Then, as soon as we were comfortable and enjoying the A/C and whiteboard in room B, we were shoved into room C. We started loving THAT class for its view of the mountains and the southern end of the valley. Then we were moved back to class A... Which we now are still struggling to get used to... Yeesh!!

Along with the change in classrooms, we had a change of schedule to try and even out the number of missionaries doing certain activities at certain times. So that's why my P-day has been changed to wednesday... We like it so far because it seemed like everyone had their p-days on Tuesdays, so everything we wanted to do was always busy. This morning we got up at 6:30 and we haven't been in much of a rush yet. The temple was really nice because it was a lot less crowded, and we didn't have to wait more than 5 or 6 minutes before we were able to go in.

I have been reading in the new testament. While I was reading Jesus the Christ (which by the way if you haven't DO DO DO!!!) I realized that I recognized the stories, but I had no idea about the real character of Christ. I was inspired to start reading the New Testament, and I am truly amazed at how much I have missed out in just the first few chapters of reading! The other day I read about the Beatitudes. I had totally forgotten that all these blessings that I, and more importantly my investigators, can have are all right their listed in the front of the NT. I studied that for a good long time, and there is still more to do. Today, while in the temple, I was reading in Matthew 10 i think, and I found a verse that was really able to give me needed comfort. Jesus is sending his Apostles out to go preach, minister, and administer unto the people in various cities. As he does this, in verse 14 he says something about how if the people of a city won't listen to the things that the apostles have to say, that they should wipe the dust off their shoes and move on. This is great advice for us, and particularly me as a missionary, because it shows us that we can't let the little things get us down. If somebody slams the door in my face, calling me a Khi Dwb!!! (Kee doo!! Rascal, naughty) I have to be able to keep the spirit with me, and move on to the next house with just as much love and concern as before. My companions and I had our first taste of this disappointment just this last Friday. We were teaching Paul, a new investigator we were referred to. We spent some time getting to know him, and we gave a spiritually powerful lesson. We were prompted to then and their invite him to be baptized, so we asked him if he would like to be baptized a month from that day. He told us he was already baptized, and he didn't need to do it again. We told him that while God was pleased with his faith and his desire to come closer to Him, the baptism that he had wasn't preformed with the proper authority and power from God. He was deeply offended by this, and despite the spirit we had tried to bring, he told us to leave and not come back... Talk about HEART BREAK!!! We were soooo disheartened, and we had a talk with our teacher afterward about dusting our feet off, calling on the spirit, and moving on.... Regardless of this message, I hated that feeling!!!


I had better go and wash some clothes if I don't want to smell like a sweaty boy this week!!


Nrog txoj kev hlub ntxiv (ndrah tsah kay hloo ntzee, with much love)
, Elder Lis Xeeb