It's a
beautiful 36 degree day in the neighborhood! One of the terrible things about Oklahoma is
that it can't decide if it wants to be hot or cold! A month ago we had 20-30 degree weather for a
long time, which I got used to. So 40
degree was warm warm warm. This last
week it stayed in the 60-70 range which was beautiful! And today it's back to 30's, which feels like
it's freezing! I just can't seem to
adjust. Haha but hey! It sounds like things are going well back on
the frontier! The Lord is blessing the
Traasdahl family! Austin I hope you had fun on your blind date. Even if you say "no thanks" to a
second date, at least why not call it good time for the first one? And talking about dates I hear someone went
to a school dance?!?! That's right, BDOG!!!! hahaha mannnnn you're getting to
old way to quick! You're not allowed to
do that!! Mom tells me that you have
teen elect coming up this week. I'm so excited for you, it'll be awesome!! I really really enjoyed teen elect. You learn so valuable lessons. You go in a stud, and afterwards you walk away
studLYER. Win win right there! Shoot Dad, your half marathon is this week!
Before I know it I'm going to get an email saying that you completed the iron
man! Isn't this so cool though? Just a few months ago we were glorying in your
success in running 2-3 miles, and now you're running 11!! The blessings of the doctrine of consistency. It's something I've barely scratched the
surface in my studies, but there's so much there to learn. And Mom, I really
enjoyed hearing about your visits to the nursing home. It reminds of the talk that President Eyering
gave last GC, Bind up Their Wounds.
Well this
week was super busy. I forgot if I
mentioned it or not last week, but this past Thursday we had a mission wide District Leader Training. Which basically turned into a meeting with all
the leadership in the mission, the ZL's, STL's, and DL's, to train the DL's in
their responsibilities. It was an all
day event. Lucky ol' me and Elder Vance
got assigned a training on the principles of District Meeting, and 45 min to
train. Haha as you can see, I survived. But I'm tellin you what, (in the words of
President Walkenhorst) I was as nervous as a cat on tin roof! The only other time I've been that nervous was
when I was a district leader 6 months out and president Taylor came to my
district meeting. I've been able to keep
my cool through most trainings, haha but not this one! Well, I make this point to make another. D&C 42:14 "and the Spirit shall be
given unto you by the prayer of faith; and if ye receive no the Spirit ye shall
not teach." I know that I was
sustained and strengthened by the spirit, through the prayer of faith. I know that D&C 42:14 is not just words on
a page, but a law of God that we can rely upon at all times!
This week
have a pretty neat thing happening as well in our mission. The president of the
missionary department from the MTC is coming to evaluate our mission. He'll be spending a day with the AP's, a day
with a ZL companionship, and then on Thursday we'll have all the leaders get
together and we'll receive leadership training from him and his companion that
he'll bringing along. So that's something we're really looking forward to.
Quick story.
We have church Sunday mornings at 9 am. We get a text from a member of the
bishopbric at 8 that says "Elders. I
need a huge favor. One of our main
speakers just canceled on his talk. Can you prepare a talk on building faith
and split 25 min between you?" haha
don't you love last minute talks? So
that was a fun opportunity. The main
message I felt impressed to share, regarding building faith, was that doubt and
fear are our two biggest obstacles in our faith building process. Peter walking on water towards Christ is a
perfect example. (Matt 14: 22-32) It says that he was "afraid" and
"doubted". Because of his
doubt and fear he faltered and sunk. D&C
6:36 Christ teaches us "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear
not."
We're all
going to have doubts and fears. It comes
with being fallen and having weaknesses of the flesh. Going back to the example
of Peter, it's probably safe to assume that he took his sight off of Christ,
and let his thoughts of doubt and fear take the stage and push out the savior. Lesson learned? It's ok if we have doubts and fears, only if
we act in faith to overcome them! We
always need to be looking to the savior, and if we do, 1.) we'll have the
capability to act in faith to overcome our doubts and fears and 2.) we'll
eventually conquer our doubts and fears.
I love you
lots fam, thanks for all you do. You're a strength and support to me. You're
continually in my prayers. Let me know if i can do anything for you! Love you!
Elder
Traasdahl
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