6-12-17

Happy birthday in May to:

Grandma D

Grandpa Crook

Jakeb W

Todd

Hope it was awesome!!

To answer the question that I knew all of you wanted to know but nobody really asked, this first picture shows how dusty and dirt-y this area is.  I had cleaned my shoes literally the day before, and this is what happens.  XD

The next picture, answers the age-old question: How do you fit 3 people on one bike?  Now you know.  Those are 3 kids, age 13, 11, and 10.  They are awesome, and hilarious!  One thing holding them back, is that they sleep in... so it's hard for them to come to church.  We've been helping them to read the Book of Mormon everyday- or even to listen to it, which is what Gaybert, the 13 year old, does, and he's awesome, we're working on getting him to the temple!

Everything is going swell down here!  We took the relief society president of the To'hajiilee branch to a less active that lives on the top of a mesa, in the area we classify as "Timbuktu" because it's about 20 minutes from the nearest civilization, if it can even be called civilization, because it's a flock of housen that is as many houses as Brentway is... yeah, the people live really close together out here. ;)  But they were talking in Navajo for 85% of the time, partly because that less-active doesn't speak English very well, partly because it was more effective to communicate that way for her.  It was flipping awesome!

The stake conference with Elder K. Brett Natress of the 70 was pretty awesome, he was a mission president of the Gilbert Arizona Mission when he was called to be a General Authority 70, and he was at the temple rededication in Idaho Falls this last week.  It was pretty sweet!  

Recently, I've been thinking about the difference between guilt and discouragement:  Guilt is what God created to motivate us to change and to become better.  Discouragement is what Satan uses to prevent us from trying again- to destroy our hope and faith in ourselves and in Christ.  It makes sense why Satan wants to destroy our hope and faith in Christ, but why in ourselves??  Because the belief in ourselves, namely that we are children of God and that He loves us, is what motivates us to even want to believe in Christ!  When we know who we are and our relationship with God, that's when "[We] can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth [us]" (Phillipians 4:13) and when "... with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37).

"If your self worth is dependent on anything other than your relationship with Christ, you are in deep trouble."                                   -Hyrum Smith, (not Joseph's brother, but a different one)

That being said, why do you think the first song in the primary song book is "I am a Child of God"??

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!!  :)

Elder Eli James Dial