This week has been quite the adventure with a sprained ankle! The first half of the week was spent inside due to the cold and on crutches due to my injury.
I also found my camera! I had to take a selfie of me in my ugly sweater! I love this thing so much! Elder Cranney likes our apartment to be around 63 degrees, so it gets slightly chilly by my account. This sweater keeps me nice and warm!
I can't believe that I'm almost done with my second transfer! There are only 16 transfers in a mission, and I've almost completed two of them. Elder Cranney thinks he's leaving because he's been here for 5 transfers, but everyone else thinks he's staying, including me. He just became district leader this last transfer, so why would he leave? Of course, the Lord works in mysterious ways, so he very well might be right! It's going to be kind of exciting to be done with training, because them I won't be reminded of how long I've been out here serving. This week is week 11 of training, and next week is the last one! Then it's only two hours of studies every day and lots of proselyting!
Our lessons this week have been great. We have a new investigator who is really wanting to learn and find out for herself if this church is true, despite having much opposition from her step-dad and husband. She has so much faith in her Savior. One of our investigators, Marsha, is having knee surgery done next week, so we are praying that everything goes well and that she heals quickly.
Brother Klunk has been a member of the church for one whole year! We tried to take him out to lunch at Gosse's, but he wouldn't let us pay. That's Brother Klunk for you, though. He has become my best member friend out here, and I'm going to be sad when I get transferred. He is definitely up there on my list of favorite people.
This week I have been amazed at how much the Lord is able to work with us imperfect people. We try and try to follow His teachings and do what's right, but we slip up. We all sin. We all make mistakes. But He is always willing to pick us up, dust us off, and set us back on the path. In my daily scripture study I am reading through 2 Nephi and comparing the chapters with the ones in Isaiah. There aren't a whole lot of differences between the two, but there's a phrase that continually comes up in those chapters: "For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." No matter what we do, He is always there beside us, waiting for us to take His hand and follow Him. "Behold, I stand a the door and knock." He is waiting for us to open the door to our hearts and allow Him to change us. We are all the natural man, and we must all take advantage of the Atonement in order to "put off the natural man and become a saint." The Atonement is what allows us to get back on the path. This is my testimony. I know He lives. I know He is mindful of us and our lives. He cared enough for us to suffer all things in the Garden of Gethsemane and die for us on the cross at Golgotha. I know the Book of Mormon is true, because it teaches us these things. That is where we get our knowledge from. The scriptures. Joseph Smith did translate the gold plates into what we have today. One of our biggest challenges for us is getting people to just read from the Book of Mormon 10 minutes each day. It will change your life, guaranteed. My challenge to you is this: if you have not already read the Book of Mormon, read it. If you do not have a copy, get in contact with the missionaries in your area. They would be ore than happy to vie you one. 10 minutes a day isn't much, but as the scriptures teach, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." I have some to know my Savior and understand so much more about my relationship with Him as I've read, and I know you can too. I love you, but not as much as He loves you.
--Elder Riggs
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