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May 15: Woodstock!

Happy Mother's Day!

It was so great talking to my amazing family yesterday. I love you all so much!

I wish all the best to my brother Nathan who's reporting to the Provo MTC this Wednesday and then going to the Paris, France mission 6 weeks later! I hope you have fun at the MTC!

We had a good week here in Woodstock. We found 2 new investigators while tracting on Saturday which is sweet. We found them only after having the door closed on our face about 20 times in a row. While we were going door to door with no success, I had a feeling that despite the many negative responses we were getting there would be at least one very interested person on the street and that's exactly what happened. This experience reminded me that often times we have to push through a large amount of opposition before God helps us and blesses us. A quote from one of my favorite movies just popped into my head: "The night is darkest just before the dawn."

I believe God allows us to go through struggles because he wants us to become better people. I have a testimony that he will show us grace when we have put forth all of our effort first. I believe that this is a principle of faith. I also believe, that although it is unpleasant at times to go through hard things, those experiences are the most worth while to us. I can't think of an easy thing I did 5 years ago that has any benefit for me today; but the hard things which took work, time, dedication, faith, confidence, trial and error and so forth, gave me the building blocks necessary for my personal development.

We are blessed to be alive today and have all of the opportunites and challenges we face, unique to our time and blessed North America. We have so many opportunities to work, grow, and also play. We are all children of loving heavenly parents and they will not "baby us" through life. They want us to go through difficult things in life for our benefit and have given us every resource we could ever need to aid us in our journey. The greatest resource of all is of course Jesus Christ. I know he is my Savior, and he is my foundation for a successful life.

I invite all of you to take an life's challenges with more faith in God and in Jesus Christ. For the next  hard thing that arises in your life (or for one you are going through right now), I invite you to ask yourself: what does God want me to learn from this? If we have the right perspective, we won't view trials as a burden but as an opportunity. So bring it on!

I love you all so much, have a great week!

My family also wanted some pictures so I got you some.

1. Woodstock "downtown"
2. Very nice 19th century home near main street.
3. Jamaican centipede in our apartment (with a pen next to it for proportion).
4. Elder Kohl and I in the car.

                                           





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