Choose Faith

This week was a doozy! On Monday of last week, as we were playing sports, I sprained my ankle pretty badly. Luckily, it is doing a lot better now! But, at the time, the mission nurse told me to baby it, and rest for a few days. This is a tall order for missionaries.

On Thursday, Elder Loveridge and I led our very first Zone Conference. President Guthrie asked me to conduct the meeting, and I gladly accepted, but on the inside was terrified. For your knowledge, conducting a Zone Conference would be like conducting church on Sundays. But at a smaller level. It went pretty good, right up until the end, then I butchered it. Oh well...

Throughout this week, I have been having a lot of thoughts running through my head. Most of them were not of missionary work, and so as you can imagine, I became very distracted this week. but, there was one quote that stuck out to me. This quote came from President Dallin H. Oaks. It says...

"I say, choose faith. Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unkown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism."

I say choose faith! I love this so much! When I read this, it made me reflect on what I was choosing. Faith? Or fear? At the time, I was choosing fear. Now, I can tell you with a clear conscience that I am choosing faith. I may still have fears, but I am choosing to live by faith.

I can tell you Brothers and Sisters, that living this Gospel is hard. But, that is how it is supposed to be. If it was supposed to be easy and fun, this would be EFY. This Gospel is supposed to stretch us. It is supposed to push our limits. This is the Church of Jesus Christ after all!

I love this Gospel, and I know the blessings that come from living it. I challenge each of you reading this, to right now, choose faith. Tell your loving Heavenly Father that you are choosing faith over fear. I know that as you do so, you will see a difference in your lives. You will see the powers of heaven rain down upon you! I love all y'all!

-Elder J.T.Yates

 We hit "801" on our odometer in the car. Both of us are from Utah, so it made us both happy. Haha

Elder Embody, one of the office missionaries. He is moving to Georgia with his family soon. 

I am going to miss him.

This is a super weird building that is in our area. It is some type of church, but is abandoned. And looks like it has been abandoned for a long time. Also, absolutely no one knows what it is...