Missionary Moments

Just a quick update about the last 3 months. 

Elder Latimer left me for Argentina and I got to spend 6 weeks with a previous companion, Elder Hall. Elder hall is a big outdoorsman, growing up in the mountains of Arizona so every Nonday, we weren't indoors till we went to bed. We went gold panning, fishing, hiking, you name it, we considered it if we didn't do it. For the home of the 49er's, the hills have an abysmal amount of gold. We did manage to find fool's gold in the apartment complex volleyball court though (the little gold speck in the blurry photo). 

We also managed to catch a stingray with some fishing poles I found by the dumpster. Our best guess was that it weighed about 15 pounds. Not bad for dumpster poles!

But I only got six weeks with Elder Clint Hall before he got sent down south. I ended up with Elder Harris and we've been companions for another 6 weeks. 

While we were hiking one monday, we stumbled onto a rattlesnake slithering on and off the trail. He looked to be about 2 1/2 feet long and had 7ish layers to his rattle. Elder Hollis and I stayed close for another 10 minutes to make sure the snake didn't sneak up on the rear party of missionaries.

Now for scripture time. In Genesis 3:19, God is speaking to Adam about eating the forbidden fruit. So you don't have to look it up, I've pasted it here. 

"19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

It's a pretty straightforward verse, but I'm going to throw a twist on it. Another name for Jesus is "the bread of life". So if we replace "bread" with "bread of life" the scripture changes meanings just a little. Instead of sweating to put food on our tables, we have work hard to feed our souls. That's basically it. It's just another way to say "faith without works is dead", but it was a lot more meaningfull to me

Sorry for not writing, I've just been caught up in missionary work and haven't had much free time.

If I keep up this schedule, this is probably my second to last email so feel free to read it again

- Elder Schenewark

The colossus of clout