Walk With Jesus, Dude: Tough Week Calls for a Rock Climbing Analogy

First of all, the pictures are gorgeous! I especially love the lighting in the baptism pictures. Please tell Katie that she's gorgeous and I love her beautiful eyes and smile. :)

Well, I'm going to be completely frank about this last week. It was really, really hard. Like really hard. I don't really know how to explain it, but it was tough. I know that in a weird way this all is an answer to many of my prayers of things I wanted to learn. What's amazing is that throughout this week I have been given strength, patience, love, and faith that is beyond my own. I think this week I've really felt, quiet dramatically and definitely, the enabling power of the Atonement. It truly is a power that takes us so much farther than we ourselves can go!

You know how I love rock climbing analogies, so here's one I was thinking about the other day. The enabling power of the atonement is very much like rock climbing I've decided. In particular it makes me think of this time Ty and I went rock climbing. It was a pretty easy climb except for this one little part where you had to reach reeeeally far in order to keep moving up. Ty, of course, had no problem; he's tall. Me on the other hand, I'm short, so I couldn't reach the hold to save my life! I jumped and reached and jumped again until my legs were tired and my hands hurt from flailing at the rock. Finally I devised a plan: I told Ty that every time I jumped he should cinch the rope and the rope would catch me a few inches higher than I was before (I'm such a cheater). We did this again and again until I had gotten much higher than I ever could have with my own short little body. I never did reach the top of the rock, but the moral is the same: Christ is there to cinch the rope for us every time we jump, inch by inch taking us far higher than we ever could have gone with our own limited strength and hight. It doesn't mean He'll just pull us up the rock, that wouldn't be fair and honestly would have no point. It doesn't mean our hands won't hurt and our legs won't wobble, but every time we jump He'll help us jump a little higher. Isn't that wonderful? What more could you ask for?

Sister Welling and I went on exchanges this week so I could teach her Malay recent convert (it's really confusing and a long story as to why the Chinese sisters have a Malay RC who doesn't speak Chinese) and it was a lot of fun! We visited a few of their less actives and she asked for my help in learning how to contact so we found a nicer part of town and did some contacting in English. We found a place with a salad! It was magical.

We have three investigators who can't meet... which makes for nocking doors all day every day. I already told Tyler I'm getting a real nice farmer's tan from it! ;) It's going to be real attractive when I put a swimsuit on in December. Hot. We're contacting in nicer areas because we're looking for people who speak English, which is interesting because sister Lee doesn't feel too confident in her English, but it works. We were trying to contact our less actives but most of them have been away from the church for 9+ years and our branch president told us the live too far away. And they don't have addresses. Real addresses. So knocking doors can! It's been beautiful weather lately, really rainy though, but I like that. :) I wish I had more to tell you but that's about all for this week. Today we're going skittle bowling so that should be fun!

I love you!

Pictures:

Riding to church in the bus yesterday! There wasn't much room so our member was reeeeeeal close to me. Awkward. "Surry seeester."

Last week we went to an illusion museum..? And mini golfing. I don't know, but it was a package deal. It was so fun!

If you're wondering, I'm still horrible at mini golf. But I did beat sister Welling (see picture). :)

Contacting selfies!

Sister welling and I being totally American and eating McDonalds while our Asian companions at Asian food.

We accidentally had FHE with all four of the elders and a member last week! It was perfect when the elders showed up because we needed more people for ninja.