March 21, 2016 Cleaning the temple

To answer some questions, yes, we do have MLC meetings every month in preparation for ZTM..  Sadly, we didn't get to see E or T this week, but T did come to church yesterday and we will be seeing her tomorrow!

We got to help clean the temple this week!  The first time we were working outside, trimming bushes and grass (the tall wheat looking grass) and cleaning up after ourselves.  It was a super nice day too!!  Good thing we got it done then, cause the very next day it snowed.... A lot!  A couple days later we got to go back to help again and we got to clean the chandelier in the Celestial room.  You literally take off every single crystal, rub them with the cloth gloves you are given to wear till they are slippery again, then you hang them back up.  There are literally more than a thousand crystals on that thing!  Nuts!  It was long and tedious, but I loved it.  What a great place, and what a great thing to do, to clean the House of the Lord.

Funny story!  We were trying to make contact with a guy, and as we got out of the car, a lady was just pulling out, she saw us and just flipped out!  She was so excited to see us!  She waved like crazy, stopped her car in the middle of the road, rolled down the window and asked "Hey, are you Mormons?"  "We sure are!"  "OH man!  I used to meet with guys like you back in Rhode Island!"  And then she proceeded to talk to us for a bit, then gave us her number and told us to call her.  We were so pumped after that!  Funniest thing is our appointment didn't work out, yet we were exactly where we needed to be at the time.  Crazy how the Lord works.

Sunday night we got to help a member clean out his upstairs, which had been trashed by his wife who just left him with that mess to clean up.  She was addicted to Meth, and that is why she did what she did.  I kid you not, the whole upstairs was turned upside down.  You couldn't see the floor through all the clothes and trash and paper and blankets.  It looked like literally everything they owned was now upstairs on the floor.  We found a mouse up there too.  I don't know what happened to him though.  He took off when we found him, but he left us plenty of "presents" (or "tracks") all over... it was nasty.  I felt so bad for that family.  If there is anything that I will never doubt is the Word of Wisdom.  I know that it is true and that it is a HUGE blessing.  I have seen the carnage of addiction, weather drug, alcohol, even tobacco.  May I just say, that if you want to keep the God-given gift of Agency, don't do that stuff.  Avoid it like the plague, for that is exactly what it is.  Everyone can see the damage, yet not everyone can resist it's call.

Fun stuff that I learned this week!  When seeking an answer from the Lord you must do a few things in order to receive the desired enlightenment.  Of course, first you pray for guidance, then you go to the scriptures.  If you want Him to answer, it's kind of helpful to seek the answer in His words, which are found in the scriptures (tada!).  Then, act in faith.  If you think you got your answer, act on it.  When you act on it, you will know if it is good or bad.  If it invites you to do good, it is of God.  If not, then it's not of God.  And if you act on it and it wasn't from God, you will now be better able to discern the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

That's all Folks!  Love you all, hope all is well, know that you are in my prayers. 

Elder Carter V

This is how you trim the bushes around the temple.  We were totally in style.  And yes, that is really what they gave us to trim them!  It was about as dull as could be, so it was just like taking a stick and beating it against the grass, but it made for cool pictures!