Inspiration from Jeremy

Best advice I'd give to you is to not listen to everything you hear! I'm definitely not the best missionary haha I've just been super blessed with awesome areas, companions and just general circumstances. However I've become a lot like you in the fact that I've become a bit of a workaholic... I eat live and breath the work, but I've also learned the importance of celebration and playing hard in general. This has been a really interesting few weeks. I've gone from a zone and with people that generally are competing to see who can be the best in the work and best at things to a zone that are generally really relaxed and laid back. Its been an interesting change. When it come to the work its been a problem for some areas but for ours and for a very few others we are picking up some serious speed. We have found 15 new over the last few weeks and are just having a blast talking to a lot of people. There is a lot of abuse around here though. Something I've noticed is that each companion I've had has had a specific type of people that come to them. Its been an interesting thing to see how the Lord really does have specific people and types of people for us to work with. Elder Lightfoot is going to be an amazing counselor one day and so he seems to get a lot of people that struggle with some very deep seated emotional pain and scars. Its been a sad thing to see so many people battered into complete denial and kids and grandparents stuck in the middle. We've been talking a lot with bishop on how to work with these situations. I've learned a lot about the importance of keys as an assistant as well, thats been something that has become so real when it comes to revelation. I've loved being with Elder Moon again and Elder Munoz, Elder Lightfoot rocks also, so life is so good. I'm going on a 5 day exchange with a bunch of people this week to see how things are going throughout the Redmond zone and Bend zone! Its going to be a ton of fun! Exchanges always bring miracles. This last week we had a fun time doing our ZTM, we focused on Charity, Faith and Revelation. Its really interesting how they all work with one another. Elder McGlothlin and and Elder Montierth came down for ZTM and to help build some faith in the zone which was awesome. So we had gotten into some banana fights at Elder McGlothin's place, literally we were throwing bananas at eachother at the end of the day before we had a zone conference. We destroyed that place haha I did that (different variates of destroying their place) a lot. So they came to my place now.... and needless to say we had chips emptied out in my bed, everything was destroyed by the time they left. The funny thing was we just had inspections............... It was sad. We have seen some serious miracles though this week. I'll tell ya, of all the things I've come to know is that this really is Gods work. He wants this work done and he'll get it done if anyone just goes out and believes its his. I've done nothing special my whole mission, I just have comps and myself that believe that this really is Gods work. Since it is his work we don't need to try to hard, just need to take a step back and let him do it. So some revelation for the week. I have been pondering the fact that loving our God and neighbor are the 2 greatest commandments. So encompassing that "on these two commandments hang ALL the law and the prophets"Matt 22:36-40. In Romans 13 Paul explains why pretty well by saying "if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." I have come to speculate the reason behind this is the fact that God has perfect charity for us. Our purpose is to become like our Heavenly Father, he doesn't need faith, or hope. He doesn't need prophecy or anything like that. He does need charity though. Christ was perfectly motivated out of charity- "And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men. And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father." Ether 12:33-34. So unless we have this Charity we are not like our Father, therefore we cannot return to live with him, we cannot see him as he sees us because we aren't motivated by the pure love of him and his son. More important then being obedient is being obedient because we love our Father and each other. Just my thought of the week. I love you all so much, I'm glad ya'll had fun at Trek it looks awesome! I'm loving life, things are just going to fast for me. Also what about the room thingy??? Where are we sharing a room? I look forward to hearing from you next week and I hope everyone knows how much I love them. Tell the Grandparents how much I love them and how much I think of them. How is GMA Brailsford? and Adams? Let me know. Love ya! Elder Larsen Sr.