Payoffs and Previews of Future Fruition

Last Monday I talked with a coworker who lives in a neighboring town.  He had the missionaries over to his home for dinner.  One of the elders said that one of his previous areas was my town.  My coworker asked if the elder knew me and he said yes.  It was Elder M from Mexico.  What makes this worth mentioning is that last December Elder M was a brand new missionary and this was his first area and today he has a brand new missionary fresh from the MTC himself.  He has only been out seven and a half months and he is already a trainer.  Well he had Elder K as his trainer and Elder K is the best.  (Elder K completed his mission in July and is now probably out in North Carolina trying to follow the prophet's counsel to find an eternal companion).  Anyway it is wonderful to see the great progress in our elders.

Another vision of future greatness is the young man (Joseph) that Elder K and Elder B(the first one) baptized while they were here.  This young man is a from another country and English is not his primary language.  Just after his baptism, he was ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood.  It is wonderful to hear him blessing the sacrament.  When he prays, you listen more intently to the words of the sacrament prayer.  Last week was youth conference and our ward's youth were able to go to Salt Lake's Temple Square for their youth conference.  This Sunday in Sacrament Meeting Joseph was asked to report on his youth conference experiences.  He couldn't stop talking about how great the missionaries were and how he was excited to be able to serve a full-time mission.  This young man will be an awesome missionary, you can see his testimony of the Savior in his eyes, in his smile, and you can feel the spirit around him.  It may be difficult to understand his words at times, but it is easy to know that he Loves God.  Yesterday was our ward's day of service and Joseph was out there working the whole time, even when some of the older men were standing around leaning on their shovels, he was out there working.  He has a lot to give this world.  Thank You to Elder K and Elder B for helping him learn the gospel.

Funny (at least to me) story for the week.  I have had this house for almost five years now, so now it's time to do some touch-up work on the walls in the apartment.  I warned Elder B2 and Elder U that I would be working on the walls.  Yesterday I started on the job of patching and sanding, and just in case they came home to see me in the apartment, I sent them a text to warn them.  The text said - "I'm working on the walls, your apartment is kinda messy".  I got this text back saying "yeah, sorry - we will try to clean it up a little tonight."  They thought I was complaining about how messy they left the apartment.  If you could see their apartment, you would not believe that two 19-20 year old men were living there.  The place is spotless, nothing is out of place!  I sent a reply telling them that I meant that I was the one who left the place messy, not them.  Boy, do I owe them a serious deep cleaning of the apartment once I am finished!

Anyway, that's about all for now.  Remember to keep smiling and BE AWESOME this week. 
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The Lord loves you too!