Another fun week full of fun events! Here's some of
them:
1. As we were driving along this week, we saw some
rednecks attempt to jump their truck with their riding lawnmower. When we
drove back the opposite way about fifteen minutes later they were still going
at it.
2. Two Tuesdays ago, on the day we biked 28 miles, we were
biking past a house when suddenly the bulldog tied up in front of it broke
its chain and chased after Elder Collinwood on the bike. IT WAS SO FUNNY. I
just about died watching Elder Collinwood desperately try to outrun the insane
dog right on his heels. Eventually he escaped it, so then it turned
around and came after me. I calmly got off my bike, put it between me
and the dog, and rebuked the beast so that it retreated away. Stupid thing.
3. One fun thing about Shelby
at this time of year: FIREFLIES! They come out in hordes at night, and it is so
much fun for me to watch them. Other than one night our family spent in Nauvoo
in 2005, I have never seen fireflies before, and I love it. Those things are so
cool.
4. This week I found out that our church has a cat. There's
this ownerless cat that's about 16 years old which just lives around the
parking lot, and it's done that for as long as anyone can remember.
It's very tame and very friendly.
5. We've continued working on the shed for one of our
members. We spent a few hours getting up all four walls and such. Next phase is
the roof. It's been good experience for me.
6. Elder Collinwood and I looked at the GPS and
discovered that there are over 50 churches within a 2-mile radius of the center
of Shelby . How
about that?
7. On Tuesday we went to go help a particular less
active clean out their home. This person's house is completely filled with
boxes and plastic bags and mounds of stuff. From wall to wall, floor to
ceiling, save for a 18-inch pathway that starts at the front door and
winds its way around mountains of junk through the house to the bed. I'm
talking mountains of junk here. Mountains. Think of the goblin lady
in Labyrinth with all the garbage on her back. It was literally that
bad.
We devoted about two hours or so to "sorting" out
their stuff, which mostly involved throwing away the stuff they wanted to keep
but was actually garbage. Such as macaroni boxes they'd had since the 90's.
There were literally macaroni boxes in there that were older than I've been
alive. We took out a sizeable amount of stuff out to the dumpster during that
time without even making a dent on the amount still left to do. Nevertheless,
we will persevere and continue cleaning in the future, since the family had
told us that they wanted help.
8. We had just finished teaching a pleasant lesson
to Logan , our
baptismal date, and were walking out to the car when we noticed something
wrong. It had been a little windy that day -- in fact, there were sirens going
off announcing a tornado watch -- and apparently the wind had knocked off
a tree branch that fell and completely busted our back windshield. It was
entirely gone - not a piece of it was intact. We called up the sweet senior
missionary in charge of mission vehicles and asked him what to do.
Elder Cornelius said, "Well, you have a couple of storm
cells headed your way, so here's what you do: go down to Lowes, get yourself
some plastic, duct tape it to the back of the windshield, and find
some cover."
Oh, okay.
So we did. Thankfully the storm missed us entirely, so there
wasn't even any rain.
I thought the whole situation was hilarious, Elder
Collinwood found it stressful. I thought the odds of a tree branch breaking the
back windshield were so remote that there was nothing we could have done to
prevent it. If that was the case, we might as well laugh about it.
9. One last thing. We had dinner with a member
family on Thursday. The wife told us that the other day she had stepped
out of her house in the morning. Due to some trick of the light, the whole sky
seemed incredibly bright, far more than anything she had ever seen to the point
that it was blinding.
Her heart skipped a beat and she thought, "Oh
dear. This is it."
For a moment, she thought it was the Second Coming.
She thought to herself: "Garments? Check. Faithful
to husband? Check. Attending church, reading my scriptures..."
Eventually, the lighting changed and she realized it wasn't actually
the end, but it was a powerful experience for her.
Just take a minute and think about what you would
have done if you had thought the Second Coming had arrived. What would your
response be? In some ways I really wish that this experience had happened to
me, just so I would know how I would have reacted. Would I be terrified?
Overjoyed? Apprehensive?
Think about it for a minute.
I was pondering over this story for the rest of the
night. I remembered a scripture, the words of a great prophet
who was talking about when the Lord would come. Said Alma , "Now we only wait to hear the
joyful news declared unto us by the mouth of angels, of his coming; for the
time cometh, we know not how soon. Would to God that it might be in my day; but
let it be sooner or later, in it I will rejoice." (Alma 13:25)
I would to God that the Second Coming happen in my day -- I
want to see the Savior so badly. Yet let Him come back at all, and I will
rejoice.
I wish to conclude by sharing a song that came to
my mind, one of my favorite Primary songs, When He Comes Again. I'll
share the final verse with you, since this brought me close to tears that
particular evening:
I wonder when He comes again
Will I be ready there
To look upon His loving face
And join with Him in prayer?
Each day I'll try to do His will
And let my light so shine
That others seeing me may seek
For greater light divine.
So when that blessed day is here,
He'll love me and He'll say,
"You've served me well, my little child;
Come into My arms to stay."
May the same be said to all of us, someday. I know the
Church is true. I love my mission, I love my companion, and I love my area. I
love you all. Hurrah for Israel !
Elder Fisher
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