This week
absolutely flew by! What I never thought of is this: that when you spend
all of your time on your phone, the time always goes by quickly; and
that's exactly what we do! We are constantly on our phones, not because
we're bad missionaries but because we're good ones and it's necessary.
I
am loving the climate here in Nebraska! We've had highs in about the 60s and 70s
for this entire past week, and rain for three of those days and overcast
skies nearly all the rest. My compañero, Elder Carter, doesn't like the
cold or the rain, but I'm on cloud nine! And everything is so
beautifully green! This is the first time in my life I've lived in a
place that is not a desert, and it's so novel and I love it! Where we
live in Lincoln is quite similar in feel to Gilbert, but it has water,
so I'm enjoying it!
So
far, I have met many people who like to Bible-bash, which is new to me
because, frankly, in Argentina the people were generally not educated
well enough to bash. Bless their hearts, they're wonderful people, and
so kind; but they simply aren't quite so educated. But now, welcome back
to the States, Elder Hill! This is Nebraska, where everyone knows their
stuff. But it has been a good exercise to me practicing teaching with
love instead of contention. As it says in 1 Corinthians 13:
"Though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I
am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and
though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not
charity, I am nothing."
Without
the Spirit in every word, I will have no charity; and without that
keystone it will not matter how much I know, because they won't want to
listen. I'm so glad I get to practice legitimately caring for people,
because that's a skill I'll be glad to use for the rest of my life.
I've
been reading in spare time the Institute student manual for the Pearl
of Great Price (you know, light reading), and I learned something
legitimately new about Kolob, which made me feel SO STUPID. I somehow
had never before connected the scripture "all things denote there is a
God", with Kolob, and I was always so caught up in all the "deep
doctrine" speculative garbage that I never saw through the haze to the
reality and utter simplicity and beauty of the doctrine: Kolob
represents Christ, the One closest to the throne of God. He was the
First Creation, and governs all others; He gives light to the entire
universe, to each creation in its proper time; and, the "greatness" of
other stars in the book of Abraham is measured by their proximity to
Kolob, just as our personal "greatness" through grace is measured by our
proximity to Christ. It's almost frustrating to me that this seems SO
RIDICULOUSLY OBVIOUS, and I never thought of it before. That just goes
to show that nobody can ever finish learning and know everything.
There's always another ridiculously obvious fact you never knew, just
around the corner. But to finish up, I'm so grateful for the scriptures
and the unending guidance I receive from them: my life would be very
different without them, and I cannot see it being any better than it is
now. God has blessed me far beyond any level of personal deservingness,
and has saved me from a less-desirable fate by grace. My life is full of
light because if Him, and I will praise Him forever for it.
Actually,
just one more thing. I realized this morning that today marks the end
of my 72nd week of the mission, which is cool because 72 is the smallest
number that can be constructed in the form (a^b)(b^a) where a and b are
two different primes. It's also cool to realize that that means today
is day 504, and that God has managed to forgive my weaknesses as a
missionary daily, over "seventy times seven" times.
Love,
Elder Hill
Fotos:
- el Capitolio de Nebraska
- placas de misioneros en ingles, español, y japonés
- mi compa, Elder Carter
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