Gym

Hello, everyone!

It is another beautiful day in the neighborhood of Salt Lake City. Okay, the city is a bit bigger than your average neighborhood. But, life has been good for me down here. Later today will be our transfer conference (six weeks has made for a long transfer, though I suppose that in a teaching mission that is the normal length), but I don't suppose that much will change for me; based on my previous interviews with President Fenn, and the fact that neither me nor my companion received a moving notice yesterday, I think I can safely guess that I will remain in Data Services for the last month of the mission. It is a bit of a weird thing for me to think about, that I truly am near the end; once the current outgoing group of missionaries leaves, Elder Hauswirth (who came in with me) and I will be the longest out in the mission; soon after that, I will be packing my bags myself. But, I do still have one more month, to do that which I had kept telling myself that I would do. I still have time to complete that which I had planned on completing, and getting my things in order so that the mission will not have to miss me too much. There is still a work to be done, and it is up to me to not forget that, and to hold out strong until the end, that I may truly be able to say that I have fought my way through, and endured to the end. (Is that inspiring enough for you?)

Now, going forth with my week... The zone has been made much more interesting recently. The leaders of the zone had met together to discuss the current training regime which we had been doing. There had been some discussion regarding what was going on in the training, so we had decided to make some changes to improve what was going on. So, we carried out the new changes on Monday; now, rather than two hours of training courses, we only get one hour of such, then we all discuss things happening in the zone, training topics which the missionaries need to know more about, etc. We had also more widely publicized one-on-one training, which gave missionaries more change to learn in a more hands-on experience than can be gotten in a classroom setting. all in all, I think the common consensus is that the training is much better than it had previously been! It is noticeably more personalized, and missionaries are much more able to pay attention/stay awake for the entire thing! Aside from training, things have been rolling swimmingly at zone. There has been much more work for us all to do - even at night zones! There is currently little reason to try and say there is nothing for us to do! So, the work has therefore been going well.

Apparently, the Church Office Building has a gym on one of it's floors! Even better than that - missionaries have received authorization to use this gym, if they so desire. A missionary in my district, Elder Sannar, had wanted to go to this gym, which would require him to wake up early; his companion was not overly enthused with the idea of waking up early to exercise. They had wanted me to authorize an exchange so that he could take Elder Showgren instead; however, Elder Showgren was not overly interested either. I had been wanting to go to the gym myself, so I decided that I would go with him instead. And boy, do I need to go to the gym! I had realized during my time there that my arms could use all the extra working out they can get! I could barely put any weight on the machines before it was beyond what I could do. So, I will definitely be going there more often; maybe my arms will be some good by the time I am done. Another interesting thing about this gym is that it is opened to and used by the entire Church campus, including the general authorities of the Church (we are still not allowed to talk to them unless they talk to us). I did not anyone like that during my time in the gym; however, when leaving the gym through the Church campus's underground tunnel system (the buildings I think were still locked up), me and Elder Sannar did run into and get to meet Elder Gong!

I have been singing with the choir more, though the songs for the month of February have been selected, so my composition won't be able to be sung before I leave the mission. Oh well. It is still good to be in the choir. I will look forward to finishing strong with them. I have enjoyed being in the choir during my mission, and hope to be able to participate in such things when I get back home, such as choirs or other productions. But, again, that is a month in the future. For now, I get to sing with the choir still, and I will enjoy doing so.

That is about all I have to report for the week. Life has been great, and I have had good things to report. Now, if my next E-mail does not come on a Tuesday, don't worry too much; it just means I have had a rescheduled P-Day. That said, I don't think that P-Day will change for me; I don't think that very much at all will change for me at the end of my mission. So, there you have it. I hope you all have a good week!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order." (Mosiah 4:27). In this day and age, hard work is made somewhat simpler with gas-powered tools, which perform the same job as their hand-powered counterparts with much more power and efficiency. This is seen in lawn mowers, chainsaws, and ice augers (you're welcome, Dad). In fact, oftentimes the hardest part of using such tools is getting them to start! I remember spending a lot of time and effort pulling on the cord of such tools to get them roaring. In such situations I have been aided by a "primer", which puts a bit of fuel into the engine so that the spark plug will have some fuel to ignite to start the engine more easily. Oftentimes, this is necessary to get the tool to start up at all. Similarly to how a primer helps an engine to start operating, careful planning can make the difference in whether or not our objectives will be met or not. Planning allows us to take some time to look ahead, and determine what we will do, and when we will do it, so that when we are thrust into such a situation, as an actor onto a stage, we will not be without a script. I could talk for quite a while on this subject, but to get to the point, there is no better planning ahead than to plan to obey God's commandments. We must know what we will do in a situation where we are tempted to break the commandments, especially those which we have hitherto struggled with. Today, use your primer - "choose you this day whom ye will serve; ... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15). If you decide today that you will serve the Lord, then if you are confronted with a decision regarding His commandments, it will be more easy to decide that you will obey His law than if you had to make this decision right then and there. The Lord will not force you to make this decision, but he will also not condone unrighteous actions if you choose not to serve Him; therefore, there is a right and a wrong answer to the question of whom to serve. Choose to serve the Lord; I can promise that He looks after His own.