Service With A Smile :)

Well, after all the excitement of Carlsbad things have kind of slowed a bit. But that is ok, because things are still really good!

Last Monday after emailing and stuff we got to go to Ensign Books, which is Temecula's version of Deseret Book, and that was really fun just looking around browsing at all the church things (though I did buy myself a new oil vial that looks pretty cool!). After that we went to Old Town Temecula and walked around just for fun, and ended up going to this soda shop that sells a ton of different kinds of soda! And I mean a TON! They had chocolate soda, they had bacon soda, they had black lemonade, and the one I got (though I have still yet to drink it) was Radioactive soda! It's crazy!

Had lessons with a couple of our investigators this week. One of them is named M, and she is a 16-17 year old girl that is friends (possibly girlfriend?) to one of the priests in the ward. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. We also met with one of our investigators named C, who actually referred himself and his son to the missionaries because he had talked to them years ago and now wanted to start learning more. So yeah, that is a pretty cool investigator. And that was a really good lesson as well; Elder Stevens decided that due to a seeming lack of retention of what missionaries had taught C and J (his son) that we were going to reteach them the lessons, so this last week we taught C the Restoration again. Sadly J wasn't there because he was visiting his mom.

We also met a really cool lady named D this week! She isn't an investigator or anything, but we street contacted her asking her if she needed help because her and a few other people were putting stuff in a moving truck, and she actually said yes! So we helped her out that night for a bit by moving stuff in and out of the truck (they were looking for the truck key), and moving stuff around in her garage. As we were leaving we gave her our number in case she needed more help, and then later in the week she called back! So we got the chance to go over and help her sort through what she wanted to keep and what she wanted to throw away from her garage for the move. It was a lot of fun!

Then later in the week we got to go over to a member's house and do some service for them. He owns a tree plantation, so we got to dig some holes for trees, then attach some drippers on drip lines, and then actually plant some trees! It was a lot of fun as well! Cause I really love doing service!

Other than that not much happened this week except the stake had a blood drive which Elder Stevens donated blood at. I ended up helping out at the refreshment booth where all the people went after giving blood to make sure they were ok. One person actually did end up passing out and the people in charge came over and helped her get back to consciousness. So that was pretty exciting.

But over all it was a very service filled week. Which are always good weeks! One of my favorite characters in the Book of Mormon is King Benjamin, and at one part of his sermon to the people he says, talking about service, "Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the service of God. And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another? (Mosiah 2:16-18)" And I really like that because here he is, a king over the people, and yet he says that he tried his best to always serve them. And if him, the king, is in service, then the rest of us should be as well. And that is true, we should all be looking for the chance to extend a helping hand to our fellowman.

Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Wixom