Well, here goes nothing

     So I'm new to this whole blog thing and for the most part, this blog will be filled with my letters and emails to home from California but I figured until then, this could kind of be like a journal. And maybe that's what a blog is supposed to be. Or more like a diary, everyone reads other peoples' diaries, no one reads journals... except maybe doctors reading journals of other doctors... and those aren't the kind of journals I'm referring to anyway... but that's beside the point. Aaaaand we're focusing again.

     So yesterday I went to six hours of church. Six. Needless to say, I was a little exhausted by the end of the day. The reason was I had my own church from 9-Noon then I traveled on down to Rock Island for my friend Sam's farewell at 1:00 which is another three hours of church. It was great hearing Sam's testimony and the love he had for everyone in his ward. I also was blessed to be there for Sam's last Gospel Doctrine class that he taught. After hearing his testimony and watching him teach, I had no doubt that he was ready to serve a mission and that he was going to be a great missionary.

     It did, however, bring to attention how far I have yet to come before I feel like I could be ready. Thanks to his example, I know have a kick in the butt to get going on my mission preparations. Just today I read five chapters in the Book of Mormon in English (which doesn't seem like much, but it's more than I usually do), I listened and read along with the Book of Mormon on CD in Spanish for five chapters (again, doesn't seem too much, but trust me, five chapters in the Book of Mormon in another language takes a good, long time. 45 minutes to be precise.), I reviewed my purpose as a missionary that I'm supposed to memorize: "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." I memorized it in Spanish too: "Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo a fin de que reciban el Evangelio restaurado mediante la fe en Jesucristo y Su expiación, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, la recepción del don del Espíritu Snato y el perseverar hasta el fin." (Well, okay, I really need to work on the Spanish one... but for the most part I got it.) And I memorized the first three verses of D&C 4: "Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men. Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;" 

So basically I'm on fire today and the flame is going to burn strong... hopefully... because I've still got a long way to go. Buuut I think that's all. Ta ta.