The Road Less Traveled

I tracted it.

Really.

I took a picture to prove it.

And it seems ironic that it's a week before I go home.

The road we take when we sign up for this deal is definitely one not often traveled.

We give up, sacrifice, consecrate all for a short time.

For what?

Faith is the power, love is the motive, obedience is the price, the Spirit is the key, the Restoration is the message, members are the means, Christ is the reason,
JOY IS THE REWARD.

I can testify that that is true.

It is the greatest reward we could ever hope for.

Nothing worth having is easy to obtain.

We struggle, but never in vain.
We, as imperfect human beings, will always fall short.

The saving grace, really, is grace.

When we fall we get up and we learn not to fall like that again.

It's not wrong to fall, it doesn't mean we're damned, it means that we have something to learn.
We always have something to learn.

The work is picking up here, which I am really grateful for.
I have been the recipient in past areas of missionaries' hard work, so it doesn't really bug me that it's happening right when I leave.

I want to leave good things here for the next people to work with.

Pay it forward.

We met a lady named Willow and she came to church and really liked it.

Good miracle.

I was out the other day helping a member with some yard work and making a dream come true. 

I got to chop things down in the woods with an axe. 

I had fun.

Actually mostly what I was chopping was ivy that was climbing up this tree.

I was supposed to cut through the vines and then pull them off.

Ivy is a tricky little bugger.

It grows up the tree and as it grows it attaches itself to the bark.
The longer it's there the harder it is to pull away because it entangles itself deeper and deeper.

I asked, wondering why we were cutting down the ivy, if the ivy kills the tree.

Well, no it doesn't.

So then I felt bad cutting away this ivy, but I kept doing it anyways cause that's what she wanted me to do.

But, of course, I thought about a cool gospel/obedience analogy.
We are told to bend our will to the Lord's.

Bending isn't enough.
We have to be the ivy that wraps and entangles and intertwines itself into the will of the Father.

We need to root ourselves in the tree of His will.

The longer we are there the harder it is to pull us away from it.

Except that unlike the ivy, when we attach ourselves to Him, we can draw on His strength, power, support, love, etc.

Obedience is the price, and true and perfect obedience is everything that we have and are.

We also might call that consecration.

I get to go to the temple this week and have my mini day of judgement.

I'm excited and nervous for the opportunity.

Consecration is the only surrender which is also a victory. [neal a maxwell]

I hope I can lay it before Him and know that it was enough.

Time goes so fast.

Appreciate every moment of every day.

As a friend recently told me in a letter,

"soak up the wa-tac sun caues that's the only place it shines."

The light of the gospel shines brighter than anything we could ever face, including rainy cloudy Washington.

Ironic, much, that this is where I am?

Definitely not.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

God bless.

chronister