Its
been another monotonous but great week at the CCM! A lot has happened,
lots of cool stuff. Again, Ill start with the more spiritual stuff. So,
the jawbone of an ass. Dad, you might be familiar with the story of
Samson already, but I just read it. In Judges 13 to 16 there is a
Nazarite named Samson (look up what a Nazarite is, pretty cool, John the
Baptist was also one.). One thing a Nazarite vows to do and covenants
with God with is that he wont cut his hair, when he does, he loses the
power of the Spirit and of God, this is important so remember that.
Anyways, Samson is born and grows to be very strong in Spirit and in
body, in so much that in his teens, he kills a lion with his bare hands!
He also slays 1,000 Philistines with the Jawbone of an ass, that's where
that came from haha. Because of this, the Philistines kidnap his wife
and father and burn them. Because of this Samson starts slacking a
little bit and falls for Delilah (I'm not gonna explain what she does),
and Samson falls in love with her. However, Delilah had promised the
Philistines she would find his weakness, and she does, so the Phil. can
take him and kill him. Well, she cuts his hair and just like that,
Samson is taken and bound to these two pillars holding up a huge
building. There are 3,000 Phil. there to witness the death of their
enemy. Samson knew that because of his fall, so would his nation. But
without any strength he cant do anything, so he prays that God will give
him the power to collapse this building on these 3000 people. And that
he does as well as killing himself for his nation. Kinda an extreme
example, but what I got out of it besides wanting to grow my hair out
like Samson was this... All of us have our weak parts in Spirit, body,
mind, whatever, but we all need to be on the look out for things that
can harm us and need to fortify those weak areas as did Captain Moroni
to the land of Manti and other weak areas. There was another cool old
testament story I read this week, actually its just funny, so look it
up... 2 Kings 2:23,24. I guess its not funny, just crazy haha.
My
most spiritual experience this past week was easily last Wednesday. The
four of us in our dorm (Weaver, Dority, and Johnson) all shared our
conversion experiences and it was incredible. I love all those guys,
their great examples to me of doing whats right because they know its
right. I have also been reading "Jesus the Christ" by James Talmage, its
a really long book but it really fascinates me, it mostly talks about
the social, cultural, and religious practices of the Jews leading up to
Christs birth, that's where I'm at right now anyways. I have a whole new
respect for Mary, Christ earthly mother. What a great example she was of
following Gods commands and raising the Son of God despite all the
persecution he received as did their family most likely as well.
Also,
your fast was answered, Mom, about Elder Weaver picking up the
language. He finally has the desire to study the language and is slowly
learning little pieces of it, very little, but its still a lot more
progress than hes had the whole time here so that's good. We watched this
devotional by Elder Holland on Sunday about knowing in your heart what
you're teaching investigators before you start preaching. That really
hit him hard because he realized that there's no way he can teach
Peruvians without the language, even if he does have the Spirit with
him, the investigators need to know what you're saying. It was basically
a culmination of three of his previous conference talks, it was
awesome. I love it when Elder Holland yells at us missionaries. Speaking
of apostles, Neil L. Anderson is coming HERE on Saturday to speak to
us! I'm pretty excited, Presidente Pratt (CCM President) said hes going
to try and shake all of our hands and stuff. Pretty excited. But my
hopes of trading ties with him were dashed when Pres. Pratt said that
any missionary who asks him to trade ties will be shot. Dang. Oh well.
By the way, my ties are my pride and joy here, everyone wants to tie
trade with me. I literally had this Latino come up to me and start
taking me tie off haha. Good times, good times.
One
last spiritual thing, we watch a movie every Sunday night and their
really good. This week we watched 2 because they were both only about 45
minutes. The first was about John Tanner, Casey Tanners related to him,
who was very wealthy but had an awful cancer in his leg, he was a
baptist preacher if I remember right. Anyways, he went to a Mormon
meeting and was converted, but couldn't be baptized because of his
condition. But these 2 missionaries, in the name of Jesus Christ,
commanded him to walk. Instantly he was healed and demanded to be
baptized right then. He ended up paying the loan for the temple, without
him the temple property would have been lost. He gave his whole fortune
to the church and to God, over $50,000, at the end he and his family of
8 I believe had only $7.25 left. He gave everything, and when he was
called to go on a mission he left immediately. I was truly inspired by
his example of conversion.
The second movie was about Christs
atonement and such, I dont remember what its called but I know you've
seen it. There's one seen in it where Christ is in heaven after his
crucifixion and all the angels are singing and praising Christ and God.
Never have I felt so strongly that I will see Grandma Page and Grandma
Fran. I cant explain how I will see them, but I know I will. The
Atonement and judgement system of Christ is a miracle in every sense of
the word.
Some other cool things from this week...
I need to make this fast cause I'm running out of time...
I
met an AF runner, terrible person, just kidding he was really cool.
Elder Tyler Bell, he went to NXN, that's how we recognized each other,
well, maybe it was my DXC shirt, who knows.
Calder
Craven came in last week too, awesome having a good high school buddy
here, and Tom Moncur is coming in the day I leave I think, kinda bummed
about that, maybe Ill see him in the airport... don't worry I'm not
getting my hopes up haha.
Also, I met one of Drew's teammates, Elder Andrew Earl...I think.
I'm
also picking up tennis and cage soccer and handball, mucho mucho
divertido! especially with my zone. Oh, and lots of volleyball.
And
thanks for KRISPY KREMES!! PLEASE PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING! And other
good stuff. They send them from Mexico, so its really fast and
reliable.
Hopapotamus,
Thanks
for letting me know how old everyone is going to be when I get back,
time doesn't exist here in the CCM, weird huh? Its just one day that
never ends, its a good things its a good day though haha. Love ya much.
Soda pop,
So,
is Porky really dying? Poor thing. give her a treat for me por favor
and make Mom hold her. Please. Thanks for your letter, love ya.
Cowberry,
I
luv ur letters, they're so phunny! I love the mater pencil by the way,
also, good job on your missionary work! You are blessed with the
potential to help that family come back Christ. Thanks for your example.
Love ya.
Nickelope!
Hopefully
everything is still going hammish and or geddish for you. Thanks for
your example as well. You're in my thoughts and prayers (everyone is) but
I love ya bro ham. Just remember one thing... In the time of
chimpanzees I was monkey so go shave your face with some mace in the
dark. But please don't go burning down a trailer park.
Mom and Dad,
This
week has been great as you already know, crazy I'm halfway done with the
CCM, pretty exciting. Thought Id wish Dad good luck on his competition,
hope ya win. Also Mom, I haven't needed the net, there's not really any mosquitoes. The probiotics work but that doesn't stop the wrath of
lunch lady land in the CCM. And I'm also not homesick, Its like I'm on an
island in the sun. hip hip. The things i do miss ,however, are the
mountains and my music, as I'm sure you can tell. Ive had Beverly Hills
by Weezer stuck in my head for the past 3, 4 days because that where I
want to be. haha. I'm so witty.
Anyways, love ya much!
Con amar,
Elder Potter
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