Dearest People who I love the most in the whole world,
Elder Cook came and spoke in a special stake conference today! Stake conference was great, the first speaker talked about temples, then the second speaker talked about temples, then we sang “Guide us oh thou great Jehovah” which is always fun, then Elder Cook got up and talked about….well I had a thought in my head at this point, and I tried really hard, but I couldn’t get rid of it, so I honestly don’t know what he talked about. 🙂 My bad. But the meeting was great and I got some new goals. I have been trying to figure out how I am going to be able to keep going to the temple every week when it took six hours out of my day yesterday and gas is a lot of money. But today I realized that I need to learn how to do family history work and how that is temple work too, so I will likely be calling some of you experts soon as I learn how to do it on weekends when I can’t drive down to Denver.
After the meeting, I went for a walk and just thought about how blessed I am. Sometimes I don’t have the nicest things, and I worry about my truck falling apart or living in a ghetto apartment, and I realized on that walk that God probably has to withhold some physical aspects of my life because he blesses me soo much in other areas that it just wouldn’t be fair for me to be blessed with worldly things and spiritual things. I do consider each of you the greatest blessings in my life, and on top of that I still end up with great friends, educational opportunities, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s pretty neat.
I have been in Fort Collins for a few weeks now and I am already behind with school work. I spend close to twelve hours a day in my office doing homework. I do feel like I am learning a lot though, and I am full of excitement due to the overwhelming potential I feel here, both academically and spiritually. I do hope to grow a lot over the next few years.
I am also encouraged by the potential I feel for the social aspects here. I just need to be patient, I always expect friendships to come soo quickly. And I admit, now that Jason is married and Elder Ballard called me out for not being married while I was in D.C., I have been pretty apprehensive about moving out here without a spouse. But the Lord has shown me in a few different ways that he is still mindful of that goal in my life.
My ward is small, but strong. Missionary opportunities will be plentiful here. In fact, my students called me out as a ‘Mormon’ on the first day of class and most of my colleagues are aware of it too, so I have already had the chance to invite some of them to church events and I am sure a few of them will take me up on the opportunity soon. It is also exciting to be here now as they are working on the Fort Collins Temple. That will bring a lot of awareness in the community and I am sure the open house will be widely attended. I believe it is not going to be done until 2016, but hopefully before I leave.
Well, thanks for listening. You guys are soo cool. I hope you know I love you!