Week 7

Whatuppp 

Another week, nice.  We had zone conference this week which was wild, we heard the testimonies of the departing missionaries.  That was weird.  Each day is a day long but looking back it seems like the time flies, which is strange being at the beginning of my mission.

This week was cool, we got to know a lot of cool members, and hangout with the other missionaries in our zone.  Saturday morning we played whackoball, which is baseball with a tennis racket and ball.  We helped a member build a bird cage, we helped him bottle his fish to hand out while he's on vacation, and he let me play his guitar which was WAY nice, I missed it.  We went to dinner with a member and a less active friend to Fuddruckers, which is a dope burger place.  It was way good, I had a bacon burger with a fried egg on it.  That is how all burgers should be.  That member is way into game hunting, and his house has a ton of taxidermy, including mountain lions, gazelles, water buffalo, grizzly bears, and he had some elephant tusks in his living room.  They're DNA imprinted or something so they're illegal to sell or to even leave his house.  He's hunted everywhere from Alaska to Africa to Australia, even in the Himalayas.  He has a wearhouse with over 500 mounts and a full elephant is being sent in from South Africa.  That was cool member visit.  I ate way good Mexican food twice this week, once at a local taqueria and another at a taco truck.  They didnt speak English so you know that food was good.  There's so many fruit stands and flea markets around here, but it's cheaper than lots of other places.  My companion and I ride our bikes everywhere, it gets way hot but we're so close to sea level I never get sunburned.

This week, in preparation for fast Sunday, I studied a lot about the natural man and our reliance on our Savior and His atonement for more than just sin.  We learn from Paul that the carnal man can be overcome, the carnal man meaning natural impulses.  In Elder Bednar's talk We Believe in Being Chaste, he testifies that, "[e]very appetite, desire, propensity, and impulse of the natural man may be overcome" through Christ.  If our faith is sufficient, we could spiritually overcome the human need of eating, if it be God's will.  While the fast offered isn't much, it's still a strong form of worship, it draws the Spirit immensely, and the sacrifice is great in God's eyes.  I'm so thankful for the opportunity to fast and to rely more heavily on our Savior.  I love and miss you all and hope to hear from you, thank you for your motivating emails and your prayers. 

Love

Elder Gneiting