Joke's On Me (08/25/2014)

What an eventful week full of travelling and attending meetings. The four of us drove down to Wichita Falls, Texas for our Specialized Training and Zone P-day. For dinner we ate at none other than Texas Roadhouse! How appropriate for the Burkburnett, Texas zone. Apparently it's a tradition to eat there on Zone P-days. We stayed the night over at the Wichita Falls elders' apartment complex, where three sets of missionaries reside! It was a slumber party, to say the least. Don't worry, we still went to bed at 10:30! 

And the whole reason for the sleepover was for our DLC (District Leader Council) Tuesday morning with the zone leaders. We normally do these over the phone since we're all so spread out, but President Walkenhorst let us stay the night and do an in-person DLC Tuesdaymorning. After a very informative and spiritual discussion, we left for "home" in Altus. 

Wednesday the 20th we helped Sister Thomas once again with painting and moving. Her house is going to look like one big tub of mint ice cream when all her walls are finished being painted mint-green. Later on that night we ran into some trouble... The dolly we used to help move her stuff got stolen. Elder Wilkes left it in her backyard...but it wasn't his fault, at least. 

Thursday was interesting. The APs called to inform us that an inactive member from Hollis found the Elk City elders and asked them where the closest church was to them. After talking with the APs for a little bit I decided to play a little joke on the other three elders. I told them that the APs called me to inform me that I would be training a new missionary coming out of the MTC next transfer! Without any intention of it happening, one elder had a devastated look on his face. A couple days later I come to find out he felt like the mission president had forgotten him and that he was destined to be "banished" his whole mission and never have leadership opportunities. For a slightly competitive elder like him, it led to some emotional grief for him. Fortunately the elder and I are buddies, so it's all good :) That night at the member's house we had cheesy potato soup for dinner, and whoever had the "magic bean" got a surprise! And guess who got the bean?? I did. The surprise? DISHES. The members had me do the dishes after dinner! So now the joke's on me....oh well. Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure.

Sunday we got to go to Lawton for a priesthood meeting with all the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood holders in the stake. There were some very good talks given from stake and ward members about exercising our priesthood and using its power righteously. Lately I've been reading in Alma about Nehor and Amlici and their persecutions towards the people that were part of the church. It was interesting to me how all the church members came together. It talks about in verse 26 of chapter 1 that the preacher was no better than the hearer, and the teacher was no better than the learner, and they esteemed one another as their brethren. I love that scripture! No matter what role you have, you're important! Everyone has their role in spreading the gospel, and it's all part of the mosaic of the Lord's work. Next week should be exciting. I am graced with the opportunity to go up to Oklahoma City for--you guessed it--more meetings! Read about it next week!

Elder Garner  

(With apologies from the proprietor of this blog for posting late: the school year began a week ago.)