Well the last couple days have been very interesting. I am getting a little taste of Logan's mission life or at least that transfer of it. Elder Webb is healing up from his Appendicitis from a week ago. He wants to go out but we are commanded to take it slowly by President Preston. He is looking ok and we walked the 20 mins here to the library this morning. But I have to tell him to slow down because he doesn't want to look weak. I was going to send you a picture of us, but I am pretty sure for some reason my Gigaware cord is broken now...sorry if it cost a lot =/. No more pictures for awhile. Wales is beautiful and the language is hilarious. Doesn't make any grammatical sense of ANY kind LL makes the flem sound.
This week we will probably take some planned walks so I can at least get to know our area and not just the way to the library and ASDA (Walmart owned UK store). But we have cleaned out one of the messiest area books I have seen. I threw away A LOT of junk and then have finished the New Testament again. I am now in the middle of my Backwards Book of Mormon reading verse by verse. It is really interesting. It cuts out a lot of the war stuff that I like, but it is helping point out other verses to me and it points out to me when I start spacing off because I have to finish a verse and skip up but sometimes I just keep reading. See it does work. Today what really stuck out to me was Mormon 9. All of it was good. But I really like Mormon 9:1-5, and 28.
28 Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.
It is sort of a rebuking scripture to me because I think I have gained a good chunk of Knowledge on my mission, but I do not think I have turned it into wisdom which is frustrating. The difference between knowledge and wisdom to me is that one can know a lot but still act like an imbecile (spell check corrected that and that is just a weird way to spell it!) but moving on...When one is wise he is able to take the knowledge he has gained and apply it positively, correctly, and continuously to each circumstance he finds himself in. That is why I think I am lacking in the Gift of Wisdom and why I think that gift is greater than the gift of knowledge...
It was sad to leave the Reynolds family and the rest in Ashton, but I found I already know a lot of people here in Wrexham just because they are family members to the people in Bolton and Ashton and President Preston himself.
Stake President, President Martin was here this weekend for Ward Conference and he taught the Priesthood lesson. I would say it resembled President Uchtdorf's talk about living below our standards and his last couple. Except President Martin took a little bit more bold approach with these brethren which he can do because of his relationship with each of them. He said that there were probably only 20 priesthood holders in the stake that would do anything that the bishops asked them to do. I started thinking of our own ward. How many are there that would do anything that the bishop asked, whether it was to teach primary or teach the High Priests? How many can be called on and counted on in a moments notice? Can you be called and relied upon to render the service required? Really what people are saying to the bishop when they say "No" to a calling is saying, "No, I don't sustain or support you. I don't believe that you are inspired in your decision making, and I will not do what the Lord has asked me to do to build up the kingdom at this crucial time." Have you ever wondered why very strong high priests end up teaching primary classes? Have you ever wondered why the strongest are not up front? Because one of the most stressful things for a Bishop is filling the callings that "no one wants to do". So he calls on the faithful, the humble, the willing, the submissive, the Mosiah 3:19s of the ward. He is confident that they can and will do it HAPPILY! What is the difference between Laman/Lemuel and Nephi. Not the fact that they didn't do it. They did everything Nephi did. But it was their attitude.
The Lord will not command us to come into the Celestial Kingdom if our heart is not desiring it and focused.
No, he has prepared a lower degree of glory for those whose hearts are aimed for a lower degree. So my challenge for all of you is to aim a little higher and steady your shot, so that when the captain calls 'Fire', you will hit what your heart desires.
(Yeah it rhymed...) It is that true.
I love you all!
Elder Blackburn
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