Entry Thirty: Where there’s fire, pour gasoline 💯

August 11, 2025

Entry Thirty: Where there’s fire, pour gasoline 💯

Hello again! How are you doing today? Hopefully, pretty good! I cannot believe it, but I’m already 6 months into the mission! I never want it to end to be perfectly honest. We are just getting started here, and there’s still so much in store. I mean c’mon, I haven’t even had grits yet 😭

There’s really no main story for this week, but a bunch of mini ones. Feel free to grab some popcorn, because there’s some wild events that took place this week:

1️⃣ To begin, we had the 127 yard sale in full swing this week (Also I was wrong last week, it only goes down to Georgia, not Florida). We decided to set up a booth, because why not. We didn’t meet too many people from around town, but it was a great opportunity to spread the word in general. We ended up giving out around 6 copies of the Book of Mormon, and the member that helped us with the booth kept howling 💀💀💀

Oh, I also ran into a youtube channel filming a trade up challenge. As soon as we started talking with one of the contestants, the cameraman turned to us like a dog when he hears there’s a treat. Sooooo, I’m gonna be featured… totally!

2️⃣ Elder Staker delegated me to run a district leader call this week so I can get some prep for when I inevitably am one. It went pretty well, but I had no preparation time and it was a little scuffed.

3️⃣ We gave a priesthood blessing in the Walmart parking lot… I didn’t know you could do that, but a member was desperate 😂

4️⃣ On a similar note, we got kicked out of our Walmart AGAIN 😡

It was literally so dumb, we were just talking with a couple folks inside the store, and an UNDERCOVER employee comes up to us and tells us we need to leave. But, it just sounds to me like Satan is afraid of us missionaries.

5️⃣ Last and probably least, I tried a cayenne pepper. For context, we were at a member’s house for dinner, and the husband was just casually eating them. He recommended it to us, and so I gave it a bite. It was really spicy, so I really only nibbled the end before eating some ice cream (that the member provided for desert). Elder Staker on the other hand, kept taking bite after bite to show me up, and I don’t know what came over me, but I just full sent it and shoved the whole pepper in my mouth. I ended up needing a LOT more ice cream to cool my mouth down 🤣

With a quarter of my mission already past, I’ve been thinking a lot about my personal development. I know the mission is inherently to serve others, but the prophets and apostles have promised us that as we serve diligently and labor with all our heart, might, mind, and strength, we ourselves will be changed to the very core. The essence of the mission is exactly what the Lord teaches Moroni in Ether 12:27.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m gonna turn out alright after the mission. It’s a very hard reality to grasp, but after the mission I’m still definitely gonna have flaws. I won’t have everything figured out. Heck, I might even fall back into some old bad habits that dragged me down before the mission. But I do know one thing: even though I’m imperfect, at the very least The Savior is perfect.

I was listening to Be Ye Therefore Perfect Eventually by Elder Holland (I’ll link it, it’s so good), and something he said stuck out to me a lot. To quote:

I am simply suggesting that at least one purpose of a scripture or a commandment can be to remind us just how magnificent “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” really is, inspiring in us greater love and admiration for Him and a greater desire to be like Him.

There is hope. Oh boy there is hope more than we can comprehend! I want to testify that Christ’s perfect grace can change us. Even if it doesn’t work out on our timescale it will work out in God’s, and thank goodness it will on His because His is a perfect one. Everything we struggle with can be made remedy through Christ. Turn to Him. Give him your broken heart and contrite spirit. Live like He did. Consecrate your will to His, and you will see miracles, not only in your own life, but in the lives of those you love. I testify of these things in His name, Jesus Christ, amen!

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