Lawn Mowing

It's been a while since I last cut some grass, so we took the opportunity to do so this week! We knocked on a lady's door who is of the Bahai faith (they believe all religions are true?), and she was surprised when we offered to help her with anything. She was just about to mow the lawn, so after convincing her we weren't kidding and that we were fully serious about providing service, we drove home, changed, came back, and mowed her lawn. We got some free sandwiches out of it. We also contacted a recent convert who we hadn't seen in a bit, and she needed some lawn mowing so we mowed hers too! That lawn was crazy though, we had to empty the catcher on the mower probably every minute... the grass was pretty thick and overgrown. It was nice seeing the finished result though.

I also got to go on tradeoffs with Elder Troff, or, Grandmaster Troff. He's an elder serving in Windaroo (my old area), and he's obtained the title of Chess World Champion for the under 14's age group or something, and his chess title is Grandmaster, which I think is pretty cool. It was a fun tradeoff though, got to see old friends and have dinner with a family that I used to know pretty well.

Investigator-wise, we're doing good. One of our investigators is going through a bit of a tough time though. He sees the good in the church and the blessings it's brought into the lives of those around him, but his wife is upset that he's meeting with us. It's kinda sad that he's got to somehow work through this predicament, but at the same time it's shown us that he really is interested. The fact that he's worried so much about his wife not wanting him to meet with us yet he still really wants to, and the fact that he's so torn between the two sides, shows us that this whole time he really has been very interested to learn more, and he sees something in the gospel that he really wants. Anyways, we also met another investigator for the first time, apparently she's a pro tennis player and travels a lot for it, which makes it kinda hard to have lessons consistently, but she's also pretty interested at the moment, which is cool. Realising that she's travelling the world for tennis, and that the other elder has travelled the world for chess, and their both younger than me, has made me realise that I need to become pro at something soon so I can start travelling the world too. Maybe I'll be a pro lawn-mower, I think I'm off to a great start.

Well, my spiritual thought for today will be on faith. I studied it a bit recently, and one thing that I found interesting is how Christ says that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. How can faith so small move a mountain? It's not the quantity of faith that matters, but the quality of faith. When your faith is more like a demonstrative, public type of faith, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the greatest type of faith. Just because we're popular and well known for our beliefs, like some sort of preacher, or "ranked high" in some sort of church, it doesn't necessarily mean that we have this type of faith Christ is talking about. Quality faith may be small, but it's sincere, it's hopeful, it has true intent, and it's firm. That's the faith that brings miracles. Elder M Russel Ballard compared it to an anchor. There are anchors that are massive, bigger than us, with huge, solid chain links connecting it to the ship. But in comparison to the ship that uses it, it's small, almost nothing. Yet this anchor, that is miniature in comparison to the ship, manages to hold it in place in the worst of storms. And that is what this "quality" faith, even the size of a mustard seed, can do for us.

Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho