Won't You Take Me to Funky Town

ha Fort Worth is also known as funky town. I wonder if that's where that song came from...

 

I love it here in my new area! I'm already probably more used to it than any other of my areas in the first week! And that's because I have served with/around a lot of missionaries here! My companion is Elder Jensen who was my MTC companion, so we hit the ground running. Our District Leader, Elder Olvera was my companion about 6 months ago, so I know we can trust him. And all the other missionaries are really just fantastic!

 

Taken at face value, the ward here looks smaller and less established than the Arlington ward, but the area has tons of potential, and all of the members are supportive. We have a fantastic ward mission leader that has a lot of potential. The missionaries in this ward also seem to be ready to step up! Our area has a lot of people that are willing to act and soon many will be baptized!

 

There is one investigator we're working with the most. He is from Venezuela and his wife is a member, so he already knows quite a bit about the church. He knows it's a good church, but this week he got to learn more of the pure doctrines! He recently had a nephew pass away (about two weeks ago) and he has been worrying a lot about what is happening with him now. As he learned about the Plan of Salvation and especially that the gospel is preached to the imprisoned spirits in the Spirit World, he received a lot of comfort. Now he's looking forward to his baptism this month so he can go to the temple and give his dead family members a chance to accept God's ordinances and blessings!!! He said he could feel that.

 

I love how the gospel purifies and refines us! A scripture I found in a recent personal study explains this well. The previous verses were talking about the judgment that would come to the wicked in the last days; how they would be burned as stubble. Just swallowed up and devoured by the flames. Then verse 17 says about the righteous:

Wherefore, he will preserve the righteous by his power, even if it so be that the fulness of his wrath must come, and the righteous be preserved, even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire. Wherefore, the righteous need not fear; for thus saith the prophet, they shall be saved, even if it so be as by fire. (1 Nephi 22:17)

The lesson I get from this is that we must all pass through the fire. The wicked will be burned up as stubble and the righteous are refined. But the way this scripture says it is that the refiner's fire is the way the righteous will be saved. I am grateful that we can be proven by fire. We can prove what we are really made of because of what characteristics remain after a fiery trial.

 

I love you all! Until next week!

 

God Bless Texas! I am Elder Black. Thus I end mine epistle.