Love and Lessons

Go Texas!
I am loving it here. It simply feels like this is where I am supposed
to be. The people here are mostly nice, but every once in a while you
get some mean folks who won't let you say "good afternoon!" It isn't
the funniest of experiences to get a door slammed in your face or for
someone to yell "hail Satan!" As you walk down the street (which has
happened multiple times). But there has to be opposition in all
things. You can't expect every Apple to be a good one. However, it
does make it harder to love everyone, just as Christ did.
The more I think about the character of Christ, the more I realize
that how impossible his story is. There is simply no man that could
ever be perfect his whole life and love everyone enough that even when
they are driving nails into his body, that he could still feel
compassion towards them. There's no way any way a human could do that.
That doesn't testify near as much to the in existence of God as to the
divinity of Jesus Christ. There is no way that anyone can go through
life alone. They have to have a higher purpose, a place of respite for
them to reside. And for most people, even if they do not believe in a
god, they have a family. And there is something that I say a lot
nowadays, it is that families are central to the Heavenly Fathers plan
for us.
One great thing about families is that when they get together, usually
food is involved. I have eaten the most delicious food of my life here
in Bexar county, Texas. Honest to goodness, the Bishop of one of our
wards gave of grilled chicken, shrimp, pork, and steak in one sitting,
I ate one of everything and two pork steaks. The barbecue sauce was
absolutely heavenly. Honest to goodness, you could give me slabs of
pork for the rest of my life and I would be happier than a fat kid
with a coupon to the ice cream parlor. It was that good.
In addition to the meat fest, my companion from south of the border,
Elder Tovar, makes the most delicious Mexican food for lunch. Until
about two weeks ago, i could have cared less for spicy food. But Elder
Tovar has shown me the way of the cayenne and Cerrano pepper, and the
path is hot, and delicious.
This weeks email is going to be rather short, but that is a good thing
for me. It means that there are many people writing to me and that my
individual emails to them are taking a lot of time. Sharing the love
unfortunately means that not everyone receives equal portions , and if
they do, the portions are not as large, but I will figure out a system
eventually. But no matter what happens, just now that there is a
special place in my heart for all of you
Peace love and joy,
Elder Richard Hall