When it's Studytime Down South

Perhaps one of the most gratifying and pleasant parts of my day are
the mornings, where after a good workout and breakfast I get to study
the scriptures by myself for a whole hour. Just think about the
wonders and knowledge you can receive by setting apart one hour of
your day to simply reading and taking notes from the Word of God. Only
on a mission of the lord do you have this opportunity given to you so
easily.
I wanted to share an exert from a recent study. In fact, much of the
time I laughed during this study.

"I think the greatest lesson I earned from this comparison is how
close pride and humility are together. The only thing that separates
the two is where the glory goes to. However, that one degree of
difference sends the paths of the two traits far, far apart. Pride
could generate from something as simple as getting the two greatest
commandments in the wrong order,  as explained in Lynn G. Robbins'
"Which Way do You  Face?" (October 2014) Or, it could stem from simple
competition. In Preach My Gospel is simply states, "Pride is
competitive." (121) No matter what pride originates from, it can be
simply changed by realizing that your will is not to be done, but the
Lord's. Though simple, it certainly is hard if one is caught in the
tight-fitting robes of pride.
So many times the Lord begs us to "beware of pride" in Doctrine and
Covenants. In the Book of Mormon as well as the Bible pride is pointed
out as the downfall of the righteous saints, the crux of our cycle of
obedience. If it is so apparent that ours and others' path to
salvation is so bent around pride, then why don't we recognize it more
often? Why do we not realize that pride lingers in many of the things
we claim to be trivial? and why don't we change our ways to combat
pride? Because that goes against the very nature of pride. To repent
of even the smallest amount of pride we must need the power of the
atonement to humble ourselves. But pure humility, understood and acted
out, is so beautifully joyous that little will bring greater happiness
in our lives.
That is one of the many reasons people who talk with missionaries and
act upon their invitations are so happy. They are using their agency
to be humbled, to repent, which is something so few are willing to do.
It is probably why our joy will be so great with them in the Kingdom
of our Father. (D&C 18:15) "

I just thought you'd enjoy it. I do.

The work has been exploding in our area. My faithful companion Elder
Hill and I are putting our shoulder to the will and pushing along.
Both part member families that we have been working closely with, the
Millers and the Gidishes, were at church this week, and have committed
to attending weekly. This would be a wonderful boost to the ward if
both families fully joined the church. That would be 9 new members!
That's wild.I think that the Millers are very close, but the Gidishes
need some more time. Still, it's crazy to think that the Gidishes are
attending church as a family. The first time I met Rebecca, the
nonmember wife was cranky and told us to come by when she wasn't
there. But last week she invited us to dinner and we talked about the
church for an hour. To me, it is a powerful testament that all hearts
can change.

And to top it off, we have begun working with 2 less active part
member couples in the other ward. Both of them are in the same
position- the member husband knows the church is true, but has gotten
out of the habit of coming to church, and it is affecting the progress
of the nonmember wife. My hope is that both families begin to read
from the Book of Mormon and make the decision to start coming to
church. As I missionary, we have been doing the best we can to gather
them back into the fold.

On Wednesday, I was sweating a storm biking between appointments and
meetings, but on Saturday it got cold. It wouldn't have been so bad,
but the wind cut straight through me on the bike! Apparently the gusts
got up to 45 mph. And honestly, I could feel it on the bike. Then,
Sunday morning, some Elders knocked on our door. When I opened it, I
got slapped in the face with the cold. Personally, I'm shocked. I
honestly thought that I escaped the cold by coming to Texas, but no!
Today isn't that bad. In truth, it feels like a nice September day in
Jerome. The only difference is that Thanksgiving is in 3 days.

We are moving into our proselyting area! It' be great. We get to cut
about 3 miles a day off of biking by moving to our new apartment. As
well as saving time on bikes, we also don't have to cross the
interstate anymore to get into our area.

If I can leave you with anything, it is that the power of prayer is
real as we remain faithful. Recognize that "remaining faithful" does
not mean "hanging in there until everything works out" As much as
faith is a belief, it is an action. Acting upon faith is simply faith
itself. One of my favorite scriptures comes from Peter, I may have
said it before. "the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of Gold that perisheth... might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" Indeed, our faith is more
precious than one can believe, and God loves us more than we can
imagine.

Elder Richard Hall