Thursday, November 29, 2012

Patience

He should be here in... I'd say half an hour..
Who? WHO?! I'd like to know who!!
I told you Archimedes I am not sure... He'll be a... a boy, smaaaaaal
boy, eleven, twelve years old... Oh no no no that can't be the one!
Surely that fella must be nineteen or twenty! ... There! Yeah, there
he is! Hehe, a scrawny little boy round twelve! Yeaaah he's a regular
little grasshopper.."
And where, where are you guessing he'll be at this very moment?
I am not guessing Archimedes I KNOW, where he is... Uhh.. about a mile
from here, just beyond the forest. Right on schedule... If all goes
well"

-Fast forward a bit-

Well! -cough cough- you did decide to drop in after all didn't you?
Oh... Oh you are a bit late, you know...


Hey howdy hey everybody! It's been a few weeks hasn't it? Sorry about
that, we had some extentuating circumstances here... The North
attempted to invade but we held them off easily. No big deal...

Actually I probably better not joke about that, that is still entirely
possible. Anyways, how's everyone doing? It has been an interesting
few weeks for me. This quote is actually a very rough one...I'm sure
there are lots of messups.. My movie memory is starting to fade on
me... Sad sad day. But the reason for this one is interesting. I don't
know how many of you actually recognize the movies that I quote, but I
usually explain clearly the reasons I picked them. This one is going
to be the reverse. The movie is Sword in the Stone, but the connection
is one that some may know and others may not, and I will not be
explaining in depth. I picked this one just to show that even though
Merlin knew what was going to happen, sometimes things are thrown a
little out of whack. They don't happen as we exactly expect them to,
or when they do happen they still shock us. I'll just say that the
second option happened to me in the past couple weeks. And Yeah! Hope
you understood that one!


This one I will keep short. We had a great time learning to make
kimchi and celebrating the 50th anniversary of the church in the
country of Korea. I personally love kimchi now, but after making it
for about 6 hours solid... Let's just say I'm eating it in very small
doses now. It was a blast.


I wish I could report that we are teaching tons of people and that
there are many stories of people being baptized, but I'm afraid right
now the Lord is teaching me many lessons in patience. I chanced upon a
very curious scripture that I have never remembered reading when I was
studying patience. James 5:10 and for convenience I will quote it
right here. "Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the
name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of
patience." I have never heard this one. I have heard many many
differing scriptures regarding the heavenly attribute of patience, but
I do not think this has ever before crossed my path. The beautiful
simplicity of it is so incredibly to me. Take the prophets for an
example of patience. My study here has often brought me to the life of
Joseph Smith, and over and over again I am in awe of the incredible
patience of this man. None of us can of course count the number of
times we've heard the stories of his sufferings and trials and I think
that because of that we are slightly desensitized by the true horrors
that this man faced throughout his life. Serious horrors. I will not
disturb the Spirit by mentioning them individually, but it shows both
the incredible patience of the man Joseph and, to me, illustrates the
incredible comfort and love our Father in Heaven offers us in times of
strife and turmoil.


Brothers and Sisters, God lives. I hope none of us
will ever become desensitized to the incredible feeling the words
bring as we say them out loud. I know that God lives. I know it. I
know it. I know, with all the resoluteness of my soul, that God lives.
He lives. But I think more important than that is the knowledge that
He loves us. Roughly quoting from anothers words, The paradox of man
is that compared to God we are nothing, but we are everything to God.
He lives, He loves you. I testify that regardless of how difficult you
think the problem you're facing is, God is there. Remember and look to
Christ and to the prophets to how we can grow so much closer to God
during moments of extreme trail.


Good Luck, God Bless, and God Speed,

Elder Annen

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