It's Cold!

We actually had a blue sky this week!

It has definitely been pretty cold this week! It was so cold that it even snowed last week! It never really snows here in the Valley, but on Thursday as I was up in Newberg for a conference that I was invited to, we got some snow! It was pretty crazy.

The week here has been pretty good. there have definitely been some slow days. We are trying to work hard and press forward. We know that if we do our part, then the Lord will do the rest. Our ward mission leader came up with a way that we can get the ward involved in the work though. We are inviting each member of the ward, ages 8 and older, to hand out 5 of the Light the World pass along cards! We are going around challenging families in the ward to do this and providing them with the cards. We really believe that this will lead to more people to teach, so we can't wait to see how it works out. Brother Graham, the WML, is awesome. He is really fired up about the work. I have been blessed with two really good Ward Mission Leaders. Definitely different personalities, but both focused on the same thing. Helping others find the happiness that comes from accepting Jesus Christ and living His gospel. On a side note, he handles the sale/shipping of Christmas trees all over the country, so he said that the Fry's Christmas trees down in AZ are the ones that he is sending down there. I thought that was pretty cool!

I read a scripture today, I think it is Acts 17:27, which talks about the Lord not being too far from us. Because we all have the Light of Christ, He truly isn't *that* far from us! It is just a matter of helping people to understand that! Regardless of where we are at in our lives, Christ isn't that far away. He is ready and waiting to pick us up and help us to move forward and do better, but it all comes down to recognizing that He is there and turning ourselves towards Him! I think distraction and deception are the two biggest ways that the adversary tries to not allow us to find joy through the divine nature of Christ. There is so much out there that keeps us from focusing on what truly matters in this life. The way that I have truly come to recognize us here in this Earthly life is that fact that we can only be going one of two ways. We are either making progress towards Christ, and moving towards His love and towards our Heavenly Father, or we are moving away from them. Complacency, or just moving through life with no real worries or cares, is really just moving further away from Christ. Luckily for us, His nature is one of eternal love and compassion. Regardless of where we are at, He is there to help us because He loves us, and His Heavenly Father, more than we can imagine. It is cool to think that no matter what, He will be there for us. He just wants us to be happy. It is cool to see that as people put Him more at the forefront of their lives, it increases their happiness and their entire lives.

I was able to go to a conference in Newberg this week, which was awesome. I really try and listen every time that President Tateoka speaks. He said some really cool things this week that helped a ton. We also had Brother Donaldson from the missionary department there training us. It was really cool. We have some really cool opportunities that are arising in ways that we can use technology to further the work! For example, we can now use Skype! It will be cool because it gives us an opportunity to make daily contact with the people that we are teaching. It is going to be interesting to see how it goes, but I am excited.

Our District