Hello family and friends! This week I actually kept a list of things I wanted to talk about this week so this e-mail will actually have some substance!
First off, remember last week when I talked about rain? Well later that day the rain turned to snow and later that week the snow turned to freezing rain. Last year Utah got some freezing rain but not like here. The rain froze to the ground when it hit and we literally got a 1/4 of an inch of ice over everything. As a result of this, Guilford County (county I'm in right now) went into a state of emergency. This was a legitimate natural disaster! The ice weighed down several trees and powerlines, and the roads were a mess (even for us practiced Utah drivers). All in all 80% of High Point lost power, from homes to businesses to street lights. Several cities around had similar problems, but I have to stay in High Point therefore only really care about High Point right now. Off subject, what do you do if the street light isn't working? Treat it like a 4-way stop, right? Could someone please tell that to EVERYONE IN NC? Anyway, so this was a big deal, and there are people still without power and hot water. Just before anyone freaks out though, us missionaries are all safe. We never lost power at all, and those in other areas who did only lost it for a short amount of time. We're all safe, warm, and fed. Although it doesn't really matter because the snow/ice is already all gone with temperatures back into the 70's the second the storm left. Yay for NC weather. We didn't teach a ton of people while this all went down, because a lot of people left because they don't have power. So a lot of our appointments fell through, but we did make a lot of calls. Especially while we were home-ridden while it was all coming down. Still haven't heard anything from Maurice. Everyone else seems to be fine, but we haven't had a lot of contact with people. This week will be better though!
Even though we didn't do a lot of teaching, we had lots of opportunities for service. Mainly cutting up trees that fell down. We helped this one guy who is neighbors to a member, his name is Tom. His tree split in to three pieces, one blocking the way into the backyard on the side of the house, one hit his house and the back porch (but luckily no damage), and the other is still standing. We cut it up and cleaned it all out in about 2 hours, and it was a big tree. Many hands make light work, and even though there were only the 4 of us I'm sure the Lord had a few hands helping us for providing service.
The 40-day fast ended on the 6th. Next day cracked open a root beer. It was delicious. I didn't think it would be that hard, but it was. Although I'm drinking soda again it was good practice making sacrifices and resisting those temptations. I probably would've had a more spiritual experience if I hadn't only focused on giving up temporal things, but I still learned something from it.
I have a joke! The 2nd counselor of the bishopric told this one to us. So back in the times of the Spanish Inquisitions, part of the job was to get all the Jews out of the land. Because both parties are God loving people they didn't use force but first decided to debate the issue. However, the Catholic Priest only spoke Spanish and the Jewish Rabbi only spoke Hebrew. But they did the debate anyway, with hand signals and objects to make they're point. So the debate starts and the priest starts by holding up 3 fingers. The rabbi holds up 1. the priest waves his arm above his head, the rabbi points at the ground he's standing on. The priest brings out some bread and wine, the rabbi pulls out an apple. The priest gives up and says, "that's it, the debate is over. They won, they're staying here". The congregation goes wild. How? What did he say? So he tells them, "well, I first started explaining the trinity and he responded by saying there is still only one god we all worship. I then tried explaining that God is all around us, and he said that God resides within each of us. I then pulled out the bread and the wine to talk about Christ's sacrifice for us, then he pulled out the apple saying we're all accountable for the sin adam and eve made in the garden. The Rabbi was also talking to his congregation. Well what happened? They said. He told them, "well he said you've got 3 days to get outta here. I said ain't one of us is leaving! He then said ALL of you gotta clear out of here, and I said no, we're staying right here! Well then what happened? They asked. I'm not sure, he pulled out his lunch and I pulled out mine.
Haha! Funny!
So because it's been 3 months of my mission offficially, my testimony for this month can really be summed up in one scripture. 2Nephi 7:8 "And the Lord is near, and he justifieth me. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is mine advesary? Let him come near me, and I will smite him with the strength of my mouth."
This is the scripture I chose because of what happened with this storm, and what I've been learning about Christ like attributes. All those members who were fortunate enough to retain power reached out and helped all those who weren't. There were families sleeping over, eating, and showering at these homes and all was done with the brotherly kindness that should be had in a ward family. And even though we didn't lose power, a lot of people were checking up on us and were making sure we were okay. All in all it struck a note in my mind that when the devil sends bad things our way, or even if God sends things our way to test our faith, we all need to stand together. It doesn't even need to be exclusive to church members. We can stand together as neighbors and communities, too. There truly is strength in numbers, as I said about many hands helping Tom. We do not have to go through trials alone, there is always help available. Even if we feel we are alone, God will not forsake us! I know that that is true!
I love you all,
-Elder Matthew Gardner
