Conferência de zona (2/22/21)

My finger after digging
little holes with a spoon
to plant plants

We had a good week this last week. We are still working out on the farm, and it's always a good time there. We will go and eat this broccoli stuff that has yellow flowers on it. It's really good haha. I also learned how to throw on a clay wheel with pottery. Kinda cool. My first attempt was quite, well, not good hahaha. I was comparing myself to my companion who is crazy gifted in the artistic sense. He is really amazing with anything art related. 

the clay

We had a nice zone conference in the which we talked about the wonderful Plan of Salvation. I enjoy when it is called the Plan of Happiness because it has brought me so much happiness and peace, and it will bring you these feelings too if you prayerfully ponder and study it. Ask God to reveal these things to you also, and you will receive. 

Here's something I was thinking about--rather random but here it is: Sins = parasites. In Mosiah 4:10, I don't know why the word "forsake" stood out to me so much in this specific verse. I have read the word forsake in so many other contexts and it means the same thing, but in this verse I think I was ready enough and willing enough to receive and God pointed it out. As Peter taught in Acts 2:37, I was "pricked in [my] heart." So long story short, a synonym of forsake is abandon, so leave those sins high and dry on the side of the road and never go back to them. I then had the same thing happen as earlier--I was pricked in my heart again. In Mosiah 6 verse 2 it says, "there was not one soul... but who had entered into the covenant and had taken upon them the name of Christ." I went straight to the sacrament prayers in Moroni 4 and 5. Every single week we do this; we witness to God that we are willing to take Jesus' name upon us, to put His name in our hearts, and to keep His commandments. It's wonderful that we can do this every week. I had a nice experience on Sunday as I fasted, and it felt like a sunrise--a rather slow and gradual increase of light, and then after a while you are squinting because it's noon day and bright. That's how I felt at the end of my fast. It was truly a wonderful experience and I would recommend every single one of you do a nice fast in 2 weeks. It'll bless your life. Without a doubt. 

A breakfast of champions
(I had chocolate chips
inside the Eggos)

Last week we had some elders spend the night because they needed to get their car from the shop, but the insurance check wasn't sent to the shop... oops. So we drove them around Gainesville from our house to the dealership to the campus to their house to our house to basically the whole world. Kinda frustrating, but what do you do? 

We had some more wonderful times building the house, putting up drywall and mudding and putting up siding and it's a good time. I have learned the truthfulness of my dad's saying, "Son, this is why we go to college." Yes. I don't want to put up drywall and siding for the rest of my life. There's nothing wrong with that career, but I personally would not enjoy. Good skill to have though. 

Our whisk broke haha

A big oops we had was we got some chicken from somebody in a container and we brought it home. I actually didn't know we had received chicken until I discovered it, 98% covered in mold, sitting on our counter. Quite the shock; it was rather warm too. Kinda scary but kinda cool. I am grateful for refrigerators and freezers. 

We also went to do some service at this lady's house and she was super cool. She showed us around her orchard, and I learned that there are more than one type of mint. We were weeding and there's like a chocolate mint or something. Smells amazing haha. But that's not the point. She is from ____________(the place with the boat on top of the buildings) [I had to look this up; it's Singapore] and she said that papaya grow there like crazy. They are everywhere. So she and her husband made a huge greenhouse and have a bunch of papaya trees! It was super crazy humid in there, and it felt so nice. It was like being in Brazil but with papaya instead of mangos.

Can you spot how much sugar is in this
lemonade... hehehe