No Coincidences

 Saturday 8-10

Today was actually really good, which is not what I was expecting because we didn't go to the temple today. So originally I thought it was going to be less spiritual but man was I wrong. We had our language class for three hours. At one of the sections we went to a different floor to look at a massive picture of Alma the younger praying in the woods, seeking knowledge from God. We all shared different scriptures about the power of prayer and it was a super cool experience. But it gets even better! Elder Michaud has been pretty homesick since we got here and he's been praying nightly for comfort but hasn't got anything yet. He was feeling alone and kind of abandoned, but as we were walking back from class he noticed a picture hung on the wall of two sister missionaries teaching a girl in the street. This street just happened to be his neighborhood back home. Not only that, but one of the sister missionaries' tag said "Sister Michaud." As he was sharing about how that picture spoke to him, making him feel so close to home, I was over on the other side crying it up, haha. Actually, the whole room was. Elder Kurzowski commented, "That picture has been up in this building for years, but the whole purpose of it was just for you Elder Michaud" isn't that crazy? With the Lord there are no coincidences. Heavenly Father knew that Elder Michaud would need this picture for comfort. I just can't get over what a crazy miracle that was! It literally says his last name in the picture of his neighborhood back home, what are the chances of that happening. (Especially with an uncommon name such as Michaud.) So long story short, God loves and knows each and every one of us personally, He is here for us every step of the way. Later in the day we played some more volleyball which was definitely a need. I act so weird during volleyball though, I'm just trying to release all my built up energy.

(Some scriptures talking about prayer)

1 Nephi 15:11 /2 Nephi 32:8-9/Enos 1:4-8/ Mosiah 27:14/Alma 37:36/ 3 Nephi 18:18-20/Mormon 2:2/Moroni 10:3-6

Sunday 8-11

Like every other week, Sunday is my favorite! It's just so spiritually packed and I always feel on top of the world afterwards. We started it off with my Branch Council meeting where I had the impression that we can't just be disciples of Christ when we're out preaching, we have to change our entire character to be a disciple of Jesus Christ at all times, not only when people are watching. The only way I can think of accomplishing this is to honor the names I wear on my chest; Jesus Christ, the church, and my family. Also, during the Go and Do experience I focused on how Christ's Atonement helps us in our life. I have almost 15 different Book of Mormon references talking about how only through Jesus we are saved. How His Atonement gives us strength and the power that heals our souls when we do things that are wrong. What's crazy is there's a ton more scripture left to study! I'm just scratching the surface. Then some more things happened that were awesome but 1, I'm short on time and 2, this is already so long haha. So, I'll just jump to the Devo; my trio actually went to the wrong devo (the one for newer missionaries) so we actually already knew everything that they were going to teach and talk about. Nonetheless, we were able to get so much out of it! Elder Holland was quoted a lot with his talk, "The First Great Commandment" which is actually amazing. This time Elder Holland quoting Jesus stuck out to me, "Peter, do you love me more than these?" ("these"=fishing=worldly things) It got me thinking what are some activities or characteristics that I can give up to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ. So that's what I shared about in our district review of the devotional. It was super cool because even though the rest of the district went to a different devo our comments meshed so well together. It is always so enjoyable to have those devotional reviews, some districts mess around while we are having ours but it's always like we have a spiritual bubble around us. We just lock in, in other words. We also always sing hymn 1004 "I Will Walk With Jesus" such a good one. Elder Chevrier says it's our "district anthem."

(Scriptures about The Atonement/His Love)

2 Nephi 2:6-8/ 2 Nephi 4:16-35(mainly verses 20-21/ 2 Nephi 9:21-23/2 Nephi 25:23, 26-27/              Enos 1:4-8/Mosiah 3:5-13;17-20/Alma 7:11-13/Alma 11:40/Alma 34:8-10/Helaman 5:12/ Ether 12:26-27/ Moroni 7:27-29

Monday 8-12

Not much to this day other than when we were playing volleyball we crushed the Thai district. It was actually a really fun and good game. One of the guys asked me what I was going to do after the mission and I said "I don't know for sure but maybe look into the air force academy" which by coincidence he just came from there (pssst trick statement, like I said before there are no coincidences) anyway so he gave me the scoop on all that and honestly it got me thinking a bit more about it. But. . . . I still don't know for sure haha but no worries because I've got time to ponder and seek answers through the Lord. I also ate like 6 zucchini banana bread muffins. So good, they were homemade from one of the Korean speaking Elders' mom.

Tuesday 8-13

I WAS FED SPIRITUALLY AND PHYSICALLY SO MUCH TODAY!!!

Okay so we had Elder Bednar come and give our devotional tonight. I got to hug him!!! JK, JK, but I wish I could've! I could just feel the absolute love that he has for me and everyone else there in the room (roughly 2500) oh and for everyone else in the world too. He focused his whole talk on the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon. He talked about how he wrote a text book with one of his colleagues that has 600 ish pages (very close to The Book of Mormon) and it took him two years with the help of many fact checkers and editors to check spelling and other gramatical errors. Even after it was published he was flipping through the book and found some errors wondering how they were missed when they had so many people double checking the work. Elder Bednar did this after he went to different universities for 8 years and received his PHD. He then reminds us The Book of Mormon was written in 60-90 days, with Joseph Smith being only 23, and not being able to "write a coherent letter."

Anyway Elder Bednar was getting fired up about it haha, although the most important thing he said to us was that all these facts mean nothing if you don't read and gain a testimony of your own. I'm just amazed at the complexity of this Book. I can testify from personal spiritual experiences and with these physical facts that The Book of Mormon is an ancient record of people in the Americas. It was translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith through the power of God. ah I just can't express how much I love the gospel! okay now, for the food I ate tonight. Elder Eav gave me two, like 6 inch long rice wrapped banana thingys. They were so goooood! So it was the banana, then purple rice all around it(almost like a roll of sushi just not cut up into pieces) and then it was wrapped in banana leave to keep fresh and clean. Sooo goood

Wednesday-Thursday-Friday 8-14 to 8-16

So I actually don't know where these days went. They're like one day in my brain. I had a great tournament in pickle ball and at night we'd work out as we studied Khmer so that was pretty fun. Mom sent my district and I donuts, so that's amazing!

Overall I'm just so grateful for the Atonement and the strength it gives me

Saturday morning!!!!!

We woke up at 4:45 to go walk to the Prove City Temple (soooooo pretttyyy oh my goshhhh) anyway so that was super fun and awesome to get out into the real world. Always such an amazing experience to be in the temple!!!

Till next time

-Elder Acton