January 6, 2014

I was listening to a talk this past week given by Matthew Cowley, and he talked about how he was called to be a High Priest at a very young age, 22 I think. He was being set apart to a position in the church by one of the twelve, and he ordained him to the office of High Priest without any previous thought going into it; the spirit directed, and he followed, all of them unsure why the young Cowley had just received that office. Later in life, Cowley's name came up as an option for a position in the 70, but because he was a High Priest he was ineligible for the position; the Lord's way of saving him so that he could be one of the 12. To get to the point of it, Kevin, let's watch you follow in Matthew Cowley's footsteps. 

This past week was a long week. We weren't able to teach hardly anybody, since it was New Years and everybody is still on vacation apparently. Most of Hamilton, it would seem, relocated to Ragland beach for the holidays. Funny how everybody here spends Christmas and New Years at the beach, whereas everybody back home spends them indoors with a huge blanket, a cup of hot chocolate, and if possible, a fire. New Years was surprisingly uneventful. Fireworks are legal all year round here, and from what I can tell there's pretty much not any type that is illegal, but companies are only allowed to sell fireworks for the three days leading up to Guy Fawks Day, which is in November, and no other time of the year. So some people have enough foresight to hold on to a package of Roman Candles, but for the most part, people don't seem to think about it, so there was a significant lack of explosive aerial displays on New Years; very disappointing. Our Mission President ended up allowing the mission to stay up until midnight, but it wasn't all that great, considering we don't have any fireworks ourselves, and we still had to be in the flat before 9:30. Count your blessings though, right? 

I really hope that this next week can be different. We have some really good investigators, and I know they're ready to commit and be baptized, the only problem is that we never see them. We have an appointment tonight though with one of our new investigators, and we're hoping to be able to set him for baptism. Hopefully that's what the Spirit directs us to do, because as much as I don't really care about numbers, it's awesome to be able to guide someone into the straight gate every once in a while.
 We have transfers at the end of the month, and I reckon I'll be getting moved. I've been in this area for a while now, and it feels like I'm about to be getting bounced. We've got a little while until then though, so hopefully I can get this place all set up for whoever comes in and takes over. We've got a mid transfer coming up on the 14th because there's a huge group of Tongans coming in fresh. I'm really hoping that I don't have to train one of them. Training is hard enough, from what I hear, without having to teach them English at the same time. I trust the Lord knows best, so I'll be cool with whatever happens, but I'd prefer a training free mission. 

Other than, I had an interesting week of reading about marriage. It all started with an email from Dad talking about eternal marriage, then we taught a lesson about the Plan of Salvation but mostly just eternal marriage. After that I was studying in the morning and flipped open the D&C to a random page and started reading, I don't remember the reference but it was about eternal marriage. Not to mention I did the same thing with the January Ensign, and opened right to the page about loving your spouse. It's been ridiculous. There were a few other instances that I can't remember details of, but it was certainly out of it. It's almost like the Lord is trying to distract me. I have no idea. Doesn't he know I still have over a year left? Goodness.
 Well, that'll about do it for now.
  Love Ya!
   E. O'Neal

This is one of the Samoan youth in the ward. Cool dude.

These are the sister missionaries that are now in the ward with us. Plus the Aussie on the right that was with us only for a couple of days before he went home.