WOW, the Tornado siren went off last night! Elder Berg and I
cowered in the closet. A member actually called us seeing if we were ok.
I was surprised and was like, wow, someone who actually cares about
us!! Then 5 minutes later it stopped. The tornado had happened close to
the town of Dewey. Dewey is like 5-10 ish miles away from Bartlesville,
so it was a fairly close tornado. Who knows we may have one hit
here!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
This week we had Zone Conference, IT WAS PRESIDENT MERKLEY'S
LAST!!!!!! He taught us his way of teaching the Law of Chastity to 11
year old girls. Because he was asked to do so when he was a Bishop. He
came up with this way of doing so. He also committed us, when we get
home that we will not hold hands until after 7 dates, hug after 14, or
kiss after 21. Mind you these are dates, for someone like me to have 21
dates, that would last me like 6+ months. Anyways, lets not talk about
that.
The Cool thing about this Zone Conference is the fact that I'm back
into my first Zone again, when I was in Sapulpa. I got to meet Elders:
Hamann (past companion), Bennett, Orr and many others, since there is a
lot of them that I know here. It was a fun Zone Conference I loved it!!
Well, I have a story, and this happened to me.
On Thursday we were going to go to our appointment to go read a
story to a member who doesn't have a big attentio span. We went to take a
path on the bike trail that leads under the road. It has a small path
and it has water on both sides of the path. Elder Berg was ahead of me
and he saw a person who was sitting on the edge of the path and his bike
was there blocking the path, elder Berg stopped completely, I, only
having half of a brake, was braking but since it was downhil I got speed
and wasn't able to stop. WEll, I hit Elder Berg a little bit and then
part of the bridge and I fell off the path and into the water. With the
bike landing on top of me. Everything in my backpack and me were wet. My
camera got wet, but we put it in a bowl of rice and left it there for
two days and it recovered and I can still use it. My new scriptures that
I got for my birthday, well are ruined, they are very wet. Maybe I'm
just not meant to have nice scriptures. Because the last ones that I
bought at the MTC got wet over 3+ months ago. All of my electrical
things still work thankfully, or else all of my pictures from my mission
on my flashdrive would have been GONE!!!!
Well, we finished the Articles of faith, so now I guess I will just
come up with scriptures. Today in my reading i read Helaman CH. 1-4,
the one part that stuck out to me was in Ch. 3 verses 25-30. Where it
explained that the scriptures are the way that we can learn of our
forgiveness. That the scritpures teach us that Christ is always there
for us and always wants us to come unto him and be perfected in him.
(moroni 10:32-33) The Book of Mormon has many instances of Forgiveness.
Alma talks to his sons in Alma 39 about his sins that he has done and
how that he should repent. The Sons of Mosiah and Alma the Younger are
examples of that. Even for a time Laman and Lemuel, we penetant but then
they succumbed to their old ways and rebeled and fell away from the
things they have seen, even an Angel of the Lord came to them as they
were smiting Nephi. Forgiveness is given to everyone, if they just
humble themselves and ultimately forgive themselves of the things that
they have done and come unto the only one that can heal, Jesus Christ. I
am ever grateful for him and his sacrifice and his love that he has for
us and all mankind. In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen!
--
Elder Colby Stewart Haymond--
Oklahoma, Tulsa mission
