Renton Update

Hey Family,

This is going to be a short email due to major laptop problems today.  It took me almost an hour to load this thing up, and then suddenly it turned off on me so I had to borrow the extra computer time of another missionary.

This week has been a roller coaster.  The first of the week we started out with what seemed to be some good things rolling, but then ended up crashing around us.  We had multiple people drop us, and it looks like we are going to be on the finding path again.  It amazes me of how many people I have seen see the fruits of the gospel and then decide to reject it.  I know that that is the foundation of it all though, the agency to choose. Others we talk to won't listen to us only because they have heard some things about the church that aren't true. Something about the golden plates coming from Moses and then just appearing in the Americas where Joseph Smith was walking through the jungle one day and stubbed his toe on them and that's how he found them.  Really makes it hard to teach people like that because they already have an opinion on the church. It makes me think of the scripture in D&C 123:12.  People are only kept from the truth because they don't know where to find it.

I have been reading over "The 4th Missionary" talk and have really gained some valuable insight from it.  I have read it several times before but keep on finding more insight from it and more versions of it.

This past week I went on exchanges with an elder in the district. He is Tongan and actually played rugby for Highland. We had a lot of fun running from person to person on our exchange. One bad thing is he doesn't speak any Spanish, and I had to translate everything for him. He tried to recruit me to play rugby for his dad's team in Missouri after the mission. I love the Polynesian faith and attitude for the work. I think Tonga will to 100% members in 20 years.

Well not much else to report this week.  Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Elder Ben