Faith

I've learned quite a lot about faith this transfer. When this past five weeks began, my faith was strong and I knew that God would take care of me. Yet over the course of those same five weeks my faith has grown tremendously. Every experience where I was unsure and asked for help, not knowing if it would come, my faith grew. Because every time I asked, I received. My prayers are answered 100% of the time because I asked, waited patiently, and watched for God's hand. I am now at the point where I know that I can call for the help of our Father in Heaven and never allow a single doubt to enter my mind because I know that what I am doing is right and that I am being the best that I can be, always improving.

Lately I read a book in someone's home. It was a short narrative on the parable of the ten virgins with the lamps and the oil. In the narrative, the author speculated on what the ten virgins were like before we even hear the part about the bridegroom coming. Each virgin who lives in this certain town is given a handcrafted lamp that is made by the man who sells the oil. Each individual lamp is different and was made with each woman in mind. Some used their lamps often, others were afraid to use it. Of those that used their lamps, they brought light to others and were given items that allowed them to improve the use of their lamps; of those that did not use their lamps, nothing was gained. One of the women didn't feel that her lamp was very special and thus did not use it, little did she know that the maker had made a unique design that would show with use. Another who did not use her lamp one day found that it was broken and was devastated. Although some used the gift that they had less or more than others, regardless of circumstance, the lamp maker was always glad to hear from the women and he would always provide oil, improve, or repair their lamps.

In the story, the one who made each lamp is Christ. He cares for each of us and He has given us all special gifts that we can use to help others. If we use our lamps or gifts to provide light and return to Him regularly to refill our lamps, He will provide even more than we expected. As we use our own special gifts, we can recognize how special each of us truly is. It is never too late to use our lamps or to ask Him to fix it because he cares for each of us unconditionally. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God, there is no thing or person that can keep us from receiving blessings but ourselves, and there is no other way to be truly happy than through Him. He is the light that guides us and helps us to see clearly. Any other way to happiness can only bring temporary happiness and never true joy. The path that Christ takes us down is the best one.

I love you all and I want you to know that God loves you. You can be sure of that because I love you. And how much greater is God than I?

With love,
Elder Norrell

Thai Food!

Super good thai food! Funny story they were like "On a scale of one to ten how hot do you want it?" and I was like "Seven". So that was awesome! Then later the restaurant manager (this sixty something year-old white man) came to our table and was like "Who ordered a seven?!" When I told him it was me he was like "Are you sure? This is a REALThai restaurant!"
I didn't know it was a crime to enjoy spicy food. (Also let's be honest it wasn't super spicy. Spicy, but not very bad.)

HAHAHAHA!! Now that I have your attention you MUST read my email! Muwahahaha! Evil evil evil evil!
I guess that's what people think of the missionaries. We just dedicate two years of our lives to being pure evil. I mean I'm so evil. I just want to love everyone to death and make them so unhappy that it just looks like they're happy but they are actually super oppressed and wanting to do good continually. That's the real scheme here. I'm not actually doing this out of love. But OF COURSE I"M BEING SARCASTIC! I actually do mean it all very sincerely and I'm trying very hard.

So this week there were some cool experiences. Twice in one day we prayed for a ride to come get us and sure enough one came each time! That usually doesn't happen in Nampa. When I say usually I mean it has only happened about three times since I've been here. So for it to happen twice in one day was awesome!

In that experience there are some pretty great principles that were emphasized. The rides did not show up until after we had walked for a bit. We had to exercise faith that our prayers would be answered and we couldn't doubt and say "If" we only would say "When".
The second principle taught was that we were only blessed after we had done what we were supposed to. The first time we needed the ride to get to an appointment but as we walked the second time without an appointment we saw so many people. There was a guy named Michael with a flat tire, some kids at the park (who weren't very nice but hopefully we set a good example), a woman named Michelle, and a man named Lake. Heavenly Father knows exactly what he is doing!

In other news, we bucked hay the other morning! I felt like a real cowboy!

So far we have two people with baptism dates but there are still a lot of obstacles so keep them in your prayers!

Love,
Elder Norrell