June 16 Email!

Family,

I hope everyone had a great Father's day! It sounds like you had plenty of cake and ice cream, so, sounds like a successful Father's Day. Nothing quite like greasy taco meat and chocolate cake to help a man feel like he has made it in life!

The Pre-Wedding Dinner looks great! There's a bunch of good looking people, and then there's Amanda and Trevor too..

 

Their celebrity couple name is Trevanda.

Great! Sounds like everyone had a great, exciting week. I did too. We found some new people who are interested in The Church, and we had a lot of good dinners.

Just to keep ya'll updated. I'm still in Marble Falls with Elder Whitney, and it is getting very hot here. haha.

Actually, it rained quite a bit this week. There was even another tornado warning in our area, so we had to go home. The tornado never touched down,. But it was the worst rain storm I have ever seen. Tree branches were just flying every where haha. 

  

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Ya'll did great in your studies this week! I'm glad to see that. It's hard as a missionary to work with people who lack in testimony, or used to have one but lost it. I heard once that, "A great testimony has a short shelf life". Gaining a testimony is awesome! But if you don't continue to work at it, it will fade.

You are all more wise than you may know. Thank you for sharing what you learned with me.

I studied faith, like Averie did.

-I knew that faith was a belief in something you can't see

-I learned that faith is not just a belief, it is so much more. It is infinitely more. One thing it also is, is trust.

I'm going to tell a story to try and demonstrate my point..

You are standing next to a huge cliff. The wind blows, and you fall off. As you are falling you are desperately trying to grab a hold of something. You finally grab a branch, and as you're hanging there God ask you. "Do you have faith in me?"

You think to yourself, "Well yeah, I believe He is there. I believe that He created everything including this cliff and this branch I am holding on to. So yeah, I have faith."

"Great" God says, "Now, let go of the branch."

Your faith then goes to the next level, it is no longer just a belief that he exists, or loves you. But an absolute trust in him.

"okay, okay" you think to yourself "I have faith in God, so I will do as he asks, knowing that he will take care of me"

You let go, and fall. You hit the ground breaking both legs and a few ribs.

"What?" you think to yourself "I had faith in you and you let me fall! You let me break my legs!"

"I only told you to let go, I didn't tell you what would happen next" God says, "Your expectations were that I would place you gently on the ground. My expectations are not yours. My expectations for you are greater than you can comprehend."

"So" God asks, "Do you have faith in me"

"Yes, Father"

"Then, stand up and walk"

I want you all to think about that story and how you can apply to your life.

I applied faith this week by pushing out any type of fear, in any form, that entered into my heart or mind. 

"Fear and faith cannot coexist at the same time in the same being" -Joseph Smith

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Now, we will be reading about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith. Chapter 3 in Preach My Gospel.

Just study the first three sections, ending on Page 34, with the Prophets.

I'm excited to hear what you learned!

I love you all, and love to hear from you!

Be safe and smart

Love, Elder Giles