Family!
Well, it's a New Year. It feels weird thinking that I have almost been out 6 months. A fourth of my mission has already passed like a lightning bolt! Craziness! On New Years Eve we had to go inside by 6:00 because of the amounts of alcohol being consumed by the general public and we didn't do much. We just cleaned the flat a bit and went to bed a little bit early! Not gonna lie it was nice to catch up on a little sleep. The boys weren't kidding when they said I was going to be tired for two years!
With the new year always comes the thoughts of last year, how much you have learned and how much you need to learn still. It is amazing how much my own personal testimony has grown in the last year, the last six months especially. I have been really humbled with how little I actually know and with how much I can improve. I know a lot of you may be thinking to yourselves that Jake could never be humbled, but it's true! During the last few months I've been shocked by how little I know the scriptures, and how hard it can be to teach someone a concept that seems so simple to me. We all have so many weaknesses, me especially. But with the New Year also comes a new hope. A hope that this year we are going to be even better than last year. So we all set goals. In the past setting goals always had something to do with money or weight loss. I never really thought of setting Spiritual goals, besides the goal of maybe reading my scriptures more. As a missionary I don't need to set any monetary goals and though I could always use some more weight loss, I don't want it to be my focus. But rather I have set a goal to get to know my Savior better, so that I can come closer to my Heavenly Father. I have been thinking a lot about how I can achieve this goal. What more can I do? Serving a mission is surely enough? I have had this mindset for most of the last 6 months. You just need to, "grin and bare it" or "bite the bullet," and soon it will be over. It is not supposed to be like that. I was reading a talk called, "The Fourth Missionary," and it has taught me a lot about how I can let my mission change me!
"You may permit the Lord to change your nature if you give yourself to Him and to His work. He cannot work on what he does not have, and He cannot have you, unless you give yourself to Him.!"
Sacrificing my time and my efforts is simply not enough. I have to sacrifice my will. All of my time the Lord has given me, all of my talents are things that he blessed me with. If I give those things back to him then I am just giving him back things that he already has. But if I give him my will. The one thing that he can't take from me, then I can come closer to him. So that is my new years goal, to give myself to the Lord. I am not sure of all the ways that I can do that, but I am sure going to try! I hope all of you can focus your new year on the Savior! I know it will bless you so much. Thank you so much for your testimony of the Savior Mum! I absolutely know that Christ Lives and that he loves me. He is my best friend, and has pulled me out of holes that I could have never climbed out of on my own.
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| My district |
This week has been a really good week, because all of the people are coming back from holiday! Things are starting to pick up and we are getting really busy! I think the highlight of this week was eating at the Tops. They are honestly my favorite family in the ward, (shh don't tell). But they are honestly too good to me! We eat with them like twice a week. They are great! But this week they introduced me to some really good cheese. So now I've found my new favorite cheese! It is called Wensleydale with cranberries! I don't know if that is how you spell it but it was really really good cheese, ha ha! I didn't think I could be that impressed by cheese until that moment.
There is a lot going on but not much that I can remember! So next week I'll fill you in on some funny stories! I love you guys and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Kmetzsch
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