Elder Jake Roush's Madagascar Adventures: May 19, 2014

May 19, 2014

Yoooooooooooooo ry olom-belona,

It's hard to think that I've hit the 1 year mark... Granted I sit here writing this to people that are already at chick-mishes, finished missions and efa manan-janaka.... FA! I think it's a pretty big deal to make it this far. But it got me thinking alot of what I want to do with this next year. I want to be an "unprofitable servant," as it tells us in Luke 17:10... This year I want to try harder to be that missionary that isn't in it for PWP (pretty wife points,) or some other blessings down the road... But I want to be the guy that's doing it because of his love for the Lord, knowing it's his DUTY to serve. I like the scripture in 1 nep 3:5... before nephi goes off and is a boss Lehi says something pretty cool to him.. Telling him that he didn't "require" their service... But it was a commandment from the Lord. And well we all know that if something is a commandment, pretty much like... 100 % of the time the Lord is going to provide... Right now I want to grow enough faith to really trust in that. Last night we were teaching a guy named Melvin.. His wife and some of his kids are members... but he's still not vita batisa... So last night I kinda got all Elder Holland with him and asked him what the deal was... Surprisingly he opened up for the first time and told us how he worries so much about work and money and providing for the family that he feels like the church stuff needs to come second. So we tried teaching about that faith thing... and it went really well. He ended up accepting a bap date... in august hahah but nevertheless it's progress. As I was teaching I kinda kept feeling like... man i need to try out my faith a little more too and just trust the will of God! Favorite scripture. Ether 12:6... all the goodies come after the trial.. I think it's about time i really put that scripture to use!! So that's my goal... Also Elder Babb and I are starting 1 year to sexy this week... Granted he's doing it so he can go back home and play division 1 college football for the U or the good ol cougars... but i'm just doing it so I can pick up some nice looking lady in England or something.... *hint. hahha. Anyways. Good week. We worked hard I'd say. We had a couple cool experiences. First was with my boy Fredo... We asked why he didn't come to churhc and he totally opened up and told us how he had a problem with smoking and drinking. He said when he met us he felt like he needed to stop and hasn't even had 1 drink since we started with him.... how SICK is that??? Fa.. the dang sigara!! We explained to him that even though he has those struggles he still CAN go to church, and yes.. through the atonement he CAN get over his addictions... The gospel is neat. Also this week, i got to go on a split with my main stain Elder Payne (hahahah) super fun! We're from the same groupd and so on our year mark... we split it up and had a great time! He's a super good missionary and I learned some stuff to help with my area... We also ate african burritos... burritos... in AFRICA! So yeah there's that haha. And lastly..... We had a fireside on the beach with our branch on friday! It was super cool cause we literally had a fire, on the beach, and the gospel was taught... We invited the whole branch... But when everybody showded up it pretty much just felt like a relief society and primary party with like 2 investigators there... Not the turnout we wantedd... But we're hoping it was a good start to getting more support from the branch. We'll see. We had some other cool lessons this week and we're really hoping that our trust in the Lord will pay off with some answers to ours, and investigators prayers. Praying though... right? Super fun! haha. Anyways... I think that's all folks... I love you all. Keep on that grind and don't forget to be happy and stuff. oh... also. We watched the sunrise across the Indian Ocean this morning... So yeah. Have a good week emailers.

Loves, hugs, but no drugs,

Elder Roush