Serving in Kentucky: Christmas 2015

December 28, 2015

Dear Family,

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D There's isn't really a reason for those faces. I just though that would be fun. :D

A lot of not-missionary-work happened this week. Monday was the Christmas Conference in New Albany. It was fun going to New Albany again. We'd go there for Zone stuff in Corydon. President Brough gave a training on the 12 tribes of Israel. After the training we had the "GKLM Ultimate Challenge". The missionaries were split into teams and we played a bunch of games. There was one where every Zone Leader pretended to be a cow and the sisters were given ropes to rope the cows. That was fun to watch.

Tuesday was P-Day. We did a lot of... P-Day stuff.

Wednesday was one of the 2 days we got this week that was a full work day. I don't even remember what we did or who we taught. Probably because I don't have my journal with me at the moment to remind me.

Thursday was Christmas Eve. We started off with another branch ultimate frisbee in the morning. Then we did our weekly planning, then we ate dinner, then it was 6-9 at the Rodenbergs. They gave us holiday snacks and had us open a Christmas Eve present. They gave us PJ bottoms.

Friday was Christmas. I Skyped home and loved seeing all of you. I miss you all so much. Then spent the whole rest of the day at the Rodenbergs. They fed us Christmas dinner. There was a lot of socializing. I got to meet the older Rodenberg kids that live in other places. One of them lives in Provo with his wife. They were sealed in the Timpanogos temple.

Music is probably my biggest temptation. For a lot of missionaries they have their girlfriends, or some other hobby they left behind. For me it's music. I love music. Occasionally I'll wonder what my favorite bands are doing. My iPad gives me access to brows iTunes and see what's going on. I've been pretty good about ignoring the fact that I can do that and focusing on the work. On Christmas however, I thought I would treat myself and see what my favorite band's been doing... That was probably one of the stupidest ideas I've ever had. I learned they have a double album coming out in January. When I saw that I thought "It's going to be a long time before I get to listen to it." I told Elder Walker about it and he decided to play the part of the Child of Hades and tell me that I can subscribe to iTunes radio (it's like $3 a month) and have access to ALL OF ITUNES! He said a lot of the missionaries in his last zone did that. They would sign up for iTunes radio and get whatever they want. That means... If I wanted to... I could get my favorite band's new album and listen to it. BUT I'M NOT GOING TO DO THAT! I'm not even going to sign up for iTunes radio.

Saturday was the other full day we had to work but we wound up spending most of it doing service for Bro Robertson. Bro Robertson married Pres Rodenberg's daughter. Bro Robertson's basement flooded so we helped him clean it out. We had to pick up a pump from someone. The pump was able to get most of the water out but it wasn't able to get the last little bit. We had to use a vacuum to get the rest. When we finished we went next door to the Jensons weekend home to pick up a carpet fan from their garage. Yes, Bro Robertson lives next to the Jensons. We called Bro Jenson and he guided us through his security systems. He gave me the wrong code to use on the inside to disarm the system so when I entered it, the whole house alarm went off. It was loud. He gave me the right code and the alarm shut off. We got the fan and went back to Bro Robertson's house to find that the basement had already flooded again. It had been raining for the last 2 days. We called it at that point. Bro Robertson gave us some PB&J sammiches for our help. We're probably going to go back and help finish the job. Thankfully it's only one room that's flooded and there's nothing in there. It's just cement floors and cement walls.

Sunday was church. We had a great sacrament meeting. Bro Robertson got to bless his baby. Bishop Robertson, Bro Robertson's father who's a bishop in Tennessee, gave a great talk. Pres Rodenberg gave a great talk, and there was a high council member who gave a great talk. We visited Sis G after church. She's doing a little better. Her Christmas was hard.
I was thinking about this during the Sacrament and it led me to the following realizations. The bread is symbolic of Jesus's body. Jesus suffered physically with being beat, cut, whipped, and tortured. Emotionally with the persecution and the betrayal of his apostles. And mentally with temptations and grief from all the other trials He went through. Because Jesus went through all of that He's able to empathize with us. He's able to strengthen us. He understands us. He knows how to help us perfectly. The water is symbolic of Jesus's blood. Freedom is bought, and paid for with blood. Jesus's blood was the only kind that could free us from physical and spiritual death. His blood frees us from captivity, death and the devil. His blood is the only kind that could satisfy justice. When we think about how the body and the blood, or symbolically the bread and the water, affect us, we realize that the bread can free us from suffering, the the water can free us from death. To me, that sounds like Eternal Life when you combine the two. Free from suffering and death. When we have Eternal Life our joy will be full. That's because there will be nothing to keep our joy from being full. No suffering or pain because of the bread and no death because of the water. There will be nothing to keep our joy captive because the Atonement will free our joy.

Anyway. This is a subject that's better conveyed verbally than through email. I'm sure you can figure out what I'm saying. I think it's cool that those thoughts came to my mind as I was pondering on the symbolism of the bread and the water.

Well that was this week. Like I said a lot of not-missionary-work happened. It was a fun week though. Have a nice week! I love you all. You're amazing!

-Elder Ben