Elder Robert Jonas Bush: March 28, 2016 A snowy week and Easter

So this week has been absolutely awesome, even though we weren't
allowed to drive because of a snowstorm on Wednesday. The rest of the
week was great, though. We talked to a lot of people, which was great.
This week I'm learning that to help people have the desire to change
and follow Christ, one of the best things as missionaries we can do is
teach the Plan of Salvation with a focus on the Savior the whole time.
Sometimes we tend to just talk about where we are going and where we
came from, forgetting about the whole reason we come down to Earth,
which is to follow Christ and be perfected through Him. (Moroni 10:32)
That's why I like referring to the Plan of Salvation as the Plan of
Redemption, because it helps us focus on the Savior.
Almost all of our appointments fell through this week, but we took the
opportunity to visit with members and try to contact referrals from
them. I'm getting a little baby callous on my finger from knocking
doors, so that's good. E. Farnes has a ginormous callous. It looks
like he has two knuckles. No joke.

I'm learning so much and I love it here in Coloraduh

My limited Spanish has actually come in handy a couple of times here. All I can say in Spanish is "we are missionaries of the church if Jesus Christ of latter days saints", "the Book of Mormon is true" and "can we send missionaries to your house". That seems to get me by.

We have had a very interesting week here what with all of this SNOW. I will put some pictures and videos in the email but it was bad enough that on Wednesday we couldn't even drive at all. We had to stay at our house which was boring... So we walked over to a member next door and spent the day at his house- he had lots of cool videos about the Book of Mormon and church history so we spent like 6 hours at his house because he and his wife really like having the missionaries over.

I was also in primary this Sunday, E. Farnes and I went in to share how the prophets speak for Heavenly Father. It was interesting because we are getting used to teaching adults. It helped me realize how helpful it is to make things clear and simple, and that's one thing I've been working on.

You will be surprised to learn that I actually do like potatoes. After eating them for dinner several times at members homes I have been forced to conclude that I was being a total dweeb before and potatoes really aren't all that bad at all.

Ohhhh and if you only knew how many times I've seen the #HALLELUJAH video. I think I've watched it on average 2-3 times a day for the past 3 or 4 weeks. I literally have that thing memorized. I love that video, I think it is so cool to see and hear the testimonies of all of the people in that video. As we've been sharing that video I've come to realize that Christ's Atonement helps us overcome all kinds of death. Physical death, spiritual death, emotional death.... Any kind of separation we ever endure from anything that is good (especially our Heavenly parents) Christ's Atonement overcomes that for us as we come to Him. Super cool.

One of my new favorite quotes is from Bruce R McConkies talk "How to Worship"

"There is no salvation in worshiping a false god. It does not matter one particle how sincerely someone may believe that God is a golden calf, or that he is an immaterial, uncreated power that is in all things; the worship of such a being or concept has no saving power. Men may believe with all their souls that images or powers or laws are God, but no amount of devotion to these concepts will ever give the power that leads to immortality and eternal life.

If a man worships a cow or a crocodile, he can gain any reward that cows and crocodiles happen to be passing out this season.

If he worships the laws of the universe or the forces of nature, no doubt the earth will continue to spin, the sun to shine, and the rains to fall on the just and on the unjust.

But if he worships the true and living God, in spirit and in truth, then God Almighty will pour out his Spirit upon him, and he will have power to raise the dead, move mountains, entertain angels, and walk in celestial streets."

I love that quote. It reminds me of how we are supposed to be worshipping God and Jesus Christ by trying to become like Them every day. Then we can receive the reward that our Heavenly Father wants to give us.