September Surprises

 Dang, my memory is slipping!!  I totally forgot to talk about a hilarious story that happened at the end of August!!  So, before we get started on September 2024, we are going to pretend for a moment that it is still August 2024.

First, go take a quick peek back on yesterday, when I posted the August post and go look at the last picture (before the Jimmy pictures).  You know, the one with me, Nathan, and my mom at the first football game of the season.  I'll wait while you go do that.  *da-da-da-da* Ah, back?  Good!  That was a fun game, we won, it was hot as snot, and it was a great time, but what I forgot to tell you was what happened BEFORE the game.  Do you remember back in my July post where I showed you the pictures of the flood irrigation we do and that we did it on Saturday afternoons this past season?  If you don't, you can go look at that post for a reminder.  I'll wait........... Okay, it was a weird irrigation season.  My normal irrigation time was supposed to be from, I think 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm, but apparently there was so much water in the ditch that the two water turn people in front of me didn't need their full turns to get everything watered, and so it ended up that I was irrigating around 3:30, which was really nice and I didn't mind it one little bit.  Now that I've got the setting all set up, I have to give a little background information.  We've lived here in this house for about three years now and the previous two years did not have issues with skunks or raccoons, but for some reason, this season we had a bumper crop of them!!  I don't remember which month it was, but we were awoken in the middle of the night to a horrible skunk smell, if I didn't know any better, I would have thought that the skunk got into the house and dumped its load right next to my bed.  Growing up in the middle of nowhere Pine Canyon, I know by how strong the smell is, how close the skunk is (my dad killed over 800 skunks in the 15 or so years we lived out there).  So, I knew right off the bat that the skunk must have got into the shed that is right off the back of the house (I was later proved correct on that assumption).  Both Jacen and Eliza had opened that back door and been met with a skunk just hanging out there.  We called a critter control company and they came out, set some traps, and we caught two skunks and one very confused and upset black and white kitty.  The critter people came out and disposed of the skunks and set out some more traps.  A few days later, we went outside and discovered that we had caught a raccoon, and so we disposed of that critter.  After that, we decided to purchase our own trap and went on to catch and kill I believe one more raccoon and another skunk during the course of the summer,  Meanwhile, they had gotten into the chicken coop and decimated my chicken flock.  

Okay, now that we've got all of that covered, we can talk about what happened on that gameday in August.  On Saturday mornings, I would go outside and first weed whack everything.  The ditch that runs along the north side of our yard is kind of weird.  Out in the front yard, at the end of the driveway is a cement box with a metal plate bolted on it with two slats where you can slide a metal plate down into in order to direct the water.  There is a covered ditch that runs down Whitesides that opens up into that cement box, then there are two other pipes.  One pipe leads down the north side of my yard, and the other one runs southward underneath my front sidewalk (that one goes to the neighbors to the south of me).  So, when it's the neighbors turn to water, they take the metal sheet and slide it down to block off my pipe, and when it's my turn to water, I slide the metal sheet in front of the other pipe so that the water is then diverted down my ditch.  From that cement box, my ditch runs underground on the north side of my yard for quite a ways before it finally opens up into an open ditch that runs the rest of the length of my yard.  The closed part of the ditch runs until it hits another cement thing (I don't have any other word I can think to use for that).  It's not a box like the one at the front of my property, but it's a junction point.  There's a huge cement slab with about a two inch slit in it where I am able to slide a metal plate into to block off water.  The reason for that is so that I can water what I call the "backyard."  Whoever put the system in, drilled two inch holes in the buried pipe so that when that metal plate is in that slat, it will back up the water, pushing it out of the holes, and the water will then flood the backyard.  That "junction" box connects two pipes because the ditch is still buried for a couple of more yards before it finally opens up to an open ditch.  I keep the metal plate leaning against the fence when it is not in use, and so, on Saturday mornings, when I am weed whacking, I will take that metal plate and slide it into place.  After I am done with the weed whacking, I hop onto Choppy and do the mowing.  Once the mowing is done, I'll go off and do other yard work that needs to be done.  Now, if you remember, I have two barn cats, Scoot and Grignard.  Grignard is the friendly, lovey one that will let you pick him up and cart him around while Scoot is the skittish one that will let me pet him, but I have to be patient with him.  When I started the weed whacking, I saw both cats out running around in the hopes that I would stir up a mouse or two that they could snack on.  So, I did my usual thing and put the gate in so I could weed whack the part of the fence that it leans up against, then finished the weed whacking, did the mowing, and did some yard work.  The football game's kick-off was set for 6:00 pm and we like to get there EARLY.  I am not one of those people who arrive late and leave early.  We spent good money on those tickets and so rain or shine, wind or snow, win or lose, we arrive early and leave when the game is over.  I want my full money's worth.  We also like to get there early enough to beat the crowds, get our food, and get to our seats so that we can eat our food in peace without having to be interrupted by all of the other fans trying to get to their seats, and we want to have our food eaten before the band takes to the field.  Well, it's about a 45 minute drive to my parents house in West Jordan, and then another hour or so drive to get to the stadium, and we want to be there an hour before game time.  That meant that if we wanted to be to the stadium by 5 pm, we would have to leave our house by around 3 pm, which is before our irrigation turn started (this is important).  It also meant that after I was done mowing, I really didn't have time to do a whole lot of yard work before it was time to go in and get ready for the game.  Originally Meow-meow was going to go to the game with me, but Nathan hadn't been to a game in years and decided that he wanted to go (which shocked us all).  So, that meant that we would have to show Jacen how to do the irrigating (there's a whole lot more to irrigating than what I've previously explained to you, and don't worry I'm not going to go into detail because it is not relevant to the story).  So, while I was getting ready, Nathan took Jacen outside to walk around and show him what to do.  Well, as they were walking near this little two inch gate, they could hear some noises coming from up in the pipe.  I need to add that in the mornings, the ditch is dry with no water coming down, we don't get water coming down until the head gate way up the road has been moved.  At the main gate at the end of the driveway, even when the metal plate is slid in front of the pipe that leads down my yard, a fair amount of water always gets through, it's not a lot of water, but there is no way to prevent some water getting through.  Which, if I didn't set the other gate that we are talking about for this story, the water would just run down the ditch, but with that gate in, it blocks a lot of the water, which then backs up that part of the ditch (this is important to know as well).  Anyway, they heard noises coming from inside the pipe, at first they thought it was a dog in someone else's yard, but as they got closer to that little junction gate, they could tell that something was stuck up in the pipe.  So they pulled the gate and found a very wet, tired, and scared Scoot.  By this time, the water had been coming down the ditch for a couple of hours and thankfully it's not enough water to completely fill up the pipe, but it's enough water that it would make it very difficult for a poor little kitty to keep his head above the water for a long time.  You could tell that he was struggling and had been doing so for several hours, and was on the verge of just giving up, but when that gate opened, it gave him renewed life and he clung to that cement slat, trying with all his might to try and escape out of a slit that is too small, even for a cat.  Nathan and Jacen were trying to get him to let go because if he did, he would then slide down the rest of the pipe and out into the open ditch where he would be free and could be rescued, but he just wouldn't let go. They had been fighting with the cat for a few moments when a baby raccoon suddenly appeared next to Scoot and the two of them were now fighting to get up that little slat.  That is when Nathan called me to come outside.  I don't know how we did it, but Nathan manage to use a yard stick to push the raccoon down and it then slid down the pipe into the open ditch where Nathan promptly dispatched it with a shovel.  But we still had the issue of Scoot.  See, Nathan hadn't been gentle with getting the raccoon to let go but we had to be gentle with Scoot.  Finally what we had to do was Nathan pushed his claws away with the yard stick while I lowered the gate down upon him.  The hope was that he would let go, fall into the ditch, and let himself float down to the open ditch, and we hoped that he wouldn't try to dart up the ditch.  Well, thankfully it worked.  He let go and floated down to safety.  I immediately grabbed him and wrapped him up in a towel that Meow-meow had brought out.  He was so tired, cold, and scared that he just let me hold him.  Now the gate was back down in position and all of us except Jacen were gathered around me on the hammock checking Scoot over when Jacen said, "I hear some more noises in the pipe."  And sure enough, we could hear them too.  I could tell from the sound of them that they weren't cat noises.  We lifted the gate, and sure enough, there was ANOTHER baby raccoon!!  I loved on Scoot while Nathan and Jacen worked on getting that raccoon out of the pipe.  It went quicker than the last time and Nathan quickly dispatched that raccoon when it got to the open ditch.  Don't worry though, Scoot was fine and he made a quick and full recovery.  It just meant that Nathan and I had to make a quick clean up of ourselves and left to the game on an adrenaline high.  That was such a crazy day.

Okay, now we can stop pretending that it's still August 2024 and move onto the Shenanigans of September 2024.  I did not take a lot of pictures in September and I have a valid excuse for that....... So let's talk about it, shall we?

I love my little "helpers"

They like to hang out with me when I relax on my hammock.

See, Scoot is just fine and dandy.  After his little ditch incident, he was way more friendly to me and would let me come up to him without running away, and he would stick closely by my side whenever I would go outside.  Silly thing still goes up the pipe in the ditch though.  Although I don't know if he goes up very far anymore.  I no longer put that gate in until water is going down the ditch.

This happened.  I was MAKING MY BED.  I was tucking the sheets in under the mattress, and when I pulled my arm out, it looked like this!!  And this was the DAY before my surgery!!!

Me, on the way home from my surgery,  So, what the heck is all this surgery business you ask?  Well, earlier in the year I had got referred to a doctor who could put in a new spinal cord stimulator.  The only drawback to this surgeon is that he is located in PAYSON!!  Because insurance companies are insurance companies, they INSISTED that I do the test trial first, despite the fact that I've previously had a spinal cord stimulator.  So, this was surgery number one!!  This is why I didn't take very many photos.

This is the battery pack.  For the test trial, they had to have the leads hanging out of my back.  Which meant that I had to be VERY careful!!  I'm not going to post the picture of my entire back because it's kind of gross, but if you really want to see it, let me know and I'll be happy to show it to you.  The goal was to have me do the trial for 7 days and then have it removed.  Well........ I have a severe allergic reaction to any and all kinds of adhesive tape, even the ones that are "supposed" to be hypoallergenic.  With that much tape on my back, I had an allergic reaction that sent my blood pressure soaring and I was in a lot of pain, which meant that we had to end the trial early.  Thankfully we got enough data.  I'm not sure what they did during the surgery, but it set the nerves off in my left side so badly that I couldn't even move, and the pain was intense.  By a tender mercy from Heavenly Father, we were able to get a hold of the doctor late on a Sunday night and he was able to call me in a prescription for the good stuff to get me through until we could make it down to PAYSON where they put me on some steroids, which also increase your blood pressure.  I didn't have a good time during September.  Oh, I also turned 51 and Jacen turned 24, but I don't remember the celebrations at all.

Nathan went to FanX to sell his books and did fairly well.

And what was Jimmy doing all this time?  Let's find out.

I don't ask questions

We got three emails from Jimmy in September.....

The first one is from September 17th

This week had a lot. Lots of spiritual things happened, blessings left and right. The Lord has been with us. Last weeks email only went to Saturday because on Sunday we had a stake conference. We had elder Carl b. Cook of the seventy come to it, along with elder anderson(not the apostle, an area seventy). it was very empowering. Lots of talk on temples and covenants. On Monday, our friend bill passed his baptismal interview. He is elect. He is in the sisters' area, but the sisters didn't feel comfortable teaching him. Our first lesson was over the phone, and while talking to him, we put him on a date for baptism. He accepted. From there, the sisters handed him over to us, and we taught him all the principles and prepared him. Now, through this teaching process, Bill gained a beautiful testimony of the book of mormon from the scripture 2 nephi 2:22-26. It was very powerful. After reading it in front of us, he started to shed some tears. He stated that it answered so many questions and so many religious thoughts he had for many years. He then said to us that because of a couple of verses, he knew the Book of mormon was true. It was amazing. So it was good to see him pass his interview. After we anchored him, we passed him off to the sisters again. So they pretty much got him until the baptism. Along with that, we had an amazing pday. We switched things up, so we went shopping first as normal, but then we called our families in the morning and did the district activities in the afternoon. This made p day feel like 2 whole hours longer. It was crazy. Not only that, but we also had a nice guy pay for our groceries. Played some pickle ball and made a whip while playing card games. On wednesday we had some fun service in the morning. We went to a bird sanctuary. They had some goats, pigs, lots of birds, ducks, and emu, and an ostrich named Andrew. That was fun he did a little dance for me where he lowered his head, and his wings flapped, and he swung around, hard to explain. After that, we had weekly planning because on Thursday, we had a zone conference. Power. Did regular missionary work until Saturday when we had more service. This time, we made cement and put it into a hole, and stuck a metal sign post in it. It was fun. Did missionary work on sunday, and then Monday was a special day. It was our missions set apart keystone day of revelation. Where we had all day to study the Book of mormon. My experience with the Book of mormon was uplifted that day. I experience something sacred. Now for myself I know that the Book of mormon is true. 

Stake conference: like I said, a lot of talk about temples, and how they help us put on christ. How the early saints sacrificed so much to go to the temple. How there is so much symbolism in the temple even the fence is a symbol of separation from the evil and sinful word. A little bit on feast on the words of christ. Watch out for when prohpets say always and never, because they mean it. Covenants make life easier, and they teach that we are the children of God. When we cut out the bad, we need to fill it in with something good, or else a new bad will replace it. There is so much we can do outside of this lone and dreary world. There is a way we can get through this world more righteously. You need to have a desire. 

Zone conference: we started with a big focus on feeling the spirit. And how the spirit is the correct way of living. We need to remove the things in our lives that remove the spirit. We NEED the Holy Ghost. So where can we find it. It is a little different for everyone, but there are some ways that generally work. Such as: muscular prayer. Carve out time to pray vocally and keep a prayer in your heart. Through repentance. We all need correction. The Lords correcting powers are so peaceful and yet humbling. The spirit can not dwell in unholy temples.

The spirit is like a whisper. We need to get closer to it to hear it better. Murmuring over comes the still small voice. Murmuring is what led to lamen and lemuel decided it would be a good idea to KILL there brother. Murmuring leads to secret combinations. It changes our prospective little by little (poisoned by degree). The scriptures are prerecorded answers. We don't do the Book of mormon. We are the Book of mormon. The words in the book are our words. Breathe baptism. 

The Mighty Keystone Day of Revelation:

I learned so much from this day. The way I broke it down was for 1 hour, I read from 1 book in the book of mormon. After the hour, I would pray to know of the truth. After that, I would write down what I learned. So with a full day ahead of me and only 2 hours for lunch and dinner, I got reading. I went through 1 nephi 1-3, 2 nephi 1-2, jacob 1-3, enos-words of mormon, mosaih 1-3, alma 7,39-42, helaman 5, half of 10, 3 nephi half 17, half of 19, half of 20, moroni 7, patriarchal blessing. 

For those who dont have a testimony of the Book of mormon. I highly recommend you do something similar to this. There is something that will happen. Something that will change your view of the Book of mormon. There is a reason why we invite people to read and pray about it. Moroni 10:3-5 

"Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

All Things, All Things! Truth, Truth! When this scripture is shed forth into someone's life and the intake, it's invitation. Something develops, something that the human body can not just make up on its own. And that's when you know. 

For me, my experience was like unto that of Enos. Verses 2 and 4

"2 And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God. . ."

"4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him. . ."

Notice the words "the wrestle which I had before God"

I always read it the wrestle which I had with God. We are constantly fighting against ourselves, and we do so before God. 

I had been wrestling with myself. Doubts from the mind fly in on the mission, especially when you have multiple people telling you off on a daily basis that what you are doing is worthless. At the end of the day, some of those firey darts are still stuck in your back, and Satan sticks them in more and more. Like a wedge, he starts just a little and inches more and more. Until your brain started wrestling with itself. But as you notice, it's not away from God. It's before God. He knows, HE sees. He definitely understands, and he is ready to receive this broken down, face plowed into the wrestling matt, hurt being that has been wrestling with itself. And as you fight this spiritual battle, you become disheveled. You run out of nourishment. And your soul begins to hunger. And when your soul hungers, you search for something that will fill you. There's a lot of things in this world that can fill you up temporarily. But there is one thing that when you partake you will never thirst nor hunger. Partaking of the "living waters." 

My soul hungered during this experiment. I wanted to know what I'm doing, that the 300 days I've spent here in Las Vegas is true. And it all relied on this book. The book of mormon. All the day long did I read and pray. And I kneel down before my Maker, and i did cry in might prayer and supplication. And I now know. That this book is indeed true. And that the blood of the early saints meant something. And that martyrdom of Joseph Smith was because of the truth of this book. And that what I am doing is worthwhile. And that the Lords kingdom is on the earth again. The Everlasting gospel. I know that, and I say these things in the name of my jesus, amen. 

The second one is from September 24th

Had a great week. We had a lot of lessons. It's probably the most lessons I've had in a week. We had roughly 18 that happened. Fun stuff. Our friend Jonathan is the person we've been meeting with the most. He's awesome. We gave him a chapel tour, and we showed him the brother of Jared, and ever since then, he's brought up the brother of Jared and hi barges in every lesson. We've been playing a lot of pickleball, and we might actually be getting the hang of it. We had a lot of service again. We pretty much moved a lady out of her house in 2 days, and it wasn't a small house. That was pretty tough. Got a great member referral. Bill got baptized! It was great because he asked us to talk at his baptism, which was nice. The font water switch was locked up and we didnt have the key while filling it up, ao elder devey picked the lock. Other than that, we did fun missionary work. And we had interviews with our mission president. Some of the other elders had a stuffed bear and managed to get an elder bear tag for it. They then gave it to the mission president's daughter. Very wholesome. That's pretty much it. I hope you all have a great week, and get well soon, mom! luv ya bye 

In the last email, I talked about testing the word. I talked about really pushing your faith to experience a ray of light to add to you converting pillar of awe. Today, I would like to talk more on the subject of faith. 

Now what is faith? 

Alma 32: 21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true

Simple, hope. Now there's a lot of paths we can take from here. We can go down the moroni 7 route, we can go down the route of the gospel of jesus christ. We can continue to go down the alma 32 route. Which is why I love this gospel. I truly love it. Everything connects. For now I would like to talk about how we can get faith. Alma chapter 32 teaches us what faith can bring us. The gospel teaches us what we do with faith. But moroni 7 goes more deep on faith.

Moroni 7: 42-47

 42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. 43 And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. 44 If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.

Now that's a lot of power. Let's break it down. Faith is hope, for you need hope to have faith. Along with hope you need to be meek and lowly in heart(humble) combine that with ether 12:27 and it just shows what faith can do. But that's for another time. 

Continuing if it says in verse 44 that faith and hope with out being meek and humble doesn't work. It goes on after that, and it branches off to charity. If a person is humble and confesses that Jesus is the Christ BY the power of the Holy Ghost, then he must needs have charity. It then goes off and moroni brilliantly writes on charity. But for now I want to focus on faith and we can connect charity along some other time. 

So, being lowly in heart + meekness = hope/Faith

Now there is A Lot more to faith and what it is and what is does for us. From faith it branches off to, well, everything. Faith is the start. And I know that as we strive to be more humble we will have better faith which is hope. And hope in this crazy world sometimes seems hard to find. But it is there. I come to you all to tell you there is hope. Hope in the savior. I say that in the name of Jesus christ amen

And the third one is from September 30th

Wow, transfers came up quickly. It's been a good one. Great district. Truly iconic transfer. Lots happened this transfer. It's probably one of the most fruitful. We had a stake conference. A whole day to read the Book of Mormon. First time being a district leader. And a brand new environment I had to get used to. This week also had a great event. Last Tuesday we had a meeting right after pday. A couple of weeks prior, our mission president sent out an email saying there were going to be two mandatory meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. One for elders and one for sisters. It was such a powerful meeting. He started with the first hour expanding the plan of salvation. He really was set on letting us know that we are the embryo of God. We are His children. All of us. Including those we meet, however mean they are. Everyone here chose this plan. What he was saying sounded familiar to me. It was like my younger brothers voice echoing in my head, which really humbled me. The Spirit works in incredible ways. After that, he helped us with some problems and concerns most of us had and really showed boldness with love. Then he gave us all white bibles (missionary standards) he really built upon faith as well. The rest of the week, we didn't really have much other than doing the great work. Had some great lessons. We have some struggles with one of our friends we are teaching. Went on an exchange with one of the elders in my district. Did more service and moved stuff from one storage container to another. When sunday came around it was a fast and testimony meeting, because general conference is next week. A lot of the testimonies included missionary work. It really opened my eyes. Although none of our friends made it to church in that ward, our labor's were not without reward. It showed me that we as missionaries are doing such good work for everyone, and I highly encourage anyone to serve a mission. You will see your rewards. That's pretty much it for the week. What a great transfer. I'm glad I was able to be a missionary at this time. Great district, really just a fun group of elders and sisters. 

Transfer News: What a quick transfer, and what's crazy is that I'm leaving already. I only had one transfer here in Elkridge/Arborview.

I'm going to the north zone to be a Zone Leader, which is crazy. And I'm gonna be with one of my past zone leaders, elder Hamilton. He's actually sweet from California. He plays guitar as well. I'm so excited about this next transfer. It's gonna be a good one. Hope you hall have a great week. Love you all, luv ya bye.

Now, last time, I talked about how we need to be humble in order to have faith. And how being meek and lowly in heart brings hope. Today, I'd like to talk more on the subject of humility. Especially weakness.

Being humble means that you are teachable. You are submissive, meek, and lowly in heart. It is the opposite of pride. Now, this may be hard to do. It may be difficult to be humble. This is why we are given weakness. Hence, ether 12:27

"27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

As missionaries, we compare the lords work, that we participate in, to a seed. A lot of the work we do is "planting seeds," as we so call it. Now, when we plant the word in our hearts with faith, it grows into great things like Alma says. But if the ground is dry, barren, or in other words "prideful" this ground can not allow the seed to grow, no matter if the seed is good. But if the ground gets tilled, plowed, fertilized, or, in other words "humbled" It then can accept the seed. Now, sadly, the water we may use to create good soil may be tears, and the hoe we use to till the earth may be sharp and painful, but it is for our own good.

I'd like to take a quote from the talk

 "As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten" - Elder christofferson

"Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’"

Heavenly Father and Jesus christ are the gardeners. They both humble us and teach us, "I give unto men weakness." Whether we be a currant bush needing to be pruned, or if we are dry soil yet to sprout a seed. No matter where we are in this life. Whether we are a very active member or we dont even know who jesus christ is, we all need growth. We need to be more humble. And when we are humbled, that is when growth is made. 

Heavenly father does change us. He molds us, shapes us, from a seed to a tree, even a tree of life. And yet it is done through our trials, yet we are changed, refined, prepared. Like a Phoenix being reborn. A tree that grows with fierce winds beating upon it all its life will grow stronger than a tree that grows up in a soft breeze

I know we need more faith. We always need more faith. I know we can do that through being humble. And we need to always be more humble. In which we are given weakness. I know the savior does love us. And his grace is sufficient, always. And I say that in the name of Jesus christ, Amen.

I would like to invite you all, when you find yourselves in weakness. When a fierce wind blows upon you. When your dry ground gets ripped up. When pruning shears, tear off your limbs. Look for the savior. Find the savior in every trail. For he is always there. 

Well, here we are, we have reached the end of September 2024.  We are quickly approaching the end of the year!!  Hopefully I haven't overloaded you with my ramblings and I'll see you tomorrow where we will talk about October 2024.  So, until tomorrow.....