A Tale of Two Cities

What's up, y'all??
It's me back with another weekly email. These tend to not come out every
week, but I think it's still fair to call them a weekly email. I don't have
anything better to call them. But yeah, we had transfers last week and so
I've returned to an old area with an old companion. The area is called
Jacinto City, and it's in the Channelview district. Or rather, it was in
the Channelview District but now it's in the Uvalde Park District! So, for
a little bit of background, this area that I'm in had two Spanish words:
one called Jacinto city, and the other one called channelview. Yesterday,
the state presidency came down and announced that they were combining the
wards! So now, these two places that I've served in the past are now just
in one ward! It was so awesome to see all of the member friends that I've
made in both of these Wards together in the same ward, haha!
This is really good, especially for the Jacinto City ward. It's been pretty
small for a pretty long time, and now it has a lot more strength behind it.
I'm so excited to be involved in the beginnings of a new ward!
My companion is named Elder Vetterli, I was with him in August of last
year. I was in a trio with him with Elder Halvorsen. I would say that the
two of us together are the two most goofiest goobers in the entire mission.
It's great!
One of the most awesome things about this area is being able to talk to the
people that I taught 10 months ago who have been baptized since then! Just
today, I was able to catch up with a man named Candito that I put on date
when I was here with Elder Condie. He has been progressing really strongly,
and we talked with him about helping him get a calling in the ward, and he
was so, so excited for that! Last chance for, I spent a lot of time
focusing heavily on member work and visiting less active and part member
families.
Another fun thing about this area is the apartment that we're in. It's in a
different place than I've lived in when I was first in this area, it's in
the heart of our area. It's like this little apartment behind a house, and
right behind us is a road that I can only describe as the Wild West, Market
street. You'll just have to drive on it to understand it I can't describe
it. But anyway, there's this train track right behind our house and so
every morning and every night we get to hear the trains go by. I love
trains. But yeah this is a different order than normal, heres the spiritual
thought now:
This comes from something called "Lectures on Faith" I know it exists
because Elder Dallan H. Oaks quoted it in his 1994 talk titled "Tithing"
This is what it says:
“Let us here observe that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of
all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto
life and salvation; for, from the first existence of man, the faith
necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained
without the sacrifice of all earthly things”
Ah, sacrifice. What is sacrifice? If you were to ask me, I would define it
as willfully giving up something important to us, especially in order to
show love or devotion to something. I think sacrifice specifically requires
that aspect of something important to us.
It reminds me a lot of this story in the Old Testament, where David is
commanded to offer sacrifice. Some random guy offers to let David use his
his own flock for the sacrifice for free, but David refuses. He said: "Nay;
but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt
offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing." 2
Samuel 24:24. Nowadays, we don't need to sacrifice animals. But sacrifice
is still a really big commandment. Christ still demands a sacrifice. It is
a sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. In other words, the
sacrifice is being obedient. We need to do God's will, and sometimes that
requires us to sacrifice the things we want to do, how we want to act, and
how we want to live. Making these sacrifices makes us more like Jesus
Christ, who made the ultimate sacrifice for us. And now returning to the
first quote, without sacrifice there really isn't faith. How can we fully
trust in the merits of Him who is mighty to save if we have never trusted
Him enough to sacrifice for Him? In offering sacrifice, I've found that
certain sacrifices are easy and others are incredibly difficult.
Sometimes.it feels like we can only give inches, but God requires a mile.
Pray for forgiveness, and remember that every mile is made of inches. God
will honor even the smallest sacrifice made with an honest heart and
willing intent!

Anyway, photo time!!!!
We got really cool water bottles!!

New district + Suazo fam

Horsies

Bye bye!
Elder Miller
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https://photos.app.goo.gl/LvH1u7A88T9LSwoS8