Mosquitoes Suck
From: Seth Gifford
Date: Mon, Sep 14, 2020 15:31 AM
Subject: Mosquitos Suck
Hello there!
How’s life my people? How are y’all doing? Hopefully good! (P.S. That greeting may or may not have been a reference…)
Okay, I don’t really feel like writing today, but here’s an update anyway:
🥤Can I Get a Sprite?
This past week has actually been pretty good! Me and Elder Raymond have set some new goals and have been doing everything we can to stay obedient and to find success. I’m happy to say that some of the people we are teaching have been slowly progressing! We’ve even found a few people on Facebook who are interested in hearing our message. Yesterday we invited one of our people to “come to church” or in this case, join the Zoom meeting. We have been inviting him to come for a long time, but this time we had a member film an introduction video and sent it to him, and so we were pretty hopeful he’d come. 10 minutes into the video he wasn’t there but we were still holding on to hope and sure enough, he joined!! We were so excited! It was one of the first times since I’ve been here that one of the people we are teaching has kept a commitment. But as the meeting went on, while someone was sharing their thoughts, we all heard a loud: “What can I get you to drink with that?” and “Uhhhh a Sprite” followed by “That’ll be $5.57 at the second window.” Our investigator was going through the drive through during the meeting and forgot to turn on mute! Me and Elder Raymond were dying. It was both so funny and so embarrassing at the same time. But, after the meeting he told us he was driving the whole time, so hopefully he was able to listen to it.
🦟 Mosquitoes
We did a service project this week that almost killed me. Not really. But almost. We were helping someone in our branch cut down a bunch of branches and vines hanging over her fence. What we did not know when we got there was that her yard is completely INFESTED with mosquitoes. I have no idea why, but for some reason I am usually the one person in the group that all the mosquitoes go for. And that morning I decided to wear shorts instead of pants… Well, after 2 minutes my legs started to itch and I look down and see ten or twelve mosquitoes on me. That’s when I realized that this would be a problem. We did not have any bug spray either. For the next 10 minutes I would kill all the mosquitoes on my legs, look up for 3 seconds and 10 more were on my legs again. It was horrible! I was just constantly swatting mosquitoes the whole time and my legs felt like they were on fire. The other elders weren’t really getting bitten so I went into the car to be away from the mosquitoes. I felt pretty useless haha. Then it started raining so I thought the mosquitoes would be gone. I started helping again and after clearing all the cut down vines and branches, my legs were COVERED in mosquito bites that had all swollen up to be huge! I even got one on the side of my face. It was not fun! But the aftermath was not fun either because we had no itch cream. I counted 70 mosquito bites when they were swollen and 84 after the swelling went down. I don’t think I’ve ever been so itchy! But luckily today we got itch cream so hopefully I’ll be able to sleep better tonight. So, if you’re wondering, yes I learned my lesson.
🙏 Conclusion
A lot is going on in the world right now. There is so much chaos, contention, natural disasters, panic, fear, and COVID-19 is still a thing. This is an insane time to be alive. Not to mention, Satan is doing everything he can to spread the chaos, confusion and contention. To get to the point, it’s not easy! I don’t need to tell you how hard life is because you’re all experiencing it yourself. But there is hope. There is always hope in Jesus Christ. He is the light, and when we follow Him, we don’t need to be afraid. Following Him is where we will find safe ground amidst all of this chaos. The gospel, and Jesus Christ is for everyone, because we all need it. It has the power to change lives, heal hearts, mend souls, and turn weaknesses into strengths. It has the power to help us make it through hard times. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ has helped me so much. I am so far from perfect. I have a lot of weaknesses, but as I’ve turned to Jesus Christ, He has been my strength. I promise that following Jesus Christ is the right path. It doesn’t matter how unworthy or unclean or unfit you feel. Following Christ is for you. He can take those feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy and turn them into hope, peace, and strength. I know it because I have experienced it. I am so far from perfect, but I know that this is the right path.
One of my favorite scriptures is D&C 68:6 and says: “*Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.*”
Jesus Christ is with you. Remember that. Turn to Him and I promise that it will be worth it.
I love you all. Sorry to my friends and family that I won’t repsond to this week. Just know I love you and pray for you.
-Love, Elder Gifford
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