Howdy from the hills of Arkansas!

"This week was long but we got a lot done and are doing well. We started off the week on a discouraging note, some of our investigators dropped us so we have a shallow teaching pool at the moment. We tracted...a lot in the hot blistering sun, this heat wave is crazy! I want some rain! ha We got some good news when this part member family we're teaching said they are ready to set baptismal dates! Yahoo!   Lately for studying I have been listening to a lot of talks by John Bytheway (so good!) and while you're on a mission little things really get you excited so I was looking through the apartments Ensigns and took all the conference addresses I could find and found one from 1988! What a treasure ha see? We get excited over little things like Ensigns. I like to go through the talks and find quotes and write them in my study journal that I call "my small plates"  I love reading Conference talks... :) I don't have my study material with me to relay some good spiritual insights so I'll do my best to remember one. That's cool about the 'Stripling Warriors' parade entry! I want to be in it! I actually wanted to talk about those valiant examples. It is so cool when Helaman asks them are you willing to fight right now against these Lamanites? And it says the stripling warriors had never fought yet they did not fear death. Why? because they were clean and prepared to meet God if they were to die. There mothers taught them that if they obeyed God would deliver them "We do not doubt our mothers knew it", such good examples of honoring their mothers. And because they obeyed every order with exactness not one soul perished. Another good example is when Nephi and his brothers are asked to return to Jerusalem to get the plates (200 mile journey back to Jerusalem) and his brothers murmur but reluctantly go with Nephi who doesn't question nor complain. I think we are more like Laman and Lemuel than we suppose, we might complain then go to seminary or we might complain and then go to mutual or we might complain and then have family prayer or family night. We've got to be like Nephi and just go and do the things that are commanded of us. Be valiant! He then later breaks his bow and his brothers and even Lehi murmurs! And once Nephi makes a bow out of wood and then asks his dad where to go in order to obtain food. (Even after his dad murmured Nephi asked his dad where to go to get food) He still trusted his dad and the lord because he knew he was a prophet and honored his mother and father. We can learn so much from the scriptures. Have a wonderful 24th of July! And study old Conference addresses, you just might learn something! "

Love,

Elder Blackburn

I do not doubt my mother knows it!