"Well, this week was ice cold. Everyday. I know it is cold in Utah and stuff but the cold here is a little different, the humidity here makes the wind bone chilling and it was like in the 20-30's like all week. We biked A TON which was good, and did a lot of work. Last night as we were biking home we looked up and saw a meteor like trail across the sky and break apart, it was the neatest thing! It was really cool that we were able to see that. Last week some of the days were kinda tough for this Elder because we just were doing so much, I was so tired, it was super cold, no one to teach, and year mark approaching and worrying if I've changed enough...All those factors are so menial after the fact but in the moment it was tough...until we went on exchanges with our Bishop. I prayed before we went out with him that I could get over this bad feeling that was pressing on me and that I could feel the spirit and get a boost. I'm a missionary serving the Lord, I should always be happy! So on exchanges with him we visited a sweet older lady...she is just so humble (so when we met with her and visited my small problems melted away) then after visiting a less-active family he told us he wanted to get "fatherly" and started giving us some advice (which I was most ready for!) he told me of how a family member of his suffered greatly Afghanistan/Iraq (5 IEDs and 4 Car Bombs)...even though he has been through all of that he still remains a faithful member of the church and a worthy priesthood holder and refuses to even take pain medications and is just super valiant. One night while they were driving around he said, "Hey can we stop by that Army Surplus store?" the Bishop said sure what for and he explained how he needed to get new knee pads because his are ruined and he didn't want to get them from the army because it would cost more. Bishop was like why? aren't the knee pads you guys have indestructible? he explained how while riding in the Hum-V a RPG came and broke through the windshield and hit the soldier next to him and so the son-in-law grabbed him down and pulled off the scrap metal and the soldier's body armor and started to do CPR and after realized he had been kneeling in melted copper and it had ruined his knee pads. After that the Bishop said to us Elders that no matter how bad things get, how dark the future looks there is nothing under heaven that gives us the right to leave the Savior. There are more reasons to endure than to give up. There is no challenge you can't overcome, no direction you can't change, you can always become the child of God the He would have you be. The Savior knows you and all your problems because he descended "below" all of them.
I learned a valuable lesson. 
Elder Hayden Blackburn - Oklahoma Tulsa Mission. Serving a voluntary two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
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