King Of Dreams

Whattup Jades,

This week was good(?) In terms of successes, I think I've mostly left the "existentially struggling with the burden of the calling" stage. In terms of... other things, I've officially entered the "dealing with interpersonal relationships" stage, which is actually harder in some ways. I already complain too much in this semi-public forum so if you want all the tea, email me.

Jk lol. It is difficult but also simultaneously I'm feeling great about some of the triumphs we've had. The Work is going fantastically; I'm pretty sure I incidentally ended up in the best area in the Mission. We put someone on date for baptism this week, and we very nearly got somebody on date for baptism without teaching them a single lesson. Saw a lot of miracles this week. We've had some great opportunities to be pure disciples and experience a lot of joy, which I'm grateful for. Just goes to show that God doesn't need anything special or incredible out of his servants; all he requires is an empty vessel which he can fill with his will. 

So yeah. We chilling. But in other news, I'd like to talk about a subject which is very dear to my heart today.

"I'm Studying the Dream of Lehi"

There's this bit in one of the episodes of The Chosen where the Apostle Philip sleeps in like every spare moment, so they just find him sleeping in random places at random times. I watched that and was like "oh haha" and thought nothing else of it.

Little did I know.

Waiting for the bus? Sleeping. On the bus? Napping. In the backseat of a member's car on our way back from lunch? Dozing. We get back from lunch fifteen minutes early? Zonked. Probably my favorite incident so far was yesterday when we were at the Bishop's house for this huge lunch event with the new Bishopric and I accidentally fell asleep on the couch in their house. The Bishop's wife came in and I started to get up cuz I felt kind of guilty but she smiled and said "Fica vontade, Elder" which being translated literally means something like "Stay with your will".

So guess what I did after that?

Lo-key though mission nap sleep is epic. Straight up sonão. Unfortunately, I don't actually dream like ever. I'm jealous of all you people who have cool dreams >:(

Grey Pilgrims

We gave a lot of Priesthood Blessings these last two weeks. Like, a lot. It's pretty cool cuz literally some random guy invited us into his house because he recognized us as "preachers" and he wanted us to help his brother who was struggling with some substance addictions and he's literally like an entirely different person now. We've also helped a ton of members and other people who didn't have consecrated oil with sicknesses and just blessings of comfort as well. I feel pretty strongly that this kind of thing is the purest kind of discipleship and service, and I feel the spirit literally every time. Also, I had to give a blessing after literally not understanding anything that was happening in a conversation like a week ago, and let's just say that Mark 13:11 is legit. It's pretty dope being a wandering disciple who mysteriously appears at precisely the moment they are needed. Ok we're not actually that mysterious or cool, but I can dream, right?

The Cradle Segment

The gnomes that track me eternally using three locks of my own hair warned me that if I go more than one week without talking about Cradle, they'll devour all the boxes of cake mix I have in the apartment and they'll also never let me read Waybound. So, since we already kinda had a spiritual thought segment, imma finish this email with a couple of my favorite Cradle quotes here that have been keeping me going.

"The foundation of any Path is learning to accept the world as it is, not as you wish or even observe it to be."

“When there’s only one road forward, take it with a smile.”

 

“Only storms turn fish into dragons.”

Well, that's all for now folks. Hope everybody has a great week that's challenging in all the best ways.

God is good,

Elder Ebbert