Sin Lieth at the Door

This is a fruit here interestingly called Tuna! It comes from cactus
 and although it looks like a giant ball of boogers, its DELICIOUS.
You eat it whole, seeds and all!

       HEY EVERYBODY!!! So this week was alrightttt. Nothing too exciting, but youve probably gotten used to that, HA!....but seriously i appologize. This week we are going to have interviews with President Stellmon, so hopefully there will be something cool to write about! Buttt in the meantime, on to the most exciting part of the emails - My dads questions!

       Okay, so as for Dads questions this week - 1) Kinda....you can see Popo from almost everywhere in the mission, but there are a few areas that are super far away so you have to be up really high to see it in the distance. 2) Yes, they use the metric system, and it is very annoying sometimes haha lemme tell you. And that also means that they list all the temperatures in ONLY Celsius, and then i have to pull out my phone and convert it to fahrenheit. -_- 4) And last of all, yes, the packages have everything written on them in justtt spanish. If there is something written with BOTH spanish and english, i assure you the english is very poor.

      Soo this week was pretty normallll. Sorry about it, but thats just how the mission is sometimes. HOWEVER we were able to have a few great lessons with our investigators. We are really working well with the members right now and its been showing in the progress of our investigators. The hardest thing to do usually is get them to come to church, but if the members are helping us with teaching them and everything then they feel welcome and its not so hard! We usually go to pick up our 2 investigators M y P at 8:40 on Sundays so we can get to church about 5 minutes early. But this week at 8:35 they called me ad were like "Oh hey Elder, dont worry about passing by our house for us. We already left so we wouldnt be late. We will just see you there!" I was blownnnn away haha ive never had investigators do that and its cause the members are really getting involved. Its been great. And then we are helping 2 of our other investigators with some challenges they are having that are preventing them from being able to get married and baptized. But they are SOOOO great! They are progressing soo fast and i want them to be ready NOW! But the Lord has already helped them soo much and im sure he can do more miracles for them in his own time. Soo thats whats going on right now as for the missionary work.

       Alright, well the spiritual thought from this week...is kinda long... and comes from Moses (which is a book from the Pearl of Great Price). We have the Book of Moses because Joseph Smith translated part of the Bible and by the grace of God recorded many truths which were lost over time. In one part of the Book of Moses, we read the story of Cain and Abel. In part of the story Cain becomes angry because he offered an inapropriate sacrifice to the Lord which was rejected, while the righteous sacrifice of Abel was pleasing to the lord. The bible relates what happens next but leaves out some of the powerful wording that the Lord really used in his communication with Cain.

       Moses 5: 22-23 reads: "22) And the Lord said unto Cain: Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen? 23) If thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted. And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and Satan desireth to have thee; and except thou shalt hearken unto my commandments, I will deliver thee up, and it shall be unto thee according to his desire..."

       In this verse we read such a profoundly simple yet powerfully clear admonition from the Lord to all of us. I feel like sometimes we forget that what we do (whether wicked or righteous) will ultimately determine our hapiness in this life. So if we do well, then come what may, we have the promise of having joy. HOWEVER if we do NOT head the councils of the Lord and we DONT follow the commandments we will inevitably reap the misery we have sown. Satan really desires to have us "that he may sift [us] as wheat". His one and only purpose is to make us horribly miserable and because of such a purpose, SIN LIETH AT THE DOOR!! Dont open it! The world is full of Lucifer's clever tricks - the most deadly of which are snares disguised as commonly accepted daily practices such as pornography, immorality, drinking, smoking, and many others. And if we give into the temptation, God, being perfect, has to withdraw his spirit from us and it will up to the devil and his will, what happens with us. So keep the commandments, follow the prophet, and pray always that you might not enter into temptation!

Love,

Elder Josh Hamm