February 15, 2016

Current Address:

Elder Truman Burgess

216 1/2 Jackson Street #3

Hancock, MD 21750

Monday, February 15, 2016:

I'll be honest.

I cannot wait for Spring.

That being said, the cold weather has brought plenty of experiences that allowed us to help those we normally never would have met, many of which had nothing to do with shoveling snow! One guy in particular is named Logan, an 18 year old. Before the past month he hadn't been to church for the past 10 years of his life, and, coupled with a tough adolescence living with his abusive alcoholic father in the back hills and his mom having left his life when he was eight, has brought him to a deep pit of sadness and unrest. Logan's dad is a dedicated smoker, smoking some three packs of cigarettes a day for the past thirty years. This has brought Logan to smoke since he was ten years old, all the way up to now where he has created such an enormous addiction that it seems nothing can rid him of his chains. The doctor told him that if he didn't stop smoking he'd die in the next 20-30 years for sure. Logan has a deep desire to change and come closer to God, but there are obstacles every turn he makes.

In one of our lessons with him this week we described the deep meaning of adversity and hardships that seem to follow our shadows wherever we go. Even when we bask in much needed sunlight, a dark shadow is destined to form behind us. Opposition is one of, if not the greatest, tests of our lives here. Each of us has a differently tuned addiction, mental disability, physical disability, or string of circumstances we have no control of. The grand test of life is what we do with the time given to us (ask Gandalf about that ;)). Repentance is the act of turning away from an inward focus and look outwards to the potential horizons ahead. Once the focus is set for the future, each moment needs to be lived individually, day by day, living with the exact time given in the situations we encounter, never forgetting that the only way to carry on is through the infinite spirit and truth of God, given by our Savior's eternal walk alongside us. No one can move to upward change alone. Only by living the lifestyle in the Gospel of Jesus Christ can we receive, recognize, and react to adversity in the most beneficial way. Optimism doesn't come from looking in the mirror all day, but by looking and being out the window.

The first thing we did to help Logan was destroy his instant rolling cigarette machine with him. That was fun. The road ahead for him is going to be a tough one since he's surrounded constantly with his addictions by his friends and father and home, but the Lord really meant it when he told us by Paul (these are some of my favorite scriptures by the way hehe):

 15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

 16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

 18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:15-18)

Sometimes it can be hard to believe. Sometimes it's hard to feel. But take a leap and recognize there's a lot more to life that needs to be lived than that which is seen and that which is heard. 

xoxo

Elder Burgess <3