Chapter 17: Desire

"...the desire of the righteous shall be granted."

Proverbs 10:24

I really enjoyed this past week in all honesty. It wasn't easy, but I feel like I experienced some growth and learned some things. I feel truth from the words, "repetition is the mother of memory." The hardships I experience each day are simply shades of the trials from previous days, with strength being added as I continue to desire growth. Desire is such an important concept, especially in the divine relationship between us and God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Think about it.

We are most likely not going to be able to receive, in fulness, the strength and growth through Christ and God if we, in the first place, aren't desiring that relationship with either of them. We close ourselves off from divine instruction and guidance without a desire to receive such! However, I hesitate to say that any person in the world has no desire at all to become a better person. A better father or mother, sister or brother, son or daughter, employee or boss, teacher of student, the list goes on and on. We all have desires of personal growth, especially, I think, in the area of spiritual or even ethical development. I believe most people feel some sort of pull to be a "good" person, and inherent result of Christ's light in each of us. We don't want to let each other down. We don't want to let God down.

Our desires may begin simply and in a seemingly small fashion, but any desire, when internalized and acted upon, can lead to realized growth. The reason why being: true desire leads to humility. God loves it when we desire to improve and include him in that process, and perhaps the greatest desire we could have would be to understand God's will for ourselves and follow it.

This is something I've been working on, and in short, it led to some really wonderful experiences this week. I've really felt strong desires burn within me, and I have felt an increase of my utility in God's master hands.

To name an example, on Saturday, we went to the local Amish market to get a soft pretzel. I ordered mine first and was sitting down waiting for my companions when I noticed a woman standing nearby holding her child. She was singing very softly to the child, but loud enough so that I, and anyone who was paying attention, could hear. She had a lovely voice, very rich and beautiful. The child, who had once been crying, was now feeling much better. I felt much better too, but as I looked around, I noticed other people giving her very judgmental looks. The woman didn't seem to notice or care because she was very focused on her son. At that moment I felt a very distinct feeling enter my heart that I needed to tell her she had a lovely voice, and I resolved to do so when we left. I continued to sit there and noticed the woman's husband and an older son, who had just gotten their order, and heard the man speak very harshly to his wife. The woman's face at that moment I'm not sure I will ever forget—she just looked so used to it. My companions were leaving and as we crossed paths with the family, I stopped the young mother and said, "excuse me, ma'am, sorry. I just have to say that you have a lovely voice."

Life is good.

God is wise.

Don't give up.

Elder Childers

District Pday! We played tennis and Frisbee and basketball and made s'mores. I love these people a lot. Fun story, there were these two 21 year old guys playing basketball who challenged Elder Fleischel and I to some two on two, and it may have been a while since I've played and they were definitely much more technically better than us, BUT, I'm kinda tall and my fade away skills have not faded away so we won! Curtis and Allen were their names, really good and nice guys.

Fajitas from the Wojcickis, seriously the best family ever here in Reading, PA. I'll have to get a pic with them sometime