Pride Levels are High

We met a lot of people who really struggled with the Word of Wisdom but do love our church. I never thought I would have to review the 12 steps of repentance on my mission, nor did I see myself ever holding a cigarette. The mission changes you. But seriously, we've had a lot of our good friends struggling with the Word of Wisdom. We welcome ANY advice on overcoming smoking addictions or the whole-hearted desire to drink coffee. Cuz... I don't even. Know.

But I found a good talk I wanted to share! Mostly, Paul H. Dunn just made me laugh, then while my mouth was open, he shoved some motivational quotes down it. It's called "Know Thyself, Control Thyself, Give Thyself." Favorite quote time!

> The lives of many great men will testify to you that ofttimes they have many failures, and there is no disgrace in falling down; the disgrace is lying there. To get up one more time than you fall is to be a winner. To stay down is to be a loser.

 > And I said, “Spirit, I won’t.” I said, “I am the president of this mission.” And the Spirit seemed to respond with the counsel, “Yes, but you will keep him in Cambridge.” ... Well, I kept him.
(Mostly I just love this one because all the time I feel the the Holy Ghost responds to me like that. "But I don't wanna, and it'll hurt!" Spirit: "Yes, you're right! You're going to do great! *a loving spiritual shove*")

> I just keep goin’ up there and keep swingin’. I know the old law of averages will hold good for me the same as it does for anybody else, if I keep havin’ my healthy swings.

We gotta just keep trying. There's a quote from Adjusting to Missionary Life that I both love and hate: "Realize that everything you do can’t be above average. You still want to work hard to improve, but no matter how good you become at something, you will perform below your personal average some of the time. This is not a cause for alarm." A previous companion (Hna Wade) would say "I hate thinking that 50% of what I do is below average!" True, it's not the most motivational of thoughts, but when you have a bad day, it's the slack you need so you don't feel like an utter failure. It's ok to not be Epic all the time. It's ok to have set-backs, falling-shorts, and flop moments/days. Collapsing is not a sin. Just make sure to get back up and dust yourself off. You'll be here all week:)

In bullet point news

- All of our less-active friends came to church on Sunday! I'm so pa-rood Imma cry.

- Florida got filled with Love bugs.

Eve Baer - Lauren's first niece

- OH YEAH AMERICA!! We sat out on our lawn and got eaten by bugs and watched Fireworks. The coolest ones were the ones Mother Nature provided for free. I love lighting! Also, some of our neighbors shot some off their dock. That was exciting😅

- OH YEAH EVE!!!! I will direct you to the other Hermana Baer's email from last week for photos of the newest member of the Baer family.

- Oscar our investigator went from an unknown number of cigarettes (As in, he wouldn't tell us) to ~ 3 fully-smoked cigarettes in 2 days. Pride levels are high.

That's about it. Thanks for coming. Please exit the ride to your left and have a nice day. Here. At Lagoon.

District: the gathering. (Elders Arnson, Porter, Coppin, Cruz, Haderlie, Firth, Hnas Swan, Wade, Robbins, y Oso)

Blurry photographic evidence of my companion enjoying fireworks, but not pictures.

When our neighbors shot fireworks off their dock. Exciting times.