Happy New Year!!

Happy new year indeed... It's misserable to think that at the end of this year I'll be at home

We really didn't do much for New Years Eve, our zone leaders asked us not to go tracting or contacting on either day, so we just sorta tried to visit people (I'd rather do missionary work when i can... So I didn't exactly listen to well to what they told me to do) so it was just another average day, the only difference is that we stayed up playing uno with rage cards, but it was fun cause we got to change the rules around a little bit for all the different cards that are in a rage deck. ie: bonus 5 drops the top five cards off the deck onto the play pile, so the next card is very random, so who knows whats going to drop. or -5 puts the top five cards on the discard aside, so a card previously played is the one they need to keep playing off of, it's kinda fun haha, it kept us busy until midnight... and 12:01 we went to bed. It was basically.. Happy new year! Good night.


The wind chill really is the problem, it's not so bad in warmer climates, but when it's like 5 degrees, a 20 mph wind puts it at like -20, it's bad.

For our branch Sunday meetings we are actually changing times this year, but it's for a different reason, this year we're finally adding a Sunday School class, so we're going to 2 and a half hours, so church is a half an hour earlier and gets done at the same time. So it'll be good, we have church at 9:30 now over here. It's actually surprising, this little branch has seen so much growth in 2010, all our branch presidency moved in in this year, as well as other families, and 2 families have become active, it's insane, I think we had our highest numbers since a missionary farewell talk some 5 years ago. We had 44 people at church this last week. The branch was all way happy and amazed that we're growing so well.

As for missionaries helping out at church, I doubt I'll be asked to play the piano, I can't play even nearly well enough to actually play the piano for people to sing, I still wish I hadn't quit, but that's neither here nor there. I'll have to deal with not knowing unless I spend the time to actually teach myself and practice, which I don't have on a mission anyway, so another time.

We do however give lots of talks and teach classes a lot, but that also is part of being in a small branch, everyone has given multiple talks and multiple musical numbers, it doesn't matter how good/bad you are at singing you'll probably be asked at some point to do such haha.

You know what... When I think about how trials will be in the life to come, I think about the change wrought upon the three Nephites, they were changed to no longer feel pain or sorrow, except for the sins of the world. That "except" rings with me, as it tells me that in the life to come, we won't have to worry about the weakness of flesh, we will have to worry about the weakness of our minds and mindsets, we will be absolutely sorrowed only when we see others making mistakes, or we make mistakes ourselves, God is perfect, and there are only 2 ways we can go in life, progressing or digressing, the only way for God to improve is to see our improvement, so his progression is to make us better, and when we fail to do such, he feels the only negative feeling that you can feel in that perfected state, sorrow for sin. We will not instantly be perfected at the end of times, we will not instantly become like God, it will be a long hard road of progression, that's why we have eternity to do such. And just like any trial, you cannot overcome it alone, without the help of our Father in Heaven, and without seeking the help from those he has given to us, we can't find the end of the road, our eternal progression will never reach perfection without another lifting us up. Even God himself I believe would not be perfect and thereby able to do all things had his eternal companion not been there to lift him up. Nothing in the Gospel is a solo act, everything about the Gospel is a team goal, no matter what you look at in the Gospel, no matter what you study, there will always be a link to how you need someone else to fulfill that subject.
Anyway, it was a fast week, I don't even know what happened this week, I only know it's over haha!

I'll see ya next week

Elder Kissner