Things are going better...

Things have been going better lately. I feel like I've been learning a lot lately. I've probably been having the best studies of my entire mission, and that's saying something because there was a time when I could study all day because I was enjoying it so much. I think the difference though is that not only am I learning, my studies are also meaningful to me personally. I feel like the things that have helped me most have been personal experiences with the scriptures and personal experiences with the Atonement, because I could read about swimming all day and learn about it, but until I jump in the water, I'm never going to really know what it's all about. Same with the gospel, you can learn about it all day, but until you start to experience it, then you'll never know what the real deal is. As for the work, sadly not really much is happening but we've found like 2 less actives who we asked if they'd like to take the lessons from us because they've been out of church for years, and they both said yes. One of them really needs it because her life is a wreck right now, the other one needs it a lot too actually because I guess she just got out of a really bad relationship lately. She said she would come to church on Sunday, but she didn't.... But I feel like we're getting to know the ward a lot better and we've been trying to work with our ward mission leader a lot more so hopefully things will start to progress. This ward had some things happen within the last couple of months, some pretty hefty things, and it's kind of messed up a lot of the spirituality of the ward and the whole ward is just not really in a good place as a whole. Today, we went hiking at this one spot that some members told us about, it wasn't that great. Then Elder Naef, he's serving in Broken Arrow, and I went to downtown Tulsa to see what it was all about. It was pretty cool actually. For a big city, there was like nobody on the streets. It was kind of weird, but it's also really mucky today so that could be why. I'll send some pictures today. I think one day, I'd like to live in a big city, just for a couple of months to get the feel down. We'll see what happens.

Elder Naegle