Return to Farsiland

Return of Far-Kor

Its good to be back in the good ol FarsiLand. Definitely surreal, but Im grateful to be back. Its unique to be able to return to an area on our mission, it doesnt happen very often but Im glad I was able to "come home" haha. I do miss the people down in PV, but Im excited to continue to kick it uptown in Santa Monica.

Persian Food

We got right back into the swing of things. Right out the gate we had lunch with two Persian investigators, Mahyar and Saide. We had Persian food (its been a while ans was so good) and then sat and talked about the Book of Mormon. We were explaining it to Mahyar and Saide chimed in and wanted to explain all about it (investigator present lesson?). We ended up reading 3N11 and they were fascinated that Christ had come to America. Super cool. 

Visitors Center

Something different in the Persian Program is that we now get to teach via Skype. So about 3-5 times a week we teach people in Stockholm, Sweden. Its been very interesting and good practice for my Farsi. Its been weird having Elder Wiedrich just know everything but a big help for sure. I retained a lot more than I thought I would and itll definitely take a little to get rolling again, but Im excited and have started to pick up on a lot more of whats going on in just the past week. 

Church was good, Mahyar came and brought his friend Danny to church. Super cool that Persians bring their friends to church, you should do that, its easy! They enjoyed it and we are excited to meet up with them again this week. 

There was a lady in church who spoke and she compared life to a community college art class that she took. She related how great it was that all she had to do to get an A, is show up, do the work and try her best. Thats all she had to do and she succeeded! There was no tryouts, no prior knowledge needed or skill set required. She got an A in art class despite the fact that she didn't have any artistic skills in her. I think life is much the same way. As long as we show up to life, do the work necessary and try our best to improve, we will succeed! God will reward us for our efforts. He is not going to say, "Ohh, you're not good enough to get into heaven." 

I was reading in 2N2 this morning and it was talking about how salvation is free.  Its up to us to decide where we end up. It shouldn't be a hopeful surprise when we scoot on up to judgement but rather be able to stand before God and say, "I tried my best." We are good enough and we are going to make it. Keep trying and hang in there. It all starts with the desire and then we gotta commit. :) God loves you. 

Have a great week!

Elder Knudsen and Elder McCracken--completing their missions

Just walking by the temple

Palos Verdes