August 16, 2010 Rubics Cube and missionary service

Dear Home,

 

Last week, I forgot to tell you that transfers were coming up. Elder Sheffield and I got our Transfer call last night. No, not last night. The night before. It came early this time. Anyway, we can all breathe easy because we're staying here another month and a half, making this my second (and certainly my favorite) 6 Month area. Where will I go for the last 6 Months of my mission? God only knows, but one thing is almost certain: I won't stay in Flin Flon much longer. 6 months is about the longest time a missionary stays in one area, unless something unusual happens, so assuming we don't run into any problems, I should be here until about the end of September, by which time I expect I'll be moving on. =S

 

In the meantime, the weather has been stunningly beautiful up here. =D The light showers that we had been receiving has broken up into the most gorgeous clouds yo've ever seen. Beautifully colorful yesterday, now a remarkably pure shade of fluffy white. ^^ Lots of sunshine, too. I'm really loving it. =) ((Note to Mom: And don't worry, I put suncreen on arms, neck and face every morning before we head out. 0=) ))

 

The weather has also been contributing to the growth of the local berries, which has been both good news and bad news for us. Good news because one of the members has a raspberry patch. She recently gave us a large ziplock bag full of raspberries, and they tasted delicious! Especially in ice cream. ^^

 

The berries are also bad news because one of our investigators has been spending all her free time picking wild blueberries, leaving little time to read her scriptures, let alone visit with us. =S But that's not a huge problem. This investigator's daughter is an active member, and the investigator has been meeting with the missionaries for a long time. The summer may have slowed down her progress a little, but she's still receiving the gospel, and as the autumn breezes blow in, berry season is drawing to a close, and I'll soon has very different problems than the risk of getting a sunburn. xD But hey, that's Canada for you! xD

 

Something interesting that happened recently: We used Rubic's Cubes to teach a lesson at the end of a dinner appointment with a member family. We taught about the creation, how it wasn't the fruits of some random accident, but rather that it was formed and organised by inteligent design. To demonstrate this, my companion challenged me to 'organise' the Rubic's Cube in front of the whole family... in less than two minutes.

 

Now, just to lay some background information, Elder Sheffield is amazingly good at solving Rubic's Cubes and he has been teaching me some new tricks and manuevers that helped me to solve a Rubic's Cube faster, and (on P-Days) I've been practicing and timing myself, so Elder Sheffield knew that unless I got a very unlucky cube shuffle, I could easily solve the cube in less than two minutes.

 

I solved the cube in a minute and fifteen seconds, my fastest time ever. It was even faster than Elder Sheffield's best recorded time for solving a fully shuffled cube. We were both excited. But unfortunately, I haven't been able to solve a Rubic's Cube in less than two minutes since then. At least, not that I recall.

 

And thus we see that when we are actively engaging in the service of the Lord, whatever we may be doing, ALL our attributes, skills and talents may be increased far beyond our natural abilities. That's very comforting, especially when one is required of the Lord to do something that we think we can't do. Think of Nephi. There was probably a point in time when he was tempted to think 'What am I doing? There's no way I can get the brass plates from Laban all by myself.' By the funny thing is, he wasn't 'all by himself', and neither are we.

 

Love, your miraculously quick-fingered missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

 

PS, I bet my Words Per Minute have improved a lot since I've been on my mission, too. =) Just wanted to point that out. ^^ God is good. =)