JAN 25 2016

1-25-16

Well the last week was a short one so this email will be too! One of my cool thing they happened from the last week was that I was able to go on exchanges with the Traveling AP to Virginia which is out of the mission! It was cool to drive down and visit with that family! They were super sweet and fed us some good tacos! One crazy part was that as we were about 20 minutes away it started to snow pretty hard! So the 20 minutes tuned quickly into another hour of driving! The drive back ap was worse and about 3 hours! We ended up driving a whole of 6 hours that day! It was a long time, but Elder Parker and I had some really good talks! Some of which I'll share later. First funny story wad that we pulled up next to a big travel bus and it said wifi on the side! So I tried to click to see if it would work, it needed a password sadly! I then looked at the bus for any sign of a password! That's when I decided to choose one of the 2 phone numbers on the side, and it worked! So we just got behind the bus and had some wifi for a bit which was funny! Another cool thing wad while I was gone my companion was able to tract into a lady who wanted us to come back, and then accepted wanting to be baptized! I'm so excited to be able to help someone towards that and to help them come closer to Christ! So that'll be an adventure for sure! 

The next big thing was the huge snow storm that I'm sure you all heard about! We were snowed in for about 3 days, which took the rest of my week after our exchange! So it was a long first day of not being able to do much. So as usual when you put a bunch of young adult men in an apartment locked up for too long we come up with ideas. We decided to have our other missionary buddies form the apartment 5 miles away walk to us, but that we would meet them half way! So we got all warm in all the clothes we could find, and started the trek! We met them about half way and had some fun of course along the way! It was a blizzard out there and I could probably have counted on all my fingers the cars we saw driving around it was so dead! There was no one out driving and actually quite a few people walking around! Lots of wind and snow and everything! Super crazy but super fun! We then were locked in again all weekend and to be honest not much went on and it was pretty boring! We were super happy to get out again and do some work! 

Lastly I want to share what I talked to Elder Parker about a little as well as Elder Squire a little bit! Is that we often forget about the grace of God. We really cannot be perfect in this life! In the end we all fall a little short! But the amazing thing is we have the atonement if Christ and the Grace of God which make up for that last bit they we need! So what does that mean? We can do whatever we want and be fine right? NO! We still need to do all we can! We need to have Pure hearts and Real intent, out in our best effort, and treasure up the word of God! After we do this along with all we can do, we will get there with the grace of God! The scripture for this week is 2 Nephi 25:23 because of the last phrase which is exactly where we can see this all backed up! It means we can't stop or give up! But we also have to know we will stumble at times, we're going to fall and even some will get really low. Nonetheless, if we do all we can and put in all our strength, faith, and trust in God, we will be able to make it by his Grace! So do your best, but if you mess up, know you have a safety net! We just need to allow God to use it by doing all we can do! I love you all and I hope you have a great week! 

-Elder Jacob Reed Kohler