This week was a good one! Except on Friday we were told by our Mission President to stay indoors all day! Because of "extreme weather conditions". Haha, but it wasn't even that bad on Friday! Saturday and Sunday were way worse than Friday!! But it was still a great week nonetheless.
Yesterday at church my testimony of the Savior and His atonement grew yet a little bit more. A guy gave a talk about the Savior and His birth and why His birth was so important. In his talk he told a story about this class full of boys that was very rambunctious and they had gone through a lot of teachers because they couldn't handle the class. So they got a new teacher that had the boys come up with a way that they would be punished if they broke the rules. One boy shouted, "ten stripes across the back without a jacket on!". The teacher asked the boys if they all agreed and they all did. The new punishment that was laid out straightened the boys up pretty well. But a couple days later the teachers lunch went missing. They found the boy who did it. A small, skinny boy. And there being no exception to the new rule the teacher reluctantly told the boy to take his jacket off and come up to the front of the class. The boy pleaded with the teacher, "Teacher, you can hit me as hard as you want, but please, don't make me take my jacket off." The teacher said that he couldn't make any exceptions. So the boy took his jacket off. But he had no shirt on. All he had was his jacket to cover his skin and bones. The teacher asked him why he would come to school without a shirt on, to which the boy replied, "My father passed away and my mother and I don't have much. I only have one shirt and my mother is washing it today." So the teacher was feeling pretty bad for this boy and didn't know what to do. He thought, "how can I hit this poor boy who has nothing?" When finally another boy in the class stood up and said "teacher, if you don't mind, I will take his stripes for him" and the teacher said "very well, it is okay for someone to take the punishment of another" and the other boy took his punishment for him. Afterwards the first boy hugged the boy that took his punishment for him and told him that he would love him forever for caring enough to take his beating for him.
I might've butchered the story a little bit but I just told it the best I could remember!
We can relate this story to what the Savior did for us. We all sin. We all disobey the rules. Because we disobey the rules we all need to be punished. But the Savior loved us so much that He took the beating for us. He came to this earth. He lived a perfect life. And He suffered for each and everyone one of our sins, pains, and weaknesses. For each and everyone of us. He provided a way for us to be able to become clean again. And to live in His presence for eternity. I will forever be in debt to Him. May we all remember what the Savior did for us. Especially this Christmas as we celebrate His birth. I love you all and I hope you all have a great week and a very Merry Christmas!
Love,
Elder Waite
It's been cold in Arizona but I guess it's colder in Idaho! Jacob said it was -10 this morning! That's pretty cold. And I'm happy for them that they have 5 people set for baptism. He sounds so good. And we're looking forward to our Skype session on Sunday! Merry Christmas to you all!
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| The Christmas Tree we were given |
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| We didn't have a star... |
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| so we improvised! |
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| One of our favorite members, Sister Branham, made this quilt for me! |
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| Apparently Idahoans don't know how to spell Tucson! haha! |
