Enduring to the End

Hey Guys,

Sora Ralls dressed like an Elder.

This week was Zone Conference week. Had an interesting event happen when we had to grab a train and travel to Bucharest from Brasov. After we were done teaching English we had to grab a taxi to get to the train station in time to make the train. When we arrived at the taxi station, there was 3 empty taxi cars. And then a taxi pulled up. We asked if he was free, he shook his head no and told us to wait for another one, we asked him when the next one would come and he didn't know. A little while later another taxi pulled up and we asked if he was free, he also said no. We were in a time crunch to get to the train station so we were really confused. Elder Brown tried calling a taxi service and they didn't answer. We tried waving a taxi down and he just sped away. After standing there thoroughly confused, and hoping we make our train, we were able to get through to a taxi service and get there in time to make the train. Thought it was weird that none of the taxi's wanted to take our money. 

This was our last Zone Conference with our current Mission President, President Hill. It was a great Zone Conference and I will definitely miss him and his wife. 

I hope all of you saw the full moon this week. I got some pictures of how it looked over here in Romania.

I thought I'd include another Scripture this week.

Ether 12:27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

So one day I was talking with my companion about why it feels that even though I am trying my best, it feels that I'm not, or that I can do so much better. Or why I feel bad for the little things, even though, before my mission, when I was (for lack of better words) a less better person, I didn't feel these things. He replied with this scripture: Ether 12:27.

 ​After reading​ it, it really hit me. When I came out here on my mission, I decided that I wanted to make my mission worth it and not just waste these 2 years. Making that decision 

​has ​helped me grow closer to Christ. As I have been trying to read and understand the scriptures​,​ I realized how many things I could change in my life. And by trying to grow to be better, He has shown me my weaknesses and has really shown me how much I really need to improve, unlike before when I simply said, "Well, at least I'm not as bad as those people" or, "In fact, I'm pretty good compared to a lot of people." I've realized that we forget that we aren't trying to be better than other people in the world, but should​ be trying to be more like

​​Christ and be perfect. And when we look at it that way, the hard way,​ the way​ I always avoided looking, we are humbled down to our core and we realize how many things we really do need to change, big or small​. And in these processes of trials we will grow to be, like the scripture said, strong unto them. And I believe this to be the definition of Enduring to the End. It says "enduring" for a reason because it's not going to be easy. But as we become stronger, we feel so much better and peaceful with ourselves and realize that it truly is the better way to live life. So I thought I'd end it with that and I hope you guys have a great week!​

-Elder Houk