life and times of missionaries..

Hello,
This week was really slow work wise, not much seems to be happening, but we're working hard and trying to get things done. We found out that our main investigator is afraid of being baptized, since someone has to lean him backwards, and he isn't to prone to trust people. But, we're going to keep working with him. None of our other investigators were available this week, so it was a rough one, but hopefully this week is better. We had an interesting experience, last week a member was telling me that my backpack looked like it was about ready to die, and Tuesday night, as we were biking home I had it packed full of stuff, and it was quite heavy. So as we're biking home, I hit a bump and hear this tearing sound near my right shoulder, so I started asking myself, what was that, and then I heard it again, and I realized that the shoulder of my backpack might be tearing, so I reach back and sure enough it's almost gone. So I start freaking out, and I think to myself if that strap breaks, the other wont be far behind, so I determine in my mind to be as close to home as possible before it happens. Then I start thinking that my companion is probably going to think I'm crazy, but I had no choice, there was no way I could carry all the stuff in my backpack, and we're a mile and a half from home, and it's almost curfew. So at the conclusion of these thoughts in my mind, I start shifting the gears and I take off. I must really have been cooking, because we made it through the door in about 10 minutes (mail stop included), but anyways we get to the mailbox in our complex and my companion pulls up and he asks "What was that?" so I showed him my backpack and he was pacified. Then later, I find out that he'd been thinking of scary stories when I'd taken off, so he'd been thinking something had scared the snot out of me or something, so it was hilarious. On the other side of the spectrum, as we were studying, I ran across something that really impressed me, and made me truly look at life a little differently. If we look at the account of the Saviors' crucifixion in John, it says that after he had died, a Roman Soldier stabbed him with a spear, to make sure he was dead, and an interesting thing happened, Blood and Water came out.... Now, normally if you stab someone, just blood comes out, but if blood comes out mixed with water, it means that the chest cavitity had already been filled with blood, and that the blood had mixed with other bodily fluids. This has happened on a few occasions, where nothing actually physically caused someone to bleed internally, yet their body is filled with blood, so what it means is that some vessel within the Savior must have broken in order for this to happen. It has also been scientifically proven that when a person is subjected to enough physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual torment, it can actually cause the walls of their heart to rupture, which brings us to an interesting conclusion.... The actual physical cause of Christs' death was a broken heart! When I learned this, it truly pricked my heart, and made me realize just how crushing the Atonement must have been for the Savior, he felt so much pain, that it literally caused his heart to break. That is quite astonishing to me. The other thing that really hit me, was that hatred is not actually the opposite of Love, indifference is... Hating someone requires you to still have strong feelings concerning said person, whereas indifference means you have lost all feeling regarding whatever the object of your desire is. Anyways, those are my thoughts for the week, I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and that he gave everything he had for us, so that we could inherit all that his Father has. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and I pray that we may all use it more fully in our loves, and express our Love and gratitude to our Father in Heaven for the matchless gift of his Son, In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sincerely,
Elder Hughes

p.s. his new back pack got mailed last week