hmmmm

here's a question for you:

the gospel offers so much happiness and is so tender. why, in the scriptures, do they not focus more on that? i feel like they are always just preaching repentance, almost harshly. why do you think that is? do you think it's just a difference in culture in the times we live? any responses would be appreciated. thanks much.

78 degrees, clear, and sunny. denali natl park

I don’t really know what’s gone on with me the past few weeks—well, since I got up to Alaska. I really can’t figure it out, but for some reason, I’ve started taking my spirituality so much more seriously. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that I have the opportunity to do missionary work up here. For the first time since my mission, I am in a predominantly non-member area and I can actually get involved in the work.

We had a baptism the other day where a 27 year-old guy named matt was baptized. He is so incredibly humble and really desires to follow the Lord. He asked me to speak at the baptism about the Spirit. I had an absolutely incredible experience while speaking, which totally just pounded into my head about not only the reality of the Holy Ghost, but also the importance of Him in our lives.

I’m out on the highway now, being trained on a tour that goes down to Copper, which is about halfway between Fairbanks and Valdez. We’ll have a couple days down in copper, do a day in valdez, and then a day back in Fairbanks. I think it’ll be pretty cool. I’m actually pretty happy to get out of Fairbanks—the company for which I am driving just merged with another company and the merger has caused quite a bit of disorganization and there are some pretty crazy things going on there driving-wise that will be good to escape. I think I’ll be on this tour about every other week, so I’ll spend about a third of my remaining time out on the road doing that. While I’m out on the road, I don’t have reception because I have Sprint as my carrier, which sucks (I can’t wait for my contract to end in August). So the best way to get a hold of me during that time will be on here, via email, or facebook. Basically I won’t have the use of my phone till Monday.

Ok. That’s all. Off to read the skips and then my emails from my mission—I just found the whole lot of them and am really excited to go back and remember everything.