April 27, 2015

HEY ALL! 

I am doing so so so good here in Ecuador! 

   A few little changes here and there! On Monday night we got a call from the President informing me of my changes! So I packed my bags Monday night and headed to Guayaquil at 4:30 in the morning! Just a little early!

I was kinda sad...Empalme was such an amazing sector...but I guess DURAN is where I am needed now.

I am in Duran, Panarama...about 20 minutes outside of Guayaquil...and it is awesome! It is a little less "Tarzan" than my two other sectors...but the house is bad news bears! haha!

So the house didn't have power for four days straight...then finally it came on, but the owners of the apartment put the electric voltage at 350 when it should have been at 150...talk about a pillar of light! We were blinded! Then things started blowing up left and right!

The fridge...gone! Exploded.

The microwave...gone! Exploded.

I thought we were done with the explosions until I was ironing my shirt...then again! Explosion! 

haha!

It was quite funny but we ended up having to find another house and we are moving down the street later tonight.

   I still have the mystery marks on my arms...and it moved to my eye! But they are slowly but surely getting better...SO WE GOOD!

My new companion is Elder S out of Murray, Utah.

He is DOPE! Such a stud. He finishes his mission this July and wants to be a pilot in the Air Force just like me! We are super alike!

   I don´t have tons of time today, so I will sum up all the cool stuff and then get to the most important part!

I saw Elder Johnson! He is doing great! So good to see that dude! We met up in Guayaquil and got to talk for a sec before departing our separate ways.

   One of the members here loves to play the guitar...and he has a piano too! So we had a pretty good jam "sesh" together. Ed Sheeran, One Direction...but we finished with I Know That My Redeemer Lives! It was such a good time!

   When we were looking for a house one night we came across a deserted day care center that was up for sale...so we decided to check it out...

The power didn't work...there were paintings of children all over the wall...it had been deserted for over 10 years...and all we had was the light from out extremely outdated telephone...I thought I stepped myself into a horror movie...but we made it out alive!

   Sorry for the briefness of today...I promise next week will be better!

   I have been thinking tons about what you all are in need of and for some reason two punks just keep running through my mind...Laman & Lemuel.

Let´s reflect a little on their life for a second...

they complain when their father leads them away from harms way and delivers them out of a city that was going to be destroyed, they murmur when they are entrusted to retrieve a sacred record from King Laban, they are upset with The Lord even after he "makes their meat sweet, that they need not cook it" and "lights the way in the wilderness and prepares the way."

I think we could all ask ourselves some questions to find out whether or not we are a modern day Laman or Lemuel.

Do I complain when I have to give up something for The Lord?

Do I murmur when The Lord trusts me to be His hands?

Am I upset when things get hard?

If the answer to any one of these questions is yes...vamanos mejorando! (Let´s get better!)

   It is a commandment to "be strong and of a good courage, to be not afraid and neither dismayed."

Be strong! Give the Lord some muscle! He is going to give you more but He has to know that you are willing to put your trust in Him first... after all, "you receive to witness (no light, strength, testimony, deliverance, NOTHING) until after the trial of your faith."

If you tell yourself you are too weak for a task Satan just won. Do not say "it's just me", "it's too hard", or "I can't do it", because you are denying the Almighty God in whom you trusted and accepted before you came to this world and trusting the father of lies in whom you denied and have already defeated once.

God is the creator of your body and your soul...if you don't trust in yourself you don't trust in your Heavenly Father...you can do all things...all things are possible through your hands through our Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ...YOU WERE CREATED BY THE HAND OF A KING.

Are we murmuring?

When we murmur "the devil laughs and his angels rejoice". When we smile and laugh the devil crumbles and his angels cry.

BE OF GOOD CHEER!

If we could just focus eternally on our existence for a small moment...

How long do we have here on earth?

Forever in the past and forever into the future makes this life nothing. On an eternal timeline you were born a second ago...you grew up and got married half a second ago...and you are going to have children and die in this very moment. 

How do you want to spend your second? This precious second that our Heavenly Father has given to us.

Spend it smiling. Spend it laughing.

"Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for behold, your reward is great in Heaven."

In summary Brothers and Sisters...

DON'T BE A LAMAN OR LEMUEL.

Don't trust in Satan.

Do not murmur or permit Satan and his angels to laugh.

Be the reason that they fall. Be the reason that they fail.

Do not eat, drink, and be merry of the world.

Instead...Eat, drink, and be merry The Lord's way.

Receive your reward in Heaven by being like Nephi.

SMILE! REJOICE!

Smile and rejoice for this small second that you have...you are dying right now according eternities time watch...

How are you going to spend it?

With so much love you can´t even handle,

Elder Noll