Week 53 July 13, 2015 "Happy Birthday Big Chief Picard!!!!!!"

Happy Birthday Big Chief Picard!!!!!! You is an old fart now haha. How does it feel to be 53? I love you so much Dad, you are the best Dad a poor little Indian boy like me could ask for :) Make sure and have Mom make you a yummy treat or something then eat my share of it too!! Maybe you could even convince her to take you to Red Robin for some bottomless fries because that place is your jam. I am not sure if you all got to move into our new house yet but I sure hope so. I can't wait to see pictures of our cool new house. Well I am past my year mark now so it is cool to look back and read my journal entries from the MTC this time last year. I can't believe it has already been a year! I wish I would have took more time in the MTC and wrote better journal entries though haha. My entries now are way better and I make sure to write every day but I stinkin missed a few days in the MTC. Now I know to keep that journal going because writing and reading your journal on the mission is super helpful. It is cool to look back and see how much I have grown. I maybe haven't changed day and night but I am trying and little by little I think I can change into the missionary but even more important the person the Lord knows me to be. 

      I have been reading in Matthew and man do you learn a lot from the parables Jesus told. They of course sometimes are super hard to understand but when you understand them it is really cool. Jesus really does know everything and put the Pharisees in their place a lot and truly made them think. When I read the parables Jesus told to the Pharisees it really made me realize how much I try and justify. Justify meaning that I sometimes think I know what is best for me and do things my way. The problem I ran into was that I was putting "my" into whatever I was saying too much. I definitely still have a long ways to go on it for sure and definitely don't have it down but I am trying. I think it is best to realize that God knows all and so does His son, Jesus Christ, I have my name on my badge but I also more importantly have Christ's name as well. This for sure isn't my work and it never will be my way. I wish it was but it wont be. I just hope by the end of my mission I can truly realize and master that submitting my will to the Lord. 

        We went to Costco this week and I got some Mexican blend cheese so that has been really yummy but it is also making me miss Nacho Sunday :( My companions had a party with all the people they came to country with so we went and played basketball last Monday and it was really fun. We had Zone Training this week and there are 4 missionaries going home in our zone at the end of this transfer so they gave their farewell speaks and they were all super good!! Elder Dewey from my house gave a really good one and he related what he said to the movie Kung Fu Panda. He said missionaries spend there whole mission trying to find something that will make things easier or just the answer to missionary work but he said honestly "There is no secret ingredient." God has given us all we need to succeed. Sometimes we just gotta believe in ourselves and of course trust in God because He will always have our back! When it is hard Christ is right there pushing us along we may not notice it but He is! President Morrise called and wanted to meet and just talk so I met him last night. We had a really good talk about my struggles and my mission. President Morrise is the man! I just hope someday I can be like him. My comp and I were kind of butting heads for a while but we had a talk and we are doing great now so that's good. It really does just help to talk it out sometime. We had a ward party this week that was super fun and we got lots of food as prizes. After the party we played basketball for a while. Then later that night we played basketball again with a LA. We played ball for like 5 hours Saturday so man did I sleep like a rock that night. 

          Missions definitely are a roller coaster and sometimes one you want to get off of but you can't haha. Just gotta push on that's all I can do. Time to shock the world and become the real Elder Picard who never gets angry and is patient 100% of the time and who loves everyone no matter what. 

Love and Prayers!!!

Elder Picard 

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