Week 3 - CCM

Not Eventful Everyday...However....
Here is mi y mis compañeros approximá de mi casa

Hello everybody! I hope everyone is doing super great!

This week wasn't near as eventful as last week was, but a lot of cool things did happen.

This last Sunday we had such an awesome day of teaching. Our awesome branch President, President Hatch, taught a mini lesson from the allagory from Jacob 5. In it, the Lord of the vineyard (God) sees his vineyard go through different stages through eternities. What the lesson was was what he said after viewing the hardships of his vineyard, "what more could I have done". He then related that to us on our mission. I think we could relate it to all of you as well. Sometimes we are going to get comfortable and just kind of cruise through life rather than living it to the fullest. If you ever feel like this, or feel unproductive, or aren't sure what to do next: contemplate what more you can do and pray to God what more you could do. I know you will be blessed because of it. We also had a surprise devotional broadcast from the Provo MTC. The speaker was Elder M. Russel Ballard from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! His wife spoke briefly about the importance of the Book of Mormon. Elder Ballard talked to us about keeping our thoughts and actions clean while on our mission. His phrase was "lock your heart". It was a good devotional, but kind of random. Because of the suddenness of this, it makes me wonder why he needed to speak on this at this time. I hope I never found out why.

On Tuesday we had yet another apostle talk to us. This time it was Elder Neil L. Anderson! There were many lessons he had taught but the main one I want to share with all of you is keep your flame of faith alive. We sometimes lose hope because we don't know what is going to happen next. Heck that's all us missionaries do! But if we have faith in God and Our Savior, Jesus Christ, we will be okay. And that is all that matters.

Here is one miracle that has happened this week. On Monday, one Elder in our district (Elder Mendon), we think, received a mild concussion. I say we think because when he went to go and see the doctor, he wasn't in. He received some pain meds and was told to sleep. He hadn't fully recovered even though it had been three days. He asked our district to give him a priesthood blessing. He has not had a problem with his head since. I know that through the power of the Priesthood and through excercising faith, we can do anything. That lesson, I am sure, will be taught to me over and over and over on my mission. 

Now to stop lecturing all of you. I have met a lot of people here that I did not think I would meet and here is the list of them: Elder (Kyle) Ransom, Elder Rasmussen (from Burlington), Elder (Brock) Taylor, and Elder (Joe) Harris. It has been really cool to see and catch up with all of these wonder men of God. I also finally met someone that is going to my mission! I am awful at names so I do not remember hers but she will be leaving the same day I will be! She was explaining to me that most of the people going to our mission did not get their visas in time so they had to go to the Provo MTC. She and I are just happy we finally know someone going to Ecuador Quito North!

I have been asked to tell you more about my companions and daily routine. Elder Frey is from Salt Lake City, Utah. He also just graduated from high school at East High. He has a girl back home that sends him letters everyday so we all give him a hard time about it. Elder Maruyama is from Las Vegas (Hutchenson), Nevada. He is half Japanese and half Hawaiian. I would tell you his first name but I can't spell it let alone pronounce it. My daily routine looks like the following: 6:00 -> work out, 6:30 -> Prep for the day, 7:15 -> Personal Study, 7:45-> Breakfast, 8:15-> Classes, 12:45p-> Lunch, 1:30p-> Study, 2:30-> Gym time, 4:00-> Classes, 9:00-> Return to our casa. We have, during the time of classes, some times that we will teach our teacher investigators.

I am sad to hear of all the people that have passed away. I hope the Barrick Family is okay. I have kept them in my prayers and pray that they will receive peace. 

Love you all and have an awesome week!

--Elder Ogden--

This is everyone in our casa in front of our casa. Mucho amor para todas personas!

You can email Elder Ogden at stanley.ogden@myldsmail.net