In the world of Littleton Colorado

So I have been transferred to good ole Littleton Colorado for a time. This is almost like opening a new area, because Littleton, before this transfer, was combined with Bowles Grove, and all of the people they were teaching pretty much were in Bowels Grove.  So yup, I get to start from scratch again.

My companion is Elder Fischer, who interestingly came out with me in the MTC. He's a good missionary. In my last area the problem was not enough less actives, and this area’s problem is not enough investigators to teach. It’s an interesting concept of missionary work: CHANGE. It's almost like the missionary experience is do destroy one's inertia (a scientific term defined as an object's tendency to resist change). The gospel is all about change -  change and adaptation. It's the first law of motion. Every object in motion will remain in motion and every object at rest will remain at rest UNTIL it is acted upon by an outside force. As I leave my last area, I had adapted and become comfortable there, so when I left I have to adapt. If you think about it, that's exactly what Christ had to do. "Knowest thou the condescension of God?" He had to descend from his throne and ADAPT to the change that had come over him due to his humble birth in Bethlehem. So how do we adapt as the Savior adapted? John tells us he grew "grace from grace." When I thought of this, I learned that God will not expect immediate perfection, but he does expect us to try. Maybe that's what I am supposed to learn. Adapt grace to grace just as the Savior did.

On another note, President Maynes gave a Christmas devotional on Saturday. He asked us which prophet knew the Savior the most. Moses? Joseph Smith? Abraham? Adam? He said that John the Baptist knew him the most. He was shown a vision of the Savior from the very beginning and the vision of His future. Of all the words John chose to describe Christ, He first chose "The Word." He said that he is The Word because he was never ordained to his office of High Priest. He IS the chief High Priest. He IS the Priesthood authority. He IS the WORD of God. "This is my beloved Son, Hear Him." Whenever Christ spoke, it was done. Nobody questioned him. He was the Word. "In the beginning is the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (See also the JST of the same verse) It was really powerful.

Well the area is a little slow, nobody on the immediate list for baptism, but that will change soon enough! Merry Christmas!

Elder Bringhurst