This week has passed -by a little bit drier than the last. Last week it was raining pretty hard for the morning, but we finally decided that it lookd like it wasn´t going to stop at all, so we left the house to go use internet and go to the store. By the time we got to the internet-center we were completely soaked. It kept raining as we later walked to the store, a little ways away. Our main objective in going to the store was to buy an umbrella. I´ve been through a number of small, compact umbrellas in the mission and have learned by sad experience that they get destroyed rather easily when it starts to rain hard. In the store, I finally found an umbrella that seems pretty heavy-duty, although it´s bigger, so I have to carry it around with me everywhere we go as if it were a cane. Having been completely soaked on our way to buy the umbrella, we bought our things and left the store to head home. As we left the store we greeted be a beautiful, sunny day, which is interesting, since everybody had told us that it was forecasted to rain all week long. I´ve since then found out that I bought a magic umbrella. Every time I leave that house with the umbrella, it doesn´t rain. One day I forgot the umbrella in the house because it looked like a clear day, so naturally it poured. I´ve gained a testimony that satan really does have some control over the great waters.
Here´s another random thought that I had the other day, although is didn´t come durring study time. I was playing with some ants that were running around on the table. There was a crack on the table where the ants would run to as they were fleeing from the giant, crushing finger of doom. As long as the ants were in the crack i couldn´t get to them to crush them. If they stayed in the crack and moved along the way they would find the way to get away and eventually make it to safety. They began to show however, an interesting trend that is offten reflected by us in our daily lives and challenges. As I would place my finger along the crack in front of the ant, it would sometimes leave the crack immediately, then putting itself back into the dirrect path of danger. By leaving the crack the ant found a wide, accomodating area in which it would hope to run away, much different than the narrow, seemingly restrictive, path of the crack. The ant however, would soon find that there would be no escape in such a wide and open space. One by one, each of the ants would leave the narrow crack when it encountered what would seem to be great opposition on it´s way to safety, only to find destruction awaiting it on the outside. Very few ants were finally able to recognize that the solution was to stay in the crack, keep moving along until reaching where my finger was, and simply comtinue moving along, as my finger could not reach far enough into the crack to hurt the ant.
Offten times we found ourselves face with seemingly insurrmountable opposition in this life. The obstacles may even seem to indicate that we should turn the other way and run in the opposite dirrection. Usually however, that is not the case. The only thing to do to safely escape is to continue forward and meet the opposition until we find a way overcome or undercut it. Only by doing so can we escape the horrible, destructive, and lethal effects of what the wider world has in store for us. We have been provided with a protective "crack" to overcome all the obstacles in this life and save us from destruction. I hope that all of us may always remember the neccessity of staying within that narrow, perhaps seemingly restrictive, "crack" untl we reach the end and can rest from all the worries of this life.
Well, it looks like I´ve spent all my time writing about water, magic umbrellas and ants. I hope everyone can gain sometihng from it, even if it´s just to sring for the good umbrella and not but the little cheap one. I love you guys and you´re all in my prayers!
Cuidense!
Eldre Adam Russell Rich,
Ozama, Republica Dominicana
 |
| Elder Zapata and me the day I forgot the umbrella |
 |
| the fan that I had to cut to fix it after I broke the blades. Don't ask how I broke the blades. |
