Tender Mercies and Kickball

Good morning amigos!

I hope this letter finds y'all well! It's another beautiful Monday here in Tucson and I have updates from another wonderful week. But first: congratulations on graduation for those of you who have graduated!

Now that the school year is over, of course, my birthday is coming up in a week, on the 6th of June. As such I am about to be 19. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this yet, but as I've approached the big day I've felt increasingly reflective upon the last year and the work that I've done therein. I'll probably write about it more next week, but even so I'd like to quickly say that I've loved my mission, even the hard times (perhaps moreso in retrospect), and do not regret my decision to serve.

Events from the Week:

I've had a lot of tender mercies from the Lord in the last few days! On Thursday last week my bike tire got a flat (there's a ton of debris on the roads in my area) and we were grounded for three days having to make do with a combination of member rides and walking because of our schedule; in the end, however, we were able to walk to the bike shop on Saturday. While there getting my tire fixed, one of the workers offered to replace my pedal with a spare for free! Then -- get this -- they roll my bike out a bit later with what felt to me to be a full tune-up (wow!) for the price of just the tire replacement. That was awesome! Unfortunately I got another flat tire last night so we're back on that count, but my bike still has been substantially upgraded.

We also had Working Zone Conference last week, which is where we, firstly, have a devotional (spiritual missionary meeting with talks, etc.), then interviews with our mission president, and finally an exchange with another mission companionship in a different area: basically, one of us goes there and one of them comes here for a night and a day. I went to Binghampton Ward, which is to the northeast of my ward, with one Elder Boer from Idaho. We had a great time, and we ended up eating dinner with one of the local church leaders who's visited our ward a few times, so I already knew him! That was fun; they made a pizza they called the "Angry Samoan;" it's Hawaiian pizza with jalapeños and was pretty good (and spicy!). Around the same time I also switched my phone to use Spanish as the system language and it's been a wild ride ever since then.

Last Sunday we received a referral (we have an online portal where you can request a missionary visit) and ended up texting them within a minute of receiving it; she responded immediately and asked us to call her as soon as possible. On the call she then told us about her situation (which I won't describe), so we said a prayer with her (which is what she'd put in a referral for) and asked if there was anything we could do to help her; she said we could help her move some stuff out, so we came over with the sister missionaries and helped her with that. She needed to move apartments and wasn't sure where to go. Interestingly, earlier in the day one of our members had said that, on the prompting of the Holy Spirit, they wanted to tell us about an apartment opening up in their complex (the old tenants had moved out), and we were able to give her that information! The sisters went back to help her out more last week and she's doing much better; apparently someone helped her out such that she doesn't need to move just yet (she will eventually), but we were glad to be able to assist where we could!

And now for a short spiritual thought to refresh you for the week! Today I would like to share one of my favorite scriptures, 1 John 2:1-2 from the New Testament:

"1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

"2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

John, one of the original 12 apostles, wrote this to the earliest Christians, and it illustrates an important principle. It is, of course, important to avoid sin as much as we can, but at the same time we are, after all, human beings and therefore in the contingent case that we do sin God has prepared things such that we can repent and be clean! And this is because, before God, Jesus Christ is our advocate, and in the words of John 3:17 (another one of our favorites): "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." Jesus Christ didn't come to condemn or punish anybody, but to save us, and he didn't come just to save particular Christians, but to save everyone who is willing to repent and become better. ("Propitiation" means an atonement or sacrifice for sin or other wrongdoing, especially as it applies to diety.) I love this principle and I hope you do too.

Also: We played kickball with some members today and it was a great time. I hope y'all have an awesome week and that the Lord showers you with tender mercies!

With sincerity,

Elder Brannon

Arizona Tucson Mission

Spain Barcelona Mission

Playing Coup with my district