August 12 Email

Here is part of Trey's email on August 12th:

      I wanted to share with ya'll a story today that really touched me. Obviously people know, wherever we go, that we're “The Jesus People”. It's pretty nice when we have to walk through pretty rough parts of town and people recognize us and don't bring us any trouble! But on Wednesday we were riding our bikes around for about 3 hours. I thought I was in shape until today, but everytime the biking got hard I just thought to myself "Bishop Evans can do this, and so can I!". Anyways we had stopped at McDonalds to get a drink of water when a man named Leon walked straight up to us holding a garbage bag full of mini wooden crosses on it that he had made himself. He asked us if we were “The Jesus People” and if we were “good Christians” as well. We told him “we were the Mormon Missionaries and yes we were doing our best to be 'good Christians'”. Just then he started to get teary eyed and told us that he was a faithful baptist and attended church every Sunday, but he was so happy that we loved Christ enough to spend two years preaching his gospel and helping people live “good Christian” lives. He pulled out two of his crosses and handed them to us as a gift. On it it was written “Jeus loves you” and a scripture John 3:36. You could tell he was very uneducated, given that he couldn't spell Jesus, and that he was extremely poor. But that didn't matter to him. Or me. Or the Savior. I was so thankful for his tenderness and faith in Christ and striving to be like him, and for his motivation to be a “good Christian”. You could obviously tell, even though he wasn't a member of our church, that he knew OF Christ, not just ABOUT Christ. He then gave us both hugs, grabbed us by the shoulders and said a prayer and prayed for our safety and well being. Right there in the middle of McDonalds. I have never felt so loved and been so touched.

      Sometimes I personally get caught up too much in trying to be a “good Christian” by obeying his The Lord's laws like his commandments, The Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, Law of Fast and Tithing, or Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy which are all really great things and bring us closer to the spirit and allow us to have it more abundantly in our lives, but I try to do it on my own. While being on my mission and what I've learned in the MTC is that in order to achieve those commandments successfully, first I have to take the first step and become closer to Christ. I need to know OF Him, not just ABOUT Him. Everything we try to accomplish will go in vain if we don't involve Jesus Christ. Remember “Jeus loves you”, that is the base of our religion. Our purpose here is to personally accept that Jesus Christ is our Savior and to follow his example. If we do that I know that He will take care of us. 

     Anyways I love ya'll, I hope this week will be a good one for everyone! Remember to include Christ in EVERYTHING that you do. It usually works out better that way.