Email from Elder Lofthouse 3/8/16

 Sorry for the early email this week.  We're going to help somebody move, and this is the only time we got!  This week was crazy awesome. I loved it. So Tuesday we did p day and had a lesson with Analyn. It was awesome, and she is super excited for her baptism in a couple of weeks!  It's going to be fantastic!  After all the relaxing stuff happened, we went and had supper with the Otto's, and then we went and saw Shannon!  She is doing really well, and she and her kids are reading the scriptures every day. It's awesome.

Wednesday was pretty awesome. We went and visited Joe and had a pretty good lesson on recognizing answers to prayers. After that we drove up the Alaska highway s little bit to try and contact Brenda, but she wasn't home. So then we went and visited Heather and Dennis. They're doing well, and we had a good lesson. We had supper with the Wry's and then we went to have a lesson with Donna. It was awesome. We read Alma 47 with her. It was really good.

Thursday was a really fun day. We had a Skype district meeting in the morning. I still am not a fan of the Skype stuff. It had snowed, so we went and shoveled Heather's place, and then we went and shoveled sister Winfield's walk. After that we had another lesson with Analyn. It went really well. Again, she's stoked, I'm stoked, it's going to be amazing. After that we went to Willie's to help him shovel off his roof. It didn't take too long, and we had supper with them after. Then we went and had a lesson with David. We were able to resolve some concerns and it went really well.

Friday was fun. Weekly planning happened in the morning, and then after lunch we went to the SPCA to volunteer. It was great, I love going there. We went tracting after that, and it was really fun. We met a couple of people who we're going to try by again. It was really fun. We had supper, but then nothing exciting happened.

Saturday was the best day. It was so fun. We drove out to Cotillion, Alberta, to help Brother Travis sort some bison on his farm. It was a ton of fun. Bison are really big!  And surprisingly they can jump fairly high,  one of the bulls tried to jump the fence, and got most of the way over, but got his foot stuck in the fence. So we had to cut the fence to let him out. It was an adventure.  After sorting we had lunch. After lunch we had another adventure. Peter, one of the Travis' neighbors, asked us if we could help him out. He's also a bison farmer, and one of his bulls kept jumping the fence, and wrecking it. He asked us if we could help him find it and butcher it. So we went and found it, Robert, another friend, shot it, and then we got to help skin and gut it. It was AWESOME. It took about 2 hours to skin the whole thing. After that we had supper with the Wry's and that's basically it for that day.

Sunday was good. Church was great!  After church we went to the Otto's and gave sister Otto a blessing. After we took the sacrament to Heather and Dennis. We had a good lesson with them, and then we drove out to Alberta again for supper. It was great. I love small farming communities. Everybody is really friendly and it's just great. We drove back to town and had a lesson with Amber afterwards. It was a pretty good day.

Monday was fun. We went to the Salvation Army and volunteered. It's always fun to go there. We had lunch, and then we went and helped a lady named Carrie move. It was great, and it didn't take super long. Then we went and helped Willie shovel some more, and then we had supper with Shannon. We had a really good lesson with them on the priesthood, why it is important, and how it helps us. It went really well. After supper we went to the Ward's and had a lesson about the baptismal covenant.  We talked about what kind of promises we actually made. It was really good.  After that we went to bed.

This week I want you all to read Ama 47, and think about how Satan uses the same strategies. Amaleckiah couldn't get Lehonti to come all the way down the mountain, but he got him to go down just a little. Satan works he same way. He won't get you to do something crazy right off the bat, but he'll get you to come down just a little at a time. Don't let him!  We must be strong, and never lower our standards for anyone, or anything!  I know that if we strive to follow Christ's example, we will have power over Satan. I know that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and I know that Christ is our savior. He is the perfect example for us. I'm trying to be like Jesus, and it hope you all are as well.

Have a great week!
Elder Rusty Lofthouse

My will is at God's hand, never within man's teeth.
-The Devil Wears Prada