Hello all!
Two funny stories this week.
First. It's been fairly cold outside every morning... so Elder Gutierrez and I normally do our exercises inside. However... I decided I wanted to go running outside. It's not even THAT cold. And Elder Gutierrez seemed pretty anxious about it... but I made him do it anyways. It was SUPER fun! It felt so great to be running outside
instead of running in place indoors and I was loving it! Then we got home. And I turned around and Elder Gutierrez looked like he'd been hit by a plane. I started laughing.
Wrong decision. He nearly bit my head off. :P He was mad at me for like 3 days for making him run. Apparently... he doesn't like running.
So I'm back to running in place every morning. :P Oh well.
Second. The church building had HUGE icicles hanging from the roof the other day. We were waiting for a member to show up so we could help him with some service. Natural decision? GIANT LIGHTSABER WAR WITH ICICLES! So there we were, fighting it out and freezing our fingers off (forgot gloves... sorry Mom) like little kids. It was a blast. We took pictures... but I can't send them because this computer is being lame. I'll send them next week. Suffice it to say... I could give Luke Skywalker a run for his money, if I do say so myself.
Okay. Quick statement to finish. I wanna talk about video games.
Martin Luther King Jr. said once that the only way for evil to triumph in this world is for good men to do nothing. I heard somewhere else that the only way for evil to triumph in this world is for good men to be doing something ELSE. One of the BIGGEST issues here in Victoriaville is that so many young men are glued to their computer and television screens that it is extremely difficult for them to "find" time to do anything else. These young men have become adults, and they've continued the same tradition, and can now still be found, at 30 or 40, living in their parents' homes, glued to their screens and ignoring the world our God has given us for a fabricated one. Their example has rubbed off on other young men, who are now going down the exact same path. I say young men because these are the examples we have; however, many of the young women and even the older mothers are not exempt, and while they play far fewer video games, seem to spend much of their time stuck on their phones.
Here's my statement, short and sweet: get off the video games, the social media, and quit texting so much. The devil doesn't have to get you stuck in pornography or drugs to keep you from reaching your potential; all he has to do is distract you with something else. I don't profess to be perfect; I was very similar before I came here on my mission. But I've seen what "just a little" time on video games or social media does in the long run to men and women who were sent here to this earth to prepare it for the second coming of our Exemplar, Jesus Christ. A plane could crash right outside your door and you'd be so glued to that silly screen that you'd miss the whole thing.
Quit it. Just quit it. Get off the screen and live as a Christian, anxiously engaged for a good cause. I fear that with every pixelated bullet fired at an imaginary enemy, our real enemy manages to send a spiritual one through our souls.
The trumpet has sounded and our Savior calls us to arms. Will we answer the call? Or will we listen more intently to the chime of a new notification on our phone? The war is on. Who's on the Lord's side?
En avant!
Elder Bryan McOmber
Two funny stories this week.
First. It's been fairly cold outside every morning... so Elder Gutierrez and I normally do our exercises inside. However... I decided I wanted to go running outside. It's not even THAT cold. And Elder Gutierrez seemed pretty anxious about it... but I made him do it anyways. It was SUPER fun! It felt so great to be running outside
instead of running in place indoors and I was loving it! Then we got home. And I turned around and Elder Gutierrez looked like he'd been hit by a plane. I started laughing.
Wrong decision. He nearly bit my head off. :P He was mad at me for like 3 days for making him run. Apparently... he doesn't like running.
So I'm back to running in place every morning. :P Oh well.
Second. The church building had HUGE icicles hanging from the roof the other day. We were waiting for a member to show up so we could help him with some service. Natural decision? GIANT LIGHTSABER WAR WITH ICICLES! So there we were, fighting it out and freezing our fingers off (forgot gloves... sorry Mom) like little kids. It was a blast. We took pictures... but I can't send them because this computer is being lame. I'll send them next week. Suffice it to say... I could give Luke Skywalker a run for his money, if I do say so myself.
Okay. Quick statement to finish. I wanna talk about video games.
Martin Luther King Jr. said once that the only way for evil to triumph in this world is for good men to do nothing. I heard somewhere else that the only way for evil to triumph in this world is for good men to be doing something ELSE. One of the BIGGEST issues here in Victoriaville is that so many young men are glued to their computer and television screens that it is extremely difficult for them to "find" time to do anything else. These young men have become adults, and they've continued the same tradition, and can now still be found, at 30 or 40, living in their parents' homes, glued to their screens and ignoring the world our God has given us for a fabricated one. Their example has rubbed off on other young men, who are now going down the exact same path. I say young men because these are the examples we have; however, many of the young women and even the older mothers are not exempt, and while they play far fewer video games, seem to spend much of their time stuck on their phones.
Here's my statement, short and sweet: get off the video games, the social media, and quit texting so much. The devil doesn't have to get you stuck in pornography or drugs to keep you from reaching your potential; all he has to do is distract you with something else. I don't profess to be perfect; I was very similar before I came here on my mission. But I've seen what "just a little" time on video games or social media does in the long run to men and women who were sent here to this earth to prepare it for the second coming of our Exemplar, Jesus Christ. A plane could crash right outside your door and you'd be so glued to that silly screen that you'd miss the whole thing.
Quit it. Just quit it. Get off the screen and live as a Christian, anxiously engaged for a good cause. I fear that with every pixelated bullet fired at an imaginary enemy, our real enemy manages to send a spiritual one through our souls.
The trumpet has sounded and our Savior calls us to arms. Will we answer the call? Or will we listen more intently to the chime of a new notification on our phone? The war is on. Who's on the Lord's side?
En avant!
Elder Bryan McOmber
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