Something's Fishy - Elder Jake Avery

Written by Elder Jacob Avery, serving in the Peru Lima West Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

That was a great story, Dad. I hope you enjoy the snow. They should just start expecting snow every year on the east coast because it seems like it's gotten steadily snowier and snowier. If the polar bears loose the arctic, they'll always been welcome in Connecticut.

This week was a challenge. After using lots of time to look for apartments for the sister missionaries, and actually finding a very good one, our leaders told us that the sister missionaries won't be coming until March. On the bright side, we already have the room picked out for them.

We extended the baptismal invitation several time this week and we got a bunch of ''NO'' 's. That's okay though because there's always next week.

We're working with the Bishop in looking for who the Lord wants to be the next ward mission leader. Our old one left on a mission to Chile. It's really cool too because his dad (who is not a member of our church) has come to church twice since his son left the first week of January. We're really excited that the ward is putting missionary work up on their list of priorities.

Relax, Mom! I'm just trying to keep things fun :)

Interesting story: The other day, as we were walking (which we do quite often) we smelled fish. Not like ''oooh, I smell fish,'' but like, ''The ocean has receded and a whole coral reef and pod of whales is exposed, dead and rotting.'' Then for lunch, we ate fish, but that didn't explain why our whole town smelled like blubber. During our next lesson, we noticed that two story buses were passing through this dirt road, detouring off the Panamerican (highway). ''How strange,'' I thought. ''There must have been a wreck or something.'' Something was definitely fishy...Come to find out the next day, a tanker truck of fish oil had crashed and spilled fish oil all over the highway. There's really no lesson from this story, it's just something that happened this week :)

Well, I'm glad to say that I know that the Church of Jesus Christ is on the earth and it's the true path to happiness. I tell people that everyday, but I think we underestimate what it means to say that the Church is true. The Church being true means several very important things:

1. Jesus is the Christ, and through Him we can be cleansed from sin and return to live with God.
2. God speaks to man through prophets in every time period in the history of the earth.
3. We need to keep the commandments or we will not be as happy as God wants us to be.

As we listen and follow to the instructions and commandments from the Lord, as revealed through prophets of all dispensations of time, we can be cleansed from sin through Jesus Christ. One of the most critical parts of this system is that it requires US to DO what the Lord requires. We receive instructions through others, receive forgiveness through Another, but we can only partake of these blessing if we do it for OURSELVES.

Have a wonderful week. My favorite elder, Elder Howell, is leaving my district. We've been together since the airport in Salt Lake and now we have to get split up :,( He says ''hi'' though :) Love you guys!

Elder Avery

Happy Martin Luther King Day (January 20, 2014)

Happy Birthday, Mom! (February 3, 2014)