Week 22: February 15, 2016

Good morning y'all,

        Hopefully everything is going great back home, it's crazy to
think that it is already February!  Also I hit my 5 month mark
tomorrow, which I am still trying to comprehend how time is going by
so fast.  It doesn't make much sense to me but oh well.  So this area
is great, Elder Bore and I cover the north part of down town
Jacksonville.  And there is a lot, I mean a lot of Ghetto.  Is funny
because people always give us weird looks because there's 2 white boys
in white shirts and ties walking through the hood.  I love it though
the people down here are great.  The best part is they are all so
humble and love God so finding people to teach hasn't been to hard.
One of my favorite parts of serving in downtown is that there is so
much going on.  Ere are always people out to talk to and for a change
since just about everybody here are baptists nobody really hates the
Mormon missionaries.  That makes work a whole lot easier.

       So up in this area we do service for a farm, and it is so much
fun.  His last week we just made a giant bonfire and burned so much
stuff.  Then we made a fence out pine tree, they were about 35 feet
tall.  So once they were cut down we had to drag them over to the
fence.  It was a lot of fun, plus they have a ton of animals on the
farm to mess around with.  One of the animals is a giant pig named
batman and is about 1000 pounds!  But it is always fun to go out there
and do some service.

        Oh here's one cool thing that happened, this morning we woke
up early to go to the coast to watch the sunrise.  It was a nice to be
able to go relax and to let off some steam.  Because believe it or not
because of missionary work I am always tired, but it is a good tired.
And you get used to always being tired.  All in all I love being a
missionary!!!

       There is one quote that I found recently that I wanted to share
with y'all.  It is by Hartmen Rector Jr. He was a church leader a
while ago and he said  "When the Lord said, “Lengthen your stride,
quicken your pace, heighten your reach, widen your vision, and stretch
your capacity,” he was in reality saying “expect a miracle,” for
these are the stuff from which miracles are made."  This has really
made an impact on me, that if I want miracles to come I need to put in
my all.  I need to also continue to improve, for as we do all we can
to do the Lords work that's when we see the miracles come in.  So now
this comes all down to our desire to improve and our desire to follow
God.  So I'll leave you with this question, what are you willing to do
for God?


As always I love you all have a great week!!!

Elder Guinup

Random pic by the train tracks