Last Monday night after we emailed some of our plans fell through. It
was ok it happens pretty often! We were wondering what exactly we
could do then we remembered "the place". "the place" is an outdoor
basketball court where there seems to be a lot of people just balling
it up all the time. We discovered it about a week before hand so of
course we wanted to see if we could play with them! At first they were
a bit surprised that two guys in white shirts and ties wanted to play
ball with them but after a few baskets they realized that we could
actually play. After we beat them the first two times they were very
shocked that we could play so well in what we were wearing it was
awesome! I forgot to mention that we were the only white guys on the
court as well... Hahah it was so fun! They invited back and said we
could come ball with them any time. So we are going to try and
establish a good relationship with them off the bat and see what we
can do from there. #Ballislife

Man I swear the weeks are going by like blurs. Time is not even real.
Like Hannah is graduating today?! What the heck is that all about?!
Wow. And graysee already did. Craziness. Also nice red dress Hannah
looking good! 👍👌 Let me know how the grad stuff goes. We are
switching our Pday to Friday for Canada day so I will be able to see
emails you send in between now and then. Yes we are switching Pday to
Friday cuz we are going to the temple that day! And we chose Canada
day because Elder Cordara got transferred into my zone from TBay a
couple weeks ago and he is from High river! He is such a boss! Super
funny and a really good teacher. He has only been out 5 months and he
is a DL. Super solid kid. So if you get a chance to email on Canada
day please do it between the hours of 10-6... That would be awesome.
If not its probs ok but then I won't see them till the 4th. And the
wards are splitting again? Is there going to be a new church building
soon? I'm sure you will fill me in on the deets.

We are doing some serious work with the Ward right now! Yesterday in
Ward council we talked about missionary work a lot and bishop got
inspired to do a Ward fast this next Sunday for missionary work!! I
LOVE WARD FASTS!! They always always work. I have done them in two
past areas and each time we did it miracles followed and people were
baptized. So I'm super pumped for this one! Recently we have been
working with a lot of members to seek referrals and help them with
their missionary work and it has been a lot of fun. Member work is the
bomb.

Something cool about being a zone leader is that you attend stake
meetings. Yesterday we had a stake meeting with the stake president,
his councillor, some high councillors, mission president, one of his
councillors(Pres. Ehlert is extremely smart and is a billionaire no
joke), and the sister training leaders. At first these meetings were
super intimidating. And they still are! But I love them because I get
to learn from so many experienced men. The other cool perk is that
sometimes your mission president tells you about upcoming emergency
transfers that will happen in your zone. So when you see these
missionaries you are just thinking in your head, "In a couple days
your getting transferred and you have no idea!" It's pretty hilarious.

Something cool I learned this week was about the phrase, broken heart
and contrite spirit. Have you ever wondered what that phrase means? I
feel like I  always read it or read past it and just think to myself I
know what it means but I never actually know... So I decided to study
about it! And this is what I learned:

I first read this scripture
3 Nephi 9:20
20 And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a
contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a
contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost,
even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of
their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and
they knew it not.

Which lead me to this quote
"True worship begins when our hearts are right before the Father and
the Son. What is our heart condition today? Paradoxically, in order to
have a healed and faithful heart, we must first allow it to break
before the Lord. “Ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken
heart and a contrite spirit,” the Lord declares. The result of
sacrificing our heart, or our will, to the Lord is that we receive the
spiritual guidance we need.
With a growing understanding of the Lord’s grace and mercy, we will
find that our self-willed hearts begin to crack and break in
gratitude. Then we reach for Him, yearning to yoke ourselves to the
Only Begotten Son of God. In our brokenhearted reaching and yoking, we
receive new hope and fresh guidance through the Holy Ghost."
Neill F. Marriott (October 2015)

I thought this was amazing! That our hearts will crack and break in
gratitude as we reach for his help. So much humility in that
statement.

Then I found this scripture
3 Nephi 12:19
19 And behold, I have given you the law and the commandments of my
Father, that ye shall believe in me, and that ye shall repent of your
sins, and come unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
Behold, ye have the commandments before you, and the law is fulfilled.

Then this quote,
"The Lord instructs His servants to be humble because the process of
being made whole spiritually begins with a broken heart. Think of the
good that comes from broken things: Soil is broken to plant wheat.
Wheat is broken to make bread. Bread is broken to become the emblems
of the sacrament. When one who is repentant partakes of the sacrament
with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, he or she becomes whole. As
we repent and become whole through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we
have much more to offer the Savior as we serve Him. “Yea, come unto
him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him.”
Elder Randy D. Funk (October 2013)

I loved this one! It was my most favourite quote that I found that
talked about a broken heart and contrite spirit. I love how it
incorporates the sacrament into it. That we must be broken in order to
be made whole by he Savior of the world. For he said himself, "They
that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Let us
all recognize our mortal brokenness and reach for the master
physicians hand.

Love,