Week 5 in Big Spring

Beautiful sunsets.....

Like father like son, pics all over his wall :).  

 Hey Mom and family,

 So this week was definitely an interesting one! You see it all out here in good ole Big Spring. Hahaha we met this old cowboy, he was crazy. He definitely wasnt interested in our message, but he sure loved to talk about him and his 34 year old wife.....he is 81!!!!! 8. 1. She is 34. 47 year difference, people are crazy. And then we decided to get real brave and talk to this biker gang, they were called "X-iled"  We talked to guys named Low-life and Scum about the Book of Mormon.... they took a card with some info on it, but that was about all we could get out of them.

 But on a more serious note, we have a couple named Daniel and Crystal who live out in a small town in our area called Coahoma. We have been teaching them for the past few weeks, and they have been reading in the BOM and they have always been respectful to us. We went to teach them Friday night, not really knowing what to teach them. We started to read with them 2 Nephi 31 and talk about the importance of baptism, but then Daniel asked a question that totally changed the direction of the lesson. He asked if we as LDS are required to forgive people. Daniel's Dad was murdered about 4 months ago in Big Spring. He was beaten to death by some bad people that he was involved with. Daniel knows those people, they have been involved with his dad for years, and he knows that they were the ones who killed his dad, but the police can't find any evidence, and the investigation is stalling. Those murderers will probably end up not having to serve any sort of penalty. When he shared that and asked me what we believe about forgiveness, I had no idea what to say. I looked to my companion as like a lifeline, hahaha he just was staring blankly back at me. Haha so as best as I could, I tried to explain to him why we need to forgive. I told him that I couldn't imagine going through what he goes through, seeing the people who killed his father around town. I shared with him some of Christ's words, hanging on the cross: Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. I told him that forgiveness of that magnitude can be very difficult and tedious, but I told him that God promises us the entire world if we only obey him...haha heavy stuff. I am just an 18 year old punk kid from Utah, what do I know about the trials that these people go through? How can I tell a grown man to forgive the people who murdered his father when I have never experienced anything like that? ....It all circles back, it is all based upon one thing, one man. Jesus the Christ knows all about every kind of hurt that there is. My job is to merely introduce these people to Christ, then he carries them the rest of the way.

Please know that I love you all so so much, and that I am thinking about you all constantly. I know that we are all being blessed because of our obedience. I hope you a ll have a great week, I want to hear it all!

Love, Cody