Spiritual Vegetables: 2/24/2014

There's lots of things that I could write about from this week. I could write about how we celebrated Sister Wood's birthday, how we helped at Ryder's Birthday, and how we celebrated the day after. I could write about how we got Jennifer to come to game night. I could write about how Sister Wood has been sick with the flu and I miraculously didn't catch it. I could write about how we watch every church DVD known to man while she was sick. I could write about how I used the recorder my mom sent me to document a full day. I could write about how we now have a recording of us knocking on a wrong door for dinner. I could write about our awesome lesson with Julie Taylor. I could write about a lot of things. However, I want to write about a problem we face a lot.

To preface this, you need to know a story from my childhood: My parent's rule is if you said you didn't like something, you ate it at every meal until you sincerely said you liked it with a smile on your face. We quickly learned you either keep your mouth shut and eat it or just say you like it. However, there was one thing Katie and I couldn't hold in. Our hatred for cucumbers. Just writing that, I actually gagged a little. we complained once. The next night we complained again. We ate cucumbers at every meal for about a month. Maybe I am exaggerating, but in kid days it felt like years. Then we started to learn. I would say with a grossed out face "yeah mom, I really love cucumbers" and she would say "you aren't saying it with a smile on your face and you aren't being sincere". The next night I said it with a smile, but it wasn't sincere. It was the greatest acting experience of my life when I mustered all the strength I had to say sincerely with a smile on my face that I loved cucumbers . I'm sure my mom and dad knew I still disliked them, but they didn't force me to eat anymore cucumbers.

Even though this little experience usually worked for us to be okay with all foods. Even though I originally just disliked eating cucumbers, to this day I gag when I even think about eating cucumbers and it even turned into not being able to eat pickles. 

In ward council we discussed a lady that we are working with who grew up in the church but has since fallen away and the only way I could think of to explain her experience was, "I think her parents forced her to eat eat her vegetables without ever really explaining what they do for her and it's left a bitter taste in her mouth. But now that she has a kid, she wants him to have the same nourishment she did but she doesn't want to give him the same experience she had."

Luckily everyone there knew exactly what I was talking about. There are so many spiritual and temporal benefits from religion and church. However, we work with so many, so so many people whose parents shoved religion down their throat while not explaining the benefits and usually not providing the best examples of eating vegetables themselves. They would get slapped if they didn't say their prayers. They would get yelled at and spanked for resisting going to church. And it left them with a bitter taste in their mouth, similar to my dislike of cucumbers. But they see the benefit looking back and a lot of them want it for their kids. 

Although I still think that forcing us to eat cucumbers was a form of child torture, I am so incredibly grateful that my parents taught me the importance of eating my vegetables. I am so glad that my mom always said "Testimony first, and then the little things will fall into place and be easy". That instead of inflicting the rules of religion, my mom and dad taught the importance of religion and trusted me to make the right decisions. 

I'm grateful for the knowledge I have of Christ and his mission on earth. I'm grateful for the faith I have in him and his ability to strengthen me. I'm grateful for his authority to act in his name that has been re-established on this earth and the blessings that come with it. 

Because this is a problem we face so frequently, I wanted to share with you my thoughts on it. Now for some fun things. My dad asked that I put a picture in every email.

This is us at our hotel room (the blue siding) and it's great because it really shows just how close the brothels are and if you look closely, before the brothels you can see the train tracks.

The this is in Metropolis. We were early for dinner because the lady that calls us her gypsies wasn't home. There's actually a funny story there but I'm running out of time. So we decided to use our time to drive the Metropolis stretch. When we got to the end, the sun was setting and we had time so we took pictures (the funniest being when sister wood says "let's do something cool and I just sit in the road and instead of cool it was just incredibly awkward). I just can't get over the simple beauty of Nevada. I remember driving through and thinking it was ugly before. But the miles and miles of flat land with the crisp mountains that look like they are photo shopped in. I can't get over it. Anyway. So I found this gnarly bush/tree and thought it was awesome so I got a picture with it.

Hope you all had a great week! Love you!