WOW I need to freak out in my emails more often because I got loads of emails this week.  DANG AM I POPULAR OR WUT.

Okay wow the Van Orden/Erekson (i don't know how to spell KARLY'S other last name oops) calibunga trip 2k14 sounds sweet.  Mason tried to make me jelly but sending me pictures of him cooking lobster.  Mason please tell me you grammed that pic of you.  I will cry if you did.

Okay I know this is old news of last week but that is SWEET that Ashley is engaged to Dy-lan.  That is so awesome for her.

hmmm so sounds like everyone will be enjoying a wonderful week at the beach this fine beginning of july!  PLS get a killer tan.  Mason will get fried like a tomato as usual, and hopefully dad remembered to pack his swim shirt.  And his goggles, and hoefully his SPF 200.  Can you believe it's july?!?!?  Holy crap I feel like these past 5 months have gone by insanely slow but weirdly fast.  

SOoooo my week this week has been lots of adjusting.  I wanted to tell you guys about this SWAGGY lesson we had at church yesterday.

SO during the sacrament I was thinking about the significance of the atonement, and how the scriptures say 'christ suffered so we don't have to".. something to that extent.  And I got to thinking about that and was pondering the thought that yes, christ suffered so we don't have to suffer, and yet in life there is so much suffering, even for the repentant soul.

So we had a combined lesson cause fifth sunday and all that jazz and this lady in our ward told this story about her husband and I wanted to tell it to you guys cause I personally just loved it.

She talked about how after her husband graduated high school, he joined the army, and then was able to soon after start special forces training or something.  I don't really know I'm not army language savy.

anyway.

He told her about the training they went through in special forces.  Like they would take them out on runs and maybe they'd go three miles out, so they would have to run the three miles back.  As they were finishing the 3 miles back, they pushed themselves because they were getting close to the finish.  Then, they would get to the finish, thinking they were done, and new officers would come out, have them turn around, and they'd start another run again.  Then she posed the question, "How many times have we found ourselves at the gates of the finish, but had to turn back around and go back out and keep running?"

She then related another experience her husband had in one of his training's where they would have all the people tread water basically until they drowned.  When they drowned, they had guards on boats who would pull them out of the water, pump all the water our of their lungs, ask them if they were okay, and throw them back in the water.  

She talked about how they never knew who would give up.  There was a large diversity of people, large and small, who were doing the trainings, but it was always a surprise who gave up.

She related one more analogy.  As little kids, we love to go swimming.  The first thing we do when we see water is we jump in.  Then as we get older, some of us sit on a chair on the side, some of us dangle our feet in, some of us always keep our head above to avoid getting our hair wet, and some swim.

Life is just like all this stuff.  I realized in this lesson yesterday that we are called to suffer because that is what helps us grow.  And that is such an obvious thing, i realize that.  Sometimes in life they pump the water out of our lungs, and then throw us back in the water.  sometimes we think we made it to the end, and we are called to go back out and keep running.

All i know is I wanna swim to the end.  I don't wanna wade my way through the water to the end, or timidly dangle my feet in the waters of life, I wanna jump in and swim all the way to the end.  And I'm pretty sure you all do too.

one thing i really like that she said is the holy ghost is our coach, Christ is our lifeguard, and we have our loved ones cheering for us.

Isn't that just so true!  I hope i did the story justice and i'm not just blabbering nonsense.

It's exactly what i needed to hear and understand.  Life isn't about peaches and roses and bliss, it is those things, but we are also here to grow.  This life really is the time for men to prepare to meet God, and when i get back there and finally see my savior again I want him to look in my eyes and tell me he is proud of me, because I gave this life all I got.  I "swam to the end" no matter the circumstance.

She then challenged us to think about the stories of faith in the scriptures that inspire us.  stories like esther, daniel, the iron rod, david and goliath, the brother of jared, etc.  There are so many stories of people who literally had the water pumped out of the lungs, and then were just thrown back in the water to keep swimming.  So many stories of people showing faith rather than fear or doubt or all that other crap.

So yeah, that's my shpeal for the day.  I hope you all don't sit around and make fun of me for my weird letter today.  I know i probably didn't do the story justice but just bare with me.

Make sure to have a 2 hour longs discussion on the word shat this week.  It's tradition.

I love you all!