weekly update 11/28/2011

Terve perhe! (A finnish Greeting)

This week wasn’t the best of weeks as I have been for two of the days (Wednesday and Sunday). The days that we have been out seem to have been good days. So I was sick on Wednesday, it was funny because that same day was District Leader Council meeting. At the meeting we talked about the holiday season, including staying healthy during the cold months… oops.

We actually spent a bit of thanksgiving doing some service with a member. He lives on his own and he needed help carrying a table down the stairs and then he asked us to help him sand it and take it back up the stairs. It was something he couldn’t have done by himself. He seemed very grateful for the help we offered. He then fed us some soup. At first I felt a little disappointed that I wasn’t eating a big turkey dinner, but after thinking about it, I quickly realised that, that isn’t the reason we celebrate thanksgiving. I was really grateful to be with that member to get to know him better and to serve him was phenomenal. It was a very good thanksgiving.

Elder Marjanen has been a great help especially as I have been feeling ill. He has been doing his best to help me recover 100%. I’m grateful to have his help through this illness.

Here is a funny story that a member gave to us this week:
"A united states marine was taking some college courses between assignments. He had completed 20 missions in iraq and afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist,.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and stated, 'God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform... I'll give you exactly 15 minutes.'

The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, 'Here I am GOD, I'm still waiting.'

It got down to the last couple of minutes when the marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and knocked him off the platform. The professor was out cold.

The marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there looking on in silence.

The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the marine and asked, 'What in the world is the matter with you? Why did you do that?'

The marine calmly replied, 'GOD was too busy today protecting American, Canadian, British, Soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot. So He sent me."
It's a great testimony to me to see that the lord expects us to "Get on you knees and pray like it all depends on GOD, then get up and work like it all depends on you." Sometimes they anwer to someones prayer comes through his children. So rather than just praying for the less fortunate we need to do something about it.


--
With Love,
Elder Ballantyne