Feeling Enabled to Do Hard Things

Two frozen missionaries: Elder Paddock & Elder Holman

Its begun.... Last Monday the weather decided to become freezing.  Tuesday we woke up and there was snow all over the ground!  I was hoping it wouldn't come for a while but I guess the time has come where we start freezing.  I hope you can have patience with me if the occasional St Georgean comes out of me and I complain about the cold weather.  

The Beginning of the snow.  It snowed 4 more inches after that.

Along with the snow came terrible road conditions in Crete, especially since they do nothing but dump sand on top of the snow in hopes of reducing chances of sliding.  It doesn't work very well.  Our car got "grounded" this week and we weren't able to use it until yesterday which meant we were like little pioneer children and "walked and walked and walked and walked..."   I've come to learn this week that Elder Paddock and ice don't get along.  We'll be walking down a street and a small patch of ice will be hidden under the snow and it'll take me right off my feet.  I fell 7 times just in one day!  Elder Holman gets a pretty good laugh at it, but my body is sore and tired from all the falls.  Especially the one time that we were walking down a hill and I slipped and ended up rolling all the way to the bottom of the hill.  I fell so bad one of those times that I lost the name tag that I've had since the beginning of my mission somewhere in the streets of Crete... hopefully it shows up.  

Despite the terrible weather, we still had a pretty great week!  We had the awesome opportunity to have a Zone Conference with Elder Brent H Neilson of the Quorum of the 70 (Here's a talk of his from Conference a while ago) and it was great!  He came and talked to us a lot about the Enabling Power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which is something that we don't think about a lot.  A lot of the time when we think about the Atonement, we think about Jesus Christ suffering and dying for our sins which allows bad people to become good people, which is the Redeeming Power of the Atonement.  The Enabling Power of the Atonement is what allows good people to become better people, working towards perfection.  Its what helps us through hard times, what gives us peace, what pushes us forward.  I've definitely felt the Enabling Power throughout the mission and throughout my life.  Neither life nor the mission is easy, and God knew that when He sent us here, and that's why He gave us Jesus Christ, to help us to have a helping hand through the times that really aren't the greatest (even if that means walking and walking and walking through the snow and falling down every other step).  I know Christ lives,  I know He loves us, and I know that this is His Gospel.  I hope you have a great week!  I love you all!

Lots of love,

Elder Zack