Elder Preston Armstrong : 15 Month Mark

Hello!!

Another great week down in Delhi! Life is great, Elder Openshaw and I have canned the entire Lajpat Nagar area for the best deals on any kind of food, edible or not, we are getting the best food at the best price and it always involves a meat of some kind. Chicken, dog, goat, illegal beef, you name it, we can find it.

This week was one that just reminded me how much I love my mission. We again had our leadership meeting like we do each month and we got to see the Pakistani Elders. It was Elder Openshaw's first time meeting with them and it's just so crazy, I will never see them in person, but they are in my mission and they are really great. I wish they could come to Delhi, and I really wish I could go to Pakistan, but it won't be in my mission lifetime. Once the stake is created in Delhi they are looking to branch out and go to Kolkatta. I would love to go there as well but only if the stake comes soon enough. This part of the world is pretty crazy, very different from Marsh Valley Idaho, but it's full of God's children, and it's a very special place to be.

Sounds like BYU got clobbered by LSU, that's okay though Marsh Valley won again and is 2-0. I miss this time of year so much in Idaho. I miss the football games on Friday night and all day Saturday, I miss cold mornings and the State fair. I have had to go through a lot of changes on my mission because everything I grew up having, got left behind in Idaho. My mission I feel has been all about change. I feel I have changed a lot, at least I hope I have. At the end of the day, if in 9 months I step off that plane and haven't become a changed person, I failed on my mission. And that's truly how it is, for mission life and regular life. If at the very end of our lives we have not changed enough, we will have wasted our time here on earth. God has given us a probationary time here on Earth to learn and grow and change. If we are doing things right we will be focused on changing for the better every single day. It may be the smallest thing, but every day should be focused on preparing yourself to meet God again as a changed person, a person who loves God, loves to keep His commandments, and loves to change the bad into good. I promise that change can be instant, it can be fast, and sometimes it takes longer than other times. But change is the result we all need.

The pain of discipline is far less than the pain of regret.

Love,

Elder Armstrong