It's Monday

Obedience--that which God will never take by force--He will accept freely given.  And He will then return to you freedom that you can hardly dream of--the freedom to feel and to know, the freedom to do, and the freedom to be at least a thousandfold more than we offer Him.  Strangely enough the key to freedom is obedience.  Boyd K. Packer

I LOVE this quote from Elder (now President) Packer!  Obedience is such a key factor in our lives.  This quote was part of President Castro's thought for the week, as was this quote of President Ezra Taft Benson:  "When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, then God will endow us with power from on high."  He also quoted President Monson:  "The greatest lesson we can learn in mortality is that when God speaks and we obey, we will always be right."  How blessed we are to be instructed by prophets and apostles!  I love this gospel and I love being a missionary!

There was a slew of mail this morning (typical Monday mail), but both Sister Blue and I are all caught up on other office duties right now.  So I have some time to add to my blog :)

When the mission cars accrue so many miles (around 50 thousand miles), then they "retire" them and replace them with new cars.  Any scratches or other repairs are taken care of whenever they occur, plus, they are inspected every four months at Zone Conferences.  So these cars are in pretty good shape.  Ever since we arrived to the mission, the parking lot here at the office/church building on Gonzales has had several "old" mission cars parked here.  Elder Blue has been responsible for selling these cars, and has sold three in the last three months.  Well, a dealer in SLC decided to buy some of them, so today a big rig came and loaded up seven vehicles--six cars and one truck. Elder Blue is happy about that! Only three more to go, Elder Blue :)  He said we won't be getting more new cars until after the first of the year. 

Did I tell you about our new neighbors?  I can't remember whether I did or not.  Well, we got new neighbors, a gal and her boyfriend.  She asked me as they were moving in if we liked rap music.  Hmmm.  I told her not particularly.  She said they would try to keep it down.  They are nice enough.  When she was looking at the place, she saw our nametags and commented that we (the Mormons) were some of the nicest people in the world :) and explained how "we" helped her mother a bunch in Vegas.  Well, these neighbors have turned out to be some of the noisest people in the world!  At all hours of the day and night! She goes out to smoke and gabs on the phone in her not-very-soft voice, plus she has relatives that live just across the street.  Oh well.  It is temporary, right?