Blue Island Letter #3

I'm not sure where to begin. Sorry about the lapse in letters last week.

Blue Island is going well. I think the highlight of my time here is Eliuth. No, it is not because she feeds me every time we visit her (she and her husband own a restaurant...)it's because she is an inspiration. I have met few people who can compare to her desire and her hunger for all that is good. Her energy and love is contagious. I always leave feeling uplifted, no matter how I entered.

She seems to teach me. She asks questions, and we find the answers among the scriptures together. She has incredible faith, and is so in tune with detecting truth. When she finds it, she knows. She doesn't deny it or fight against it. She has this truth-detector that is amazing!

In a very different way than in my last area, I am aware of the contrasts in life around me. Just last night we visited two families, one right after the other. One family spends all of their means - tangible or not - to have Christ in their home, marriage, and family. It is evident in each of those entities, and in their children, their faces, their actions, their words. In everything. It is beautiful.

On the other hand, the next family is full of sadness, yelling, and chaos. It's dark. Depressing. Dreary. They know what they should do; yet, they don't do it. God won't change us without our permission. He just won't. It goes against the principle of agency. But, if we give ourselves to Him, He will change us, shape us, and give us all that our potential implies. Only, though, if we give ourselves to Him. That is exactly what the first family has done. They daily give themselves to Him; in return, His peace, love, and hope are part of the entire family.

That's what I'm working on doing. Giving myself over to God. It's more than giving Him my time. I'm giving all sorts of time right now, as a missionary. It's more than that. It's in my mind and my heart that I need to surrender. Funny how surrenderring is the only thing that truly liberates us, isn't it?