Small and Simple Things

Hello friends and family from the great Spencer, Iowa.  I hope you are enjoying the spring/summer weather and that everyone is excited for this summer.  I hope as well that all of your prayers are going out to President Monson and his family with the loss of his wife.  He is such a great example of how much he loved his wife and his dedication to her, and I know that this will be a hard time for him.  So things in this area are going great!  We had four of them get interviewed for baptism this past week, and they will all be baptized this weekend.  One of them is Ron Thompson.  Ron is the husband of a member and has been wanting to join the Church for a long time.  But he did have a Word of Wisdom issue that he had to overcome.  Well, he has been working really hard to overcome it, and has been doing amazing.  You can see in his countenance and brighter and lighter change.  He is happier, and so is his family.  It is one of the greatest miracles that I've seen on my mission.  I am very excited for this weekend, and to feel of the spiritual outpouring that will occur.  

        So my spiritual thought this week is about small and simple things.  I love the scripture and Alma 37 that talks about "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass."  I testify that this is one of the most true statements in the Book of Mormon.  Becoming like Christ is only accomplished by small and simple means.  Similarly, sharing the Gospel is the same.  By doing the small things: smiling at people, sharing our testimony, seeking to serve, praying to have our mouths filled, and many other things, we can bring others to Christ, a truly great thing.  Sometimes we think we need to have big experiences with sharing the gospel.  We look forward to the baptism, without realizing all of the steps that it takes to get there.  I hope that we can identify some small habits that we can start in our lives so that we can be tools to help share the gospel to the world.  I love you all so much, and hope you have an amazing week.

Godspeed,
Elder Chandler Kendall