Hey Everyone!
The last couple of weeks have been great! We have started to gain some momentum with the whole online teaching thing. A few of the members here have asked to call with Elder Van Gijsel and I throughout the week, so we are getting some good language practice in as well. We still have our one hour of exercise time in the morning so I am soaking that in. We have this abandoned soviet park right outside of our apartment that we call our gym. I do box jumps on a tree stump and pull ups on an old swing set bar. Our workouts look like a really bad, out-of-shape version of the Rocky 4 movie.
Some Highlights:
•Cooking a lot out of boredom
•Finishing the Armenian Book of Mormon
•Teaching the Belgium youth
•Teaching a man from the African Congo
SPIRITUAL THOUGHT
In his General Conference talk, Elder Bednar talked about the construction of the Salt Lake City temple, extending the invitation for us to analyze the foundations of our own lives. The past week I have tried to do this, honestly considering what my motivations are in life-- why I do the things that I do. As I identified the things in life that truly make me most happy, I realized that the underlying motivation for those things was the same. Thomas à Kempis said, “Without love, the outward work is of no value; but whatever is done out of love, be it never so little, is wholly fruitful." I know that this is true. The aspects of our lives that are grounded in love are the same things that are filling our lives with worth. Being motivated in this way does not make life easier, but it makes life worth living. In the words of Christina Franco, "Love is made sacred through sacrifice."
Elder Brennan Larsen
Vratsakan # 5
0051 Yerevan
Armenia
