#89 zhuó zhíjiē yālì (Apply direct pressure)

Hey squad! here it is; my second to last MTC email! This week has been full of some very awesome things! But mostly, this week has just been very very boring as far as classes go. Everything outside of that has been amazing though. This most exciting thing that happened this week was I received my flight plans! On November 2nd I fly from SLC to Phoenix AZ, then from Phoenix to Santa Barbara CA! Another exciting thing that happened this week was I learned I will be meeting my Ventura mission leadership via zoom this Sunday! I am so excited to meet the mission president and possibly my new companion! I am so excited to get to the work, but I also don't feel ready at all, to all my Friends who did 3-6 weeks of MTC i don't know how you felt ready haha. Despite all the cool things that happened this week I have  been finding it very hard to stay focused and/or motivated. The only real motivation we have right now is that we have made it this far, haha. This is a problem as it makes learning hard and participating even harder. Thinking about this has reminded me of something I learned in my EMT class and in my job as a lifeguard.

I learned many wonderful things in my time as a lifeguard and in my EMT training. But one thing that sticks out to me currently is the concept of controlling a cut or large amounts of bleeding. After you glove up and make sure the scene is safe, The very first thing we do is apply direct pressure to the wound. We address the obvious problem. We don't get into the finer details of their blood pressure or past medical history until the bleeding has been controlled. I would compare our struggles, sins, and temptations in life to these wounds. Unless we are constantly applying direct pressure to our spiritual "wounds" they will not heal. This may sometimes be uncomfortable or even painful, if you have ever worn a tourniquet, you will know what I mean. But this direct constant pressure is vital to healing, physically and spiritually. So I would invite you all to apply direct pressure to your wounds, If your wound is unchecked phone usage, or social media time, consider deleting the apps causing the problems. If your wound is boredom or discouragement (like mine has been) find ways to make the boring, mundane things more fun! I know you can all do it!

Funny story for the week, We pranked our teacher Last night by changing our names to Elder Johnson, it was pretty funny and we all got a good laugh out of it!

Here are some pictures!

1. The Johnson Prank

2. Me and Elder Miller

3. P-day Pickle ball with the Utah boys