December 19, 2016

Season's Greetings from the Icy Midwest

'Tis the season, brothers and sisters!

Merry Christmas to all back home, out and about, and serving on missions. 


I have been pretty inconsistent with this blog/email thing, so I'll be surprised if anyone actually reads this one. 

This past week, month, and year have been pretty interesting, to say the least. 

We were informed this last Monday that our Mission would be relinquishing (might I add reluctantly so) the three stakes of our Mission that are in the Tulsa area to the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Mission. 

It is sad to see a place that I served knocked off of the list of places that will be open to serve the last leg of my mission, but there are certainly a number of happy missionaries further West of us 😊

In other news, last Saturday and Sunday, I was blessed with the opportunity to experience -2 degrees Fahrenheit. They cancelled church, and we only almost slid off of the road a couple of times. Sorry, Mom. 

I certainly would not recommend such weather. We have it good in California!

And a California Christmas we had out here in Missouri. It was 70 degrees on Christmas day, with some thunderstorms into the evening. It was beautiful, and it felt just like home.

❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄

As my mission draws to a close, I find myself thinking often on the subject of those that I have met, the experiences that I have had, and the opportunities to grow that I have taken. 

As the 13th Article of Faith puts it- "[I] have endured many things," yet I have had much joy. 

The joys that I have experienced, the hardships, the trials, the exhaustion have been for my benefit, and I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for his powerful and guiding influence on my journey. 

In my studies, I have been researching a little more about what it means to be a good leader. There are plenty of self-help books out there, plenty of seminars and classes about how to develop good leaders, plenty of people trying to give their two cents. As a future leader, servant, and brother in Christ, I thought it best to seek out learning from the best books, and the results that I am finding are astonishing. 

When we think of a leader, we ofttimes focus on people that we see in the public perspective. People like Presidents, Judges, Businesspersons, and so on. What we forget, on occasion, is that there is One who rules supreme; One who has more followers than any political leader, any motivational speaker, any Hollywood hoax. 


His name is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, the Anointed One

I add my testimony to the billions of believers today that I know that he is the Only Begotten of the Father. 

Jesus Christ lived a life of absolute love and sacrifice for us. He showed us through divine example the actions, lifestyle, and comportment the medium to return to our Father above. 

He is the Creator of all, our elder Brother, our Exemplar. 

To all I wish a Merry Christmas, and may we #LIGHTtheWORLD with His love this winter season, and throughout all our lives. 

Keep warm, and remember that He loves you, regardless of what season of the year it is 😊

Love

Elder Matthew Busi
matthew.busi@myldsmail.net