Friday, May 10, 2013

Riding a bike is sometime harder than it looks

I was riding down a hill on the sidewalk and the sidewalk was a little bumpy.  I hit a bump and when I landed, my handle bars freaked out and went all the way to the right.  I hit the wall but bounced off.  At this point I kind of panicked and tried to pedal, but I was moving too fast.  The second I tried to pedal, the sudden shift in wight caused me to turn right back into the wall.  This time I stayed up against the wall for a solid 3 - 4 seconds grinding my right hand and right shoulder on the wall.  Luckily my shirt protected my shoulder (the shirt was ruined) but my hand was not so lucky.  My pinky got pretty well shredded, leaving the top layer of skin, from my second to third knuckle, gone.  For a few days my pinky and ring finger were pretty numb but they ended up recovering pretty fast. 

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Week of May 6th

Dear Friends and Family
We spoke to an older gentleman named Sox Argyle (Yes, that's actually his name). A few years ago he had an operation go wrong and he was paralyzed from the waist down. Recently he has gained control of his right leg but the left leg still will not respond. After talking with him a few times, he expressed that he thinks that if he keeps up with his therapy and exercises that he'll be able to walk again. His optimism and drive was inspiring. Sox is probably around 80 years old and he's showing no signs of ever being able to walk again but he still has hope. It's so easy to give up hope. Never give up hope. Never. The more I face adversity and trials the more I see that hope is all we have as people living in the probationary time on earth. If we give up hope then what do we have.  Alma describes "Faith as a having hope for things which are not seen, which are true." The only thing that is more important than hope is faith. It's tough to have faith. It's tough to have faith that the trials you have will be for your own advancement. It's hard to have faith that God has a real plan for us. May we never give up hope. More importantly, may we never give up our faith.
Elder S.