Eight More Days

 June 8, 2021

Გამარჯობა!

 

My good friends! Single digits! Today also marks two years since my first full day as a missionary. It still hasn't fully set in that I'm leaving and I don't think it will until the day I leave. I'm still not packed, so maybe that will add a bit more reality to the mix of everything. 

 

Today we went to a museum which was great. Pictures will be attached. We also had a footrace to see who was the fastest in the country. An observer may have come to the conclusion that it was me. This is not in any specific length of race. Just in a footrace, the most ambiguous of competitions. 

Last week we got special permission from President Picard to go out of town. Sunday night, I was in a meeting with him helping prepare everything for him to come up for zone conference. At the end, he mentioned that since I'm leaving, it would be great for me to get out of the city with the zone on a trip. We organized the trip in a couple hours for the next day. We went to Kazbegi, which was the first trip I went on when I came to Georgia. It was fantastic to take everybody there. We hiked up to the top of a mountain with a  monastery and it was way better than last time. It was probably one of the most beautiful places I have been. A lot of the missionaries went so far as to say that it was THE most beautiful place they had been. It was peaceful. We all took some time to ponder and sit on the meadowy hill.

The Picards came up this week as well, and we had a good zone conference. There was some good discussion about the experiments we tried over the past three months, which was good. I gave my departing teaching and testimony which was excellent. I spoke about breakthroughs. A breakthrough depicts sudden progress after a stop of progress. Deus ex machina was one example I gave of this. Over two years I have had many breakthroughs. We all have these breakthroughs. It might be a flash of inspiration when completing a lab assignment. Maybe it is a feeling that we can now move forward in making a choice. Those breakthrough inventions like the radio and nuclear power are notable. What do all of these breakthroughs have in common? It is hard for me to chalk these things up to anything but an opening of the heavens. Divine providence.

Georgian Zone Conference

One of the hardest things for us to do is recognize this. We like to give ourselves the credit whenever we can. The last chapter in the Book of Mormon has a wonderful injunction from the prophet Moroni. "Deny not the gifts of God," says he. Who would deny a gift? We all do it very often. If we do not recognize what God brings to us as gifts and think that we earned it by ourselves, we are in a sense denying His gifts. Diligence is an attribute of Deity. Work ethic is great, but as in everything, there is a balance to be had. We should not boast of ourselves, but of our God. 

Pray, study, and do the right things. 

 See you soon. 

--უხუცესი იაკობი