Olympic Athlete and Manti Pageant

So this past week has been a really good week and full of amazing surprises. So this week we had a service project that my companion and I went to. We went to a food bank and we helped clean up the shelves a little bit. There were way too many people there and half the other Elders didn't do anything but oh well. It was still fun and I'm glad that we could provide the service that they needed. 

Working in the Family History Library on the lower floors does get a little boring at times, That's one of the main reasons why I don't talk to much about my zone because we do the same thing every single day and nothing really happens. So sorry I don't really talk to much about my zone. Which is why we get along so well and it's why we are super great friends, because not much happens on that floor but knowing my companion and I...we make the most of it and we do what we can to keep each other entertained. Which is why we get along so well and it's why we are super great friends. 

On Saturday was the last time that the Manti Pageant was going to be done. So President Fenn got us all on buses and we made the trip there spent the entire day and didn't get back till around 2:00 in the morning!!!! Needless to say that we were all very tired on Sunday, President Fenn knew that we were going to be home late so he allowed us to sleep in as long as we wanted to.

So my companion and I may have slept in till about 10:00. It was super great!

Now for my favorite part of the week...drum roll please.......

We had the privilege of having the Olympic 2014 Women's Skeleton Silver medalist Noelle Pikus-Pace come and speak to us. I was super excited and I loved it SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! It was a real treat for all of us young Elders to hear from her. She lives in Utah and she is a Member of the Church, which made it even better! But she talked to us for about an hour and talked to us about goals and knowing how to achieve them. We can't be broad, we have to be very specific about what goals we set. We also have to make daily efforts to getting towards a bigger goal. I don't need to go into details because you probably already know about that stuff. 

Yesterday was pretty amazing as well. We went Bowling as a District at a place close by. It was super fun, especially since that I haven't been bowling in a long time. But the owner of the Facility is also a member of the Church and is currently on a mission...long story short, during the week, Elders get 3 games of Bowling for free. So that was a super great activity for our district yesterday.

Spiritual thought: So my Spiritual Thought today is going to come from Alma 44:4 "Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith." It kind of made me think so I just studied this verse for a while and I came up with this thought; The blessings are limitless to those who remember that God is all powerful and that through him all things are possible. He will keep us safe and watch over us and hear our prayers if we constantly strive to walk the Path of righteousness to become more like our Heavenly father and Jesus Christ.

So we need to do our very best to always remember who is the one who controls the world around us and the one who can make everything possible as long as we rely on him and allow him to be in our lives.

I Hope that all of you have a wonderful week and make the most out of every moment of every day. I love you all tons! You are all Fabtabulous people

Stay Foxy!

Elder Wyatt Gatlin

Stressful but Still Good

Hello all of you wonderful people!!!! So as the title of the email states....I was a little stressed out this past week just because of things that have happened with my fellow elders and some things that they are going through. But other than that it's been a really good week, Elder Shaw and I have probably died laughing every single night this past week just because we're both having so much fun just doing dumb things because we're stupid....HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Not really though. 

This past week on Thursday, President Fenn had us at his house and we had a Pizza Party! It was super fun and I really enjoyed it. We all made our own individual Pizzas and we all cooked them one at a time in his Pizza Oven outside, (It's a Brick Oven). He had that oven heated way hot to where our Pizza's were cooking in less than a minute. Which was super awesome!!! I would've taken some pictures but I forgot my camera on my desk, when I told myself..."I'm not going to forget it." well............don't think that turned out too well......Oh well.

But I spoke during Monday Morning Devotional yesterday. It was funny though, because they tell you the week before, so you have a while to prepare. But they say, "you have 3 minutes to tell about you and a spiritual experience"  I was like ONLY 3 MINUTES!!!!!! WHAT!!!! So I was jumping around quite a bit. They told us to lean more towards telling us about our life because there's probably a lot more there. So I did what they told me. 

Later that day I taught in District meeting about things that we face in out everyday lives that can cause us to let go of the Iron Rod and go astray a little bit. Also I lead into what Fiery Darts, that I called "Sharks", of the Adversary do we need to most work on and then I went to several scriptures that we can all use to help us understand what things we can do and things that we can all work of doing to improve and allow us to move forward towards the Love of God, which is the Tree of Life. 

Spiritual Thought: So this is a Scripture that I used in my lesson yesterday; It was 

1 Nephi 15:2-11 

2 And it came to pass that I beheld my brethren, and they were disputing one with another concerning the things which my father had spoken unto them.

3 For he truly spake many great things unto them, which were hard to be understood, save a man should inquire of the Lord; and they being hard in their hearts, therefore they did not look unto the Lord as they ought.

4 And now I, Nephi, was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, and also, because of the things which I had seen, and knew they must unavoidably come to pass because of the great wickedness of the children of men.

5 And it came to pass that I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all, because of the destruction of my people, for I had beheld their fall.

6 And it came to pass that after I had received strength I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations.

7 And they said: Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive tree, and also concerning the Gentiles.

8 And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?

9 And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.

10 Behold, I said unto them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts?

11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.

Then I looked at my Student Manual and I read this; "If we harden our hearts, reject continuing revelation, & limit our learning to what we can obtain by study & reason on the precise language of the present canon of scriptures, our understanding we'll be limited to what Alma called [The Lesser portion of the word.] If we seek & accept revelation & inspiration to enlarge our understanding of the Scriptures, we will realize a fulfillment of Nephi's inspired Promise that those who diligently seek will have the Mysteries of God...unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost" - Dallin H. Oaks -   

That struck me really hard because it's super true! There are little things that we do in our everyday lives that can cause us to Harden our Hearts, and the sad thing is, we do it so easily and so readily. If we would take just a little effort each and every day to humble ourselves to the lord, we will see ourselves becoming more and more like the savior and we will know that he is blessing our lives more than we could ever know.

Well I hope that all of you have a FABTABULOUS DAY and WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you all so very much!

Stay Foxy!

Elder Wyatt Gatlin

Super Fun Companion

WELL HELLO AGAIN!!! ALL OF YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE!!!

This past week has been a pretty eventful week, it's not been all fun though. There have been a few bumps in the road I will say, but we've worked through them and we are still having fun though. 

My Companion and I have been having a lot of fun. Just like what Sister Hinckley says "You can either Laugh or Cry through life. I'd much rather laugh because crying gives me a headache" 

Which is something that I've learned to appreciate. There is a lot of wisdom in those words that we really need to take into consideration. The fact that laughing is one of the best things that we can do for our body. It helps us have a brighter mood, helps us stay out of depression, and does healthy stuff to our brain. WHICH...is amazing! Laughing is an amazing thing that Elder Shaw has helped me come to better appreciate as I've been on the mission. It's lessons like these that we need to be looking for in our everyday life. Sometimes they can be an answer to our prayers or a teaching that will open our eyes to an even better understanding of things. 

So that was a huge eye opener to me this past week.....It was like BOOM!!! *Explosion Noises*

HAHAHA!

But other than that, nothing really exciting has happened. We've been on several hikes this past week. It's been really nice to get out into the fresh mountain air, rather than being stuck in the city. 

I will send the pictures next week because I forgot my camera and my companion took the pictures. 

Spiritual Thought: So I know it may seem like I've already shared a spiritual thought but I'm going to share another one that I came across yesterday during my personal study.This comes from 1 Nephi 10 17-19 

17 And it came to pass after I, Nephi, having heard all the words of my father, concerning the things which he saw in a vision, and also the things which he spake by the power of the Holy Ghost, which power he received by faith on the Son of God—and the Son of God was the Messiah who should come—I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost which is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him, as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto the children of men.

18 For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him.

19 For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.

Then I wrote this down for a thought that came to me. "Living the Lord's Standards requires that we cultivate the gift of the Holy Ghost. That gift helps us understand doctrine and apply it personally. Because truth that is given by revelation can be understood only by revelation, our studies need to be Prayerful"  Part of that thought came from the manual but the point is still the same. 

We need to make sure that we are trying to use the Gift of the Holy Ghost to the most of it's ability. With the Gift, we can do so many amazing things...but only if we are Living the Lord's Standards and doing all that we can to become more like him. Doing all that we can to follow him and live on the covenant path. 

I hope that all of you will have a wonderful week. 

You are all amazing! Love you all

Stay Foxy!

Elder Wyatt Gatlin

New Companion

Hello all of you wonderful people! I hope that all of you had a wonderful week like I did. This past week has been a really good week over all, there are always days where they aren't the best but for the most part it's been really fun!

So first off, I have a new companion Elder Shaw! He's super great. He's a lot like Elder Barron which is always awesome, but we're in a Two man apartment and it's SUPER GREAT!!!!!! 

But other than that it's just been amazing. I was transferred back into FHL: Services which I'm fine with because I have a great companion, and I'm downstairs on B1 and B2 instead of upstairs on 2 and 3. B1 is The International Floor and B2 is the British Isles floor. So I'm in a previous zone, but on totally different floors than last time. It's a lot better than last time that I was in the zone, but I think that I'm going to enjoy it this time. 

This week has been pretty fun actually. Moving isn't ever fun, but it wasn't as bad as a few transfers ago. Elder Shaw and I get along really well and it made it even better that we became companions, so we had a super funny moment. The day of transfers, Elder Shaw came over and I was joking and said, "Hey Elder Shaw are you ready to be my companion." We became companions which was super funny and we totally made everyone laugh. But that is my super funny story for this week. 

But this week has just been super duper fun and I love my new district and my companion. 

Now time for my spiritual thought. I am going to come from Moroni 10: 32-33

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

Which is super important for us to realize because by the Grace of God, all things are possible and through Grace and His Mercy we can do all the things. Through God we can feel a remission of our sins and that we can feel of his love and feel of Him helping us throughout our lives and in our darkest times. He will allow us to come unto him if we humble ourselves and allow him to come into our lives.

Well I hope that all of you have a fabtabulous week and I hope that you all enjoy all of your own adventures.

Love all of you very much!

Stay Foxy!

Elder Wyatt Gatlin