Week #65 - "Young Trappa"

Well first off, let me give my brother a birthday shout out. Happy
birthday, Mckay! 💪🏼😜👌🏼 big 17! Crazy he's getting old. But so am
I. I'm going to be 20 on Saturday...I'm not sure I'm ready to leave my
teenage years behind....jk I am. I'm so excited to see what this next
year has in store.

This week has definitely been one for the books again. Elder Winn and
I were able to see some success with our investigators and they were
able to make some great progress. One of our investigators named
Donnell, came to church and had a great experience. He let us know he
wanted to come like 20 minutes before it started but we were able to
make it work. And a youth in the ward was able to fellowship him
really well and even offered to give him a ride home. It was solid!
Donnell is a junior in high school. He's 16 and is probably my size.
Pretty crazy. He doesn't play sports though. We are trying to convince
him to play football next year. We put Donnell on date to be baptized
on October 8th. So look for great things to come from him.

We met with another girl named Keisha this week. She told us her nick
name is "young trappa" hahah. She's so sweet. Kind of rough around the
edges but is so sweet. She is 17 and is really willing to listen. We
had a couple lessons with her and put her on date to be baptized too.
She is also on for October 8th! When we invited her to be baptized on
that day she said, "of course I would". It was so sick. I'm really
excited for her.

I was reading through some of my notes this week and came across this
story I wanted to share.

The little country schoolhouse was heated by an old-fashioned,
potbellied coal stove. A little boy had the job of coming to school
early each day to start the fire and warm the room before his teacher
and his classmates arrived.

One morning they arrived to find the schoolhouse in flames. They
dragged the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building more
dead than alive. He had major burns over the lower half of his body
and was taken to the nearby county hospital. From his bed the
dreadfully burned, semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor
talking to his mother. The doctor told his mother that her son would
surely die — which was for the best, really — for the fire had
devastated the lower half of his body.

But the brave boy didn't want to die. He made up his mind that he
would live. Somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did
survive. When the mortal danger was past, he again heard the doctor
and his mother speaking quietiy. The mother was told that since the
fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body, it
would almost be better if he had died, since he was doomed to be a
lifetime cripple with no use at all of his lower limbs.

Once more the brave boy made up his mind. He would not be a cripple.
He would walk. But unfortunately from the waist down, he had no motor
ability. His thin legs just dangled there. Ultimately he was released
from the hospital. Every day his mother would massage his little legs,
but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination
that he would walk was as strong as ever. When he wasn't in bed, he
was confined to a wheelchair.

One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some
fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from
the chair. He pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs
behind him. He worked his way to the white picket fence bordering
their lot. With great effort, he raised himself up on the fence. Then,
stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence, resolved
that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a
smooth path all around the yard beside the fence. There was nothing he
wanted more than to develop life in those legs.

Through his daily massages, persistence, and determination, he did
develop the ability to stand up, then to walk haltingly, then to walk
by himself — and then — to run. He began to walk to school, then to
run to school, to run for the sheer joy of running. Later in college
he made the track team. Later on this young man who was not expected
to survive, who would surely never walk, who could never hope to run —
this determined young man, Glenn Cunningham, ran the world's fastest
mile!

This really hit home to me. I know that whenever I put my mind to
anything. I WILL accomplish it. I know that for a fact. Ultimately,
anything we want to do, is possible. We can do all things have rough
Christ!

Everyone have a great week. I love and miss ya!



- Elder Leish