Hello from Sacramento. Time to adjust to the time change again. The clock may have said I was to get an extra hour of sleep this morning but my body was still up at the normal time, and now tonight it's later that usual and my body is saying let's go to bed right now. Oh well, life goes on. Today there was the proverbial group that arrived at church early because they forgot to change their clocks last night, and for Marshallese people who are almost always late, that was a blessing. Maybe they won't change their clocks before next Sunday either or the next Sunday after that or . . . . you get my drift.
       As each week of experiences go by for us I have more and more respect for the single missionaries (young and old) who have either previously served or are serving missions now.  I've watched some of the young missionaries here in our mission be faced with many challenges and life changing experiences, but one of their most difficult they have faced at times has been learning how to work and live with a "difficult" companion 24/7. For Sherrie and I it's a little easier because our "companion" is the one we have known for many years and we get along well and have worked out the kinks. But I've been watching how the Lord has been blessing those that try the hardest. The more spiritual they are or try to be, the more the issues of the "difficult" companion tend to disappear and are no longer a problem.
      I think another growing point about missions is how to face and deal with issues of contention and disagreement that we are faced with at times. That has occured often already with Sherrie and I. A week ago we had a situation occur in a leadership meeting that has bothered us for the last seven days. It probably affected our activities and accomplishments for the entire week. And we were even dreading going back to that meeting today, for fear that the same situation would occur again. However, we had prayed and pondered over it all week long, had emersed ourselves in the scriptures, and had talked it over with our wonderful mission president, and amazingly enough, the atmosphere in the meeting today was completely different, and the spirit of the Lord definately was in that meeting. Elder Russell M. Ballard once said to avoid confrontations "We must show compassionate concern for others. We must control the tongue, the pen, and the word processor. We must remember as in Proverbs 11:12 and 17:28 where it says He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour; but a man of understanding holdeth his peace. Through the love of God, the pain caused by the fiery canker of contention will be extinguished from the soul". I certainly saw that change occur in our meeting today. I'll always be greatful for what the Lord gives us if we are willing to receive.

Have a good week,

John (Elder) Downs