Bamboo June 27

Hello, hola, konicaiwh(I think that's how Japan spells it), wie gehts,
I have been practicing my gift of tongues for when I meet the true
Apalacia people out here! Met a few this past week with Elder Bragg
and they had some of the thickest accents if ever heard! He asked me
what they said afterwards and I guess my gift of tongues has been
kicking in because I understood every word haha, I've been in eastern
Kentucky too long! But I've loved working with Elder Bragg  this week,
it is so awesome to give a new missionary the experience of a
lifetime, although I'm not sure how appreciative he is of my not using
the car too often haha. We finished our day out on Wednesday and we
came in for the day; after planning he asked me to count up how far we
had gone that day and I figured we biked about 26 miles that day! I'm
the worst car missionary ever haha! President Brough came to church
yesterday and the member teaching the class we were in mentioned how
much we bike and I'm not sure if I'll be in a car area much longer
after I leave London haha!

So onto the title of my email, bamboo. I was preparing a mini-training
I was asked to give at district meeting and my ward mission leader,
Brother Harms, gave me an AWESOME analogy on faith, you are allowed to
quote this whenever you want because it's that good. So when you plant
a bamboo seed, it takes A LOT of work. Try guessing how long it takes
for a bamboo seed, to sprout, or even grow. How long would you guess?
Well you're probably wrong, whatever you guessed. You have to
faithfully tend to and water this seed for....5 years. 5 whole years!
And after 5 years of watering (you can't stop or it shrivels up and
dies) you get a small shoot 3 inches tall. But! But, for the next 80
days after the seed sprouts, you would have a 90 foot bamboo tree!!

Well I think that takes some dedication! But how great of a blessing
it must be to have such a lovely tree after so many years of arduous
watering and weeding. I don't think it's much different from our
faith. Sometimes it takes years to nurture and care for a slowly
sprouting seed of faith and hope, but the outcome it ALWAYS worth it!
So for those of you who don't feel like your faith is where it should
be, keep trying and don't you dare give up! To quote an apostle of the
Lord, "So keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing.
Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever."
There will always be room to grow and learn, but if you feel like your
faith isn't as firm and strong as you would like, your only critic is
yourself. Do your best and trust that God will help you to complete
the rest of this long journey we call life. "You may not know
everything, but you know enough."

God Bless all y'all and Happy Independence Day (p-day is next Tuesday
so don't be surprised when I don't email on Mondays),

Elder Crow