Spider-Pen, Spider Pen! Does Whatever A Spider-Pen Can!

Hallelujah! What I splendiferous week this has been!

Time flies like a mango launched from a catapult, and hits you in the back of the head just as you're about to taste the popsicle of competence, familiarity, and routine, which instead is forcibly jammed up your nostrils of mental serenity, giving you a major brain freeze of anxiety.

Actually, I'm not really anxious, I'm just repeatedly caught off guard by how quickly time trickles by.

Last Saturday we received transfer calls, and it turns out that I will be staying in this area!

My new companion will be Elder Poland. I don't know anything else about him, except that he is not from Poland. Naturally, that was my first inquiry the moment that I heard his name. I'm not sure why, but my second question was "How tall is he?" Currently, the answer to that question still remains shrouded beneath the dark and ominous fog of ignorance. Perhaps he is a Nephilim. Just kidding.

Anyway, I have a little miracle to share this week. I was having a hard day, because the Jones family (one of our only solid families) seems to be struggling and is on the brink of falling out of our teaching pool. Anyway, again I was just getting discouraged about everything. I was just getting discouraged with myself, our lack of baptisms, and everything which just seemed to be crashing down at the same time (Notice the past tense. I promise, not everything is bad. I know that each one of us has times in our life where we just seem to be discouraged. It happens. That's why the Lord has promised to help us through His Atonement). Well, as I was sort of in my melancholy mood, we were deciding where we would go tracting the next day. At that moment, I decided I would throw my pen at the map of our area, and see where it hit, just to give us some ideas.

Anyway, I threw the pen on sort of an impulse, I didn't think it through too long, but lo and behold, the pen stuck to the map. That's right. The pen stuck to the wall horizontally. I took a picture of it. Afterwards, we found out how it had happened (the grip on the pen somehow allowed it to stick to the wall.) However, although we could get the pen to stick to the wall under specific conditions, try as we might, we could not get the pen to stick to the wall by throwing it from the angle I'd been sitting at, and from the distance I'd been sitting at. Yeah, it was awesome. The pen was pointing at a road we hadn't knocked yet, so we knocked it.

We had limited success there, so we'll see what comes from it, but I don't believe that the Lord showed us that little miracle because there was some amazing miracle baptism that would happen on that street. No, I firmly believe that the reason that miracle occurred was to remind me that this is the Lord's work. The Lord is in charge. I don't need to worry about the results, I just need to do what the Lord wants me to. I need to represent Him in the area He has placed me in. He will send baptisms in His own time.

Sorry to go off on that spiel. 

One other thing I wanted to talk about. Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to learn from our stake president, President Andersen, about learning from symbolism. We mostly talked about it in relation to the temple, but at the end in told us that everything in life is symbolic. The Lord is the Master Teacher, and the Universe is His classroom, and everything in it is meant to instruct us and teach us about Him and His plan for us.

We must not be afraid to dig a little deeper in our pondering. Look at something that interests you, some sort of symbol and ask: What is it? Describe what it is, what it looks like, feels like, etc.

Then ask: What might that mean? Come up with something that you feel fits the symbolism, something that it might be symbolic of.

Finally, and most importantly ask: If that's what it means, what do I do about it? This is where we apply our knowledge. This is where the Spirit will teach us what we need to learn and do from the symbol. Keep repeating this final step until you come up with something specific that you can do in your own life at that time that will be good for you.

The great thing about symbolism is that we can always learn from it. It is such an immense source of wisdom and knowledge. It is also very personalized. Because the symbols can have multiple meanings, the Spirit will help us know what we specifically need at that time from it.

Sorry that this letter was so long. I'm also sorry if that last portion was confusing. 

I know that this church is true. I really do. I trust in the Lord with all my heart, and I love Him with my whole soul. Jesus Christ lives, and He is our Savior and Redeemer. This I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

--

Elder Benge