Sister Hodges in Kentucky Country : Kentucky In March

There’s a verse in the Book of Mormon that has taught me a lot this week. Alma 57:25 “And it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood; nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds.”

Back up story: So, this verse is talking about the 2,000 Stripling Warriors. Young men who had chosen to fight for the liberty of their families in place of their fathers since their fathers had made an oath with God to never fight again. These young men are some of the greatest examples of faith over fear, and trusting in God. Alma 57:25 gives the status of these young men after a battle. The verses I usually reference to when reading about these Warriors is in earlier chapters after their first battle, when not one of these young men were slain. This verse is a later battle where it states that none of them were slain again despite their many wounds and loss of blood. The connection an Elder had made with this verse was that these warriors could have easily emphasized the fact that everyone had been wounded, some even fainting at the loss of blood, but they chose to see the greater miracle, that everyone had survived. Missions and life can be a lot like that. We can easily get caught up in what seems to be major set-backs and miss the great miracles that God has blessed us with.

On another note, Sister LeFevre and I had a great week! We got a few good days of nice weather, till yesterday when it decided to sleet and eventually snow. Hello Kentucky in March.

Another thing we always forget to take into consideration when Sister LeFevre and I are knocking doors that comes with March is the UK basketball schedule. Let's just say people do not have time for missionaries knocking at their door when the games on!

On one of the nice days, we met a guy named Lucas outside of the library. Turns out he'd been taught by missionaries before in another town in Kentucky! He told us that he already knew that the Book of Mormon was true. We got to meet with him again yesterday and he told us that the happiest he had ever been was when he had been going to church before. We're excited to meet with him more and help him start learning from us again.