Rain or Sun or None at all

Hello friends and family.

We had sort of a crazy week this week.
We of course started the week with P-day. it was pretty plain, not a lot going on just the normal things that need to get done.

The following day we drove all the way out to Cherryfield about 30 miles away from our apartment for a meal with the Brown family. It was great because we don't really see them that often and it was a great excuse to go and work in an area that we don't get to normally.

I guess the really big thing that happened this week is the Wild Blueberry festival. Basically every year the town of Machias throws this huge festival to celebrate the blueberry harvest. In years past there have been almost 12 thousand people on the streets of Machias going and taking part in the festivities.

People come from all over the area, we talked to people from New York and Massachusetts and even a few from Florida. It's a really big deal. We got to take part in that by making a family history booth that helped people get started with familysearch.org and thanks to Elder and Sister DeVaney it was really successful. The DeVaney's are family history outreach support missionaries who help people with this kind of stuff all the time and they were gracious enough to drive down and help us despite the fact that Elder DeVaney hadn't slept in over 20 hours because he was riding his Royal Enfield  back from Washington state to his home in Maine. They were both super helpful and kind to help us. (They are the two standing in the booth in the photo)

The whole festival was great accept that attendance wasn't pretty poor due to the down pour that was going on basically all morning into the late afternoon. It rained a lot and most people didn't want to deal with it. Despite that we were able to talk to loads of people about the gospel and about their families. It was really fun and we got a lot out of it.

Yesterday, Sunday, was pretty normal. Our investigator, Clif, came to all 3 meetings at church and that was really awesome. He is scheduled to be baptized late next month!
After church we helped take down booths from the blueberry festival and we got to talk to alot of people about the gospel and render service. We may have week minds but strong backs!
Today has been a normal day so far. Just regular P-day stuff. There was a really cool setup at a nearby park where a bunch of people were watching the moon travel in front of the sun with about 3 different telescopes and a bunch of eclipse glasses.  It was only about 60% eclipse from up here but it was still really neat to see through powerful telescopes and there were a lot of people to talk to too!

Thats about all I had for this week, I love you all and hope that
you have a great one!

Until then

-Elder (2) Starr

Hay [Work as a Gospel Principle]

To start, sorry for sending an empty email. Just goofed a bit.

We had a pretty good week here in Machias, we started the week by doing p-day and then after that we went to the Lecheminant's for a Family Home Evening activity. The whole theme of the activity was to CHEWS the right. Most everything had to do with bubble gum, which we are not allowed to chew. I wasn't too heartbroken and I don't imagine that Elder O'Rourke was either.

Following that we had a pretty normal week. On Wednesday we had our regularly scheduled district meeting and we went and saw some people out in the middle of nowhere, (like even more so than we already are.) At the end of the week we went on exchanges with Elder Wendell and Elder Harper from Rockland.

It was a pretty fun time because we got to take one of the young men with us on a mini mission!  His name is Aaron and we took him teaching and finding with us in Rockland. We gave him a little more vision as to what a mission could be like and some of the fun and challenges that comes with it. Then we went to this bible camp that a young baptist girl invited us to. We played capture the flag with a bunch of teenagers for about 90 minutes in the tall grass and weeds. It was certainly challenging in a white shirt and tie but we had fun and they were super kind. That was good because we were afraid that we would arrive just to have them bash at us but it turned out to be a good experience.

I have been thinking alot about the principle of work lately and how it pertains to the gospel.  With this pondering I have concluded that work is so deeply ingrained in the Gospel that it can be hard to recognize. The gospel that Christ has given us cannot bring us promised eternal life without hard work.  In this life we are to work for our salvation by striving to build our faith, repent of our sins, and using the sacrifice that Christ made for us to endure to the end.  Our Heavenly Father chose Christ's plan over Lucifer's because in a plan with no effort, no exertion or resistance, there is no progression. If our lives are dedicated to the work of the Lord and we strive to increase our understanding of the Gospel and live to that knowledge, than we are promised the greatest gift of all, Eternal Life.

I know that this is the Lord's work and that as we push ourselves to be greater and to try harder that God will consecrate those efforts.

When they say in Preach my Gospel that there is no more compelling work than the work of salvation they mean it! 

I love you all and hope that you have a fantastic rest of your week.

Till Next time

-Elder Starr

Lighthouses, FDR and Journals

Hello everybody,

I have had a pretty wild past few days.

Starting on Monday, Brother McEwan took us to a different country, and the best part is that we didn't even break any rules doing it. That's right, Machias is the only area in the mission that covers Canada, the part that it covers is called Campo Bello island, its a fairly large island just off shore of the city of Lubec. While we were there we went all the way to the top and saw the lighthouse that was up there, it was really cool but I don't remember its name. It's the one with the cross on it.

Than we went down and saw the old Franklin D. Roosevelt summer home. It was actually FDR's summer home that he went to often during his presidency. It is big and looks expensive. We didn't go inside but there was a lot of cool signage around the area that talked about the president and his influence on the country. Just not the country where the house was at...

Afterwards we went to the eastern most point in the United States. pretty cool stuff. For a few minutes I was as geographically distant from all of you as the mission boundaries allowed.  It was a really fun P-day and it was really nice to get out of routine.  

The whole rest of the week was filled with exchanges. Tuesday to Wednesday Elder Carlson, our zone leader, and I worked in Machias. We walked all over Machias that day, we only drove about 5 miles and the rest was spent talking to people and seeing people in the bustling metropolis that is the city of Machias Maine. it was really cool and we found 3 new investigators! After that I went down to Belfast on Wednesday and Thursday with Elder Buitikofer. (spelling?)  We had a really great time. Elder B. is on week 11 which means that he is finishing up his training, pretty big step in the process.  After that exchange Elder O'Rourke and I did some volunteering at the hospital, it was mostly just paperwork and a quick blood test but it was fun either way.

For the past few weeks i have been writing in my journal a lot more powerfully than I have in the past.

I have found that the more that I record about this experience the more opportunity it gives me for personal reflection as I look back at past entries.  It helps me to remember things that I had forgotten and as I reviewed my journal earlier today I found a lot of things that I had written that was really striking to me. A lot of it had to do with my progress as a missionary and as a child of God. I was really grateful that I decided to record those things even when "I didn't feel like it" or I was having a difficult day.

If you are not already keeping a journal of your life I would invite you to do so.  It has definitely blessed me and I know that it will bless you.

I don't know if you have already seen most of these photos through facebook, because I can't look at facebook, but here you go.  [see post]

I have also noticed that Elder Sean Starr has declared himself as Elder Starr number 1, which implies that I would be Elder Starr 2. I have mixed feelings about the designation of "number 2" but if it helps you people at home I guess it is worth it.

I love you all and I hope that you all have a wonderful rest of your week.  I would also just like to let my siblings know that if you go on a mission you don't have to go to school for 2 years. I figured that would be on their minds. (retrospective apologies.)

Until next week,

-Elder Starr