It’s been a good week, It's been pretty busy with meetings. We had DLC in Ellensburg on Tuesday (District Leaders in our zone with the zone leaders), Leadership training in Kennewick on Wednesday, (all district leaders and Zone Leaders on the east side of the mission) and zone meeting in Selah on Thursday, (all missionaries in our zone) we left these very enlightened. We're starting a challenge, but I'd prefer to call it a unified Book of Mormon study. Rather than reading the whole thing in a certain amount of time, we are studying several chapters on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, leading up to Easter and General Conference. It starts with 2 Nephi 2 and ends with Moroni 7, with authors ranging from Lehi, to Alma, to Jesus Christ. It’s been quite a revelatory experience.

I'll share my first take-away from the Book of Mormon reading. As I was going through it I decided to underline the opposites: bad things, (primarily barriers in our mortal state which separate us from god, trials, consequences of sin), with black; and good things (what helps us to return to live with our Heavenly Father, good consequences, blessings) with Red. It brought me into a realization. The need for opposition in all things isn't only because we couldn't have joy if we didn't have pain, but we couldn't be exalted if we didn't first go through trials. Just as one can't get from the top of a hill to the summit of a mountain without first hiking down the hill through the valley and up the mountain, Adam and Eve couldn't have gotten from Eden to the Celestial Kingdom without eating of the forbidden fruit and passing through the lone and dreary world. Thankfully because of Jesus Christ we not only have somebody to carry our pack or give us a hand during the hard times but somebody who can carry us "on Eagle's Wings" at the times where our strength and our efforts simply are not sufficient to go on our own. That's my take-away on the atonement for this week.

Have a good week everyone!

-Elder Partridge