Hello everyone! These past few days have been calm here in Germany and I have enjoyed receiving new guests from Holland and England and also talking to Jackson throughout the day.

I had the opportunity to clean out some garbage cans recently that were kind of gross because flies were growing inside of them. Once the city took the trash out of them, they needed to be washed out or otherwise the flies would keep growing inside of them. The flies were spawning in part because I had thrown out a package of ground beef that had gone bad and also because it had been hot for so many days. It took a while to clean them out, but afterwards it made a big difference because they did not smell bad anymore.

Right now in my scripture study I am in the war chapters of the Book of Mormon, and some of the great passages in those chapters include chapters 60 and 61 which are a correspondence between Captain Moroni and Pahoran. Pahoran’s reply in 61 is very sweet, and in chapter 60 Moroni shares his love for his country and how he was striving to clean out the corruption that was putting the people in danger. He described it as cleaning the inner vessel and that is what I did with the trash cans. In our own lives cleaning our inner vessel is also important. Through the Savior Jesus Christ we can change and be purified from the inside out. He will teach us how to love more, become more selfless, and as we keep His commandments we will have confidence in the presence of our Heavenly Father.