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Monday, August 26, 2013

Mission Letter Week 6 - 26 August 2013

Emily, Those sketches of Lindsey Stirling...


Drawings of Lindsey Stirling by Mama (top left) and Emily (all others) that we shared with Elder Nine

... are way awesome and I bragged about them to my whole District! :D  Some of them have not seen her - but those are very accurate pictures, so now they have seen her.  Super good stuff.

That is a GREAT understanding of that scripture (2 Nephi 25:28) :) I'm glad that you are getting the hang of scripture study. As time goes by and you get older it becomes more and more important to read the scriptures AND understand the teachings in them. That's the most important part, is understanding them. So I'm glad you're doing that!

SCONT (Statesmanship Club of North Texas) is WAY cool and you'll have a ton of fun with A and all the other people there. They are good people and awesome friends. :) I heard the story last time of Daddy being goofy at a meeting and all. Haha! Make sure to have fun...but also make sure to pay super close attention 'cuz they teach very good and important stuff in SCONT. :)

What you said about the place your bed is in (what used to be my bedroom) being the same spot I slept in and how it gave you comfort, almost like I was right next to you, made me cry happy tears, Emi. I'm glad that it brings more comfort to think of that. :')

EWWW STINKY TOES!! That "home movie" we made about 6 years ago is super goofy!  We were quite the silly bunch! :)

Good to hear from you Emi! I love you!!

Marmy, Stake Pres. C is SO COOL! And, yeah, we've been over twice in the last week to eat and share a message and are going again tonight.  Sister C loves the missionaries! hahaha. I believe we've already talked about his son in the Lyon, France, mission and Elder A......I think... I don't know, I'll bring it up again. :)

WAIT. C is NOT an Eagle!?!?!? NOOOOOO :'(  Oober sadness. (Mom's Note: my computer auto-corrected the accidentally misspelled word "now" and inserted "not" instead.  I meant to share with him that "Colin is now an Eagle Scout".  What a sad mistake to make!)

That's way awesome about K and M though!! Sorry…Sisters M and M.  They will be sooo awesome! And having sisters in the mission is not only fun/funny/cool but it is also SOOOO important. They add SO MUCH to the work in a way that sometimes, oft times Elders cannot. That's awesomeness! :) I know they'll be great missionaries!

That's also super cool about T and B's family opening up a Bed & Breakfast in Florence, Italy!! That sounds like quite the set up over there. :) I hope it works out for them. Maybe I'll visit Italy when I get home! ;)

As for the news about Mrs R (that she retired from the school job) I think that will actually be very good for her so she's less "stretched". She is a wonderful and an amazing teacher. And, yes, we do wish them the bestest. :)

I am definitely writing you first from now on! :D I'm sorry I wasn't. I was just getting into my habit of just replying to emails in the order they come...but the others can wait if I run out of time.  :)

GAHH! I totally forgot my camera and I just remembered it!!!!! :O I'll send pictures next week. SORRY!

We use the Stake Center for emails which is why we get kicked off after an hour and a half. haha!

No baptismal clothes have arrived yet (that you shipped me). No bike either. :'( YES BACK PACK!! :D THAT MADE ME SOOO HAPPY!! I can carry way more water now too!

My back is great now, now that I've switched to the singularly most amazing bag EVER!! :D And the sheets and towels are just fine. :) Thank you for those as well!!

A difficult time?? Well I know the emails have been short and all but I'm feeling FANTASTIC!! :D I love the work and my District and even the whole Zone! Our ward is the "lowest producing" ward in our Stake as far as conversions go......and just in the last week Elder N and I, WITH the Spirit of the Lord, have started to pull a huge 180 on that statistic. BRING IT ON. We are so pumped for the work! haha. I even have a super awesome story I'll share when I'm done with answering the questions you asked. :)

I'm eating SOOOO MUCH because I burn SOOOO MUCH of it off! hahaha. Actually I'm not eating all THAT much.  And sleeping is great! I have a sweet bed and getting to sleep isn't really an issue...never has been since the MTC...which shocked me. I bet a million the spirit is helping me on that one! ;)

And yes... the Journal is SUPER AWESOME and a great way to close every day! :D

As for help from your end.....MAKE THE BIKE APPEAR INSTANTLY! :) The one I'm borrowing is killing my leg muscles......although they feel super nice now. (*eyebrow dance* - Haha!) And when mine gets here my legs will be so conditioned that it'll be crazy easy....blessing in disguise. :)

Those pics/posters you attached to your email are really cool!



 (An ancient American prophet which we learn of in the Book of Mormon called Samuel the Lamanite, as he stands on the wall to prophecy of Christ's birth, life, and death, but the wicked people try to kill him by shooting their arrows at him. Regardless they are expert marksmen, their arrows all miraculously deviate course and miss Samuel.  He escapes alive, runs off, and is never heard of again. All of Samuel's prophecies came true.)

 Quote by President James E. Faust regarding the restored Priesthood (authority to act in the name of God.)





We were actually just talking as a District today while playing tennis (that's right, wuddup) about Samuel and a picture we saw of him and how it looked like he was saying, "Come at me Bro!!"  So that timing is hilarious.  And I love the James E. Faust quote too. SO VERY TRUE.

Nice to hear about the home-life :)


(I'm cutting that reply short so I can make a detailed story and report about this week...I'll be doing the same in the future with all the stuff you guys write on email.)

OK, STORY TIME :)

Alright so for starters we have a baptismal date with R!!! :D He was investigating before I came and he has just given up alcohol, smoking, and tea and has starting living ALL of the gospel principles!!!  IT'S SO COOL!  His date should be the 28th...the only thing that might change is we might do it sooner! He is so solid and loves learning more and more about the gospel. WOOP!!! Also, we have another TOTALLY solid investigator, B. His wife is a member and was recently less active but decided to start becoming active. He took an interest and we taught the first lesson, about the restoration of the gospel, yesterday right after church… he'd been to church three times before that already!! :D As a side note, our goal as missionaries is to help people have spiritual experiences. Long made short, THAT is our purpose, and then through the Spirit they are converted...so our job is simple.  Well, get this, B said "I want to have a spiritual experience, on my own, between me and the Lord before I get baptized"...… Elder N and I just kinda sat there grinning stupidly at him pretty much the rest of the time. :D He is so excited and wants to live gospel....IS living the gospel, and is just searching for that spiritual experience. WAY. TOTALLY. SWEET.

ALSO! Elder N and I have started a new tradition of praying over the map of our area and asking the Lord to tell us where to "find" people ready of the gospel, which in our area means knocking doors. A LOT of doors. It's mostly a big neighborhood in our ward boundaries. Soooo we prayed and headed over to the neighborhood (the next day that is) and literally the SECOND DOOR WE KNOCKED we found a solid new investigator, A, and taught the first lesson RIGHT THERE! She was talking about how she has had many trials and has been reading the Bible every night and struggling with the family and just 15 minutes before we showed up she finally got good news from work and then we stopped by, answered some of her questions and she really felt the Spirit present. BOMBSAUCE. She was SO prepared! She even said she was feeling like her trials had prepared her for something!!! WUTT! Yes! So we have plans to see her and HOPEFULLY her whole family, too, next Sunday evening! RETURN APPOINTMENT!!!!!!!!!! :) That has been most of our week. Yep. That's right. One WEEK. Told you we were turning this area's stats around. >:) No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing!! Which reminds me, I have now memorized, in the last few days, the First Vision, the Standard of Truth and a handful of other scriptures.....   President C has asked the whole Zone to memorize the Standard of Truth so we can recite it in the MIDDLE of his talk in our upcoming Stake Conference as he "introduces the members to the missionaries" :) Here it is... from memory:

"The standard of truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say THE WORK IS DONE."

BAM. Yep. Now imagine 27 missionaries standing up in Stake Conference and BELTING that! :D iz gon' be SICK!!!!! :D


HEY GUYS. Do this for me. Watch "Finding Faith in Christ". I had NO IDEA how awesome that movie was till now. Go "scene by scene" kind of.  So, for example, what happens is Thomas (doubting Thomas) is telling Jonah about Christ and all that, right? Well, after he tells him a part, it plays the part that he just talked about, then you pause it and discuss it....do that. Like right now. NOW. NOWER. It's sooo cool what you learn from that video! :D
 

Oh, BTW I don't really have any private sections of my letters...I want everyone to see and here. Even those embarrassing or struggling parts. Share it all. I want as many people as possible to know and see. I have SUCH a desire to share the gospel and my own experiences with as many people as I can...we're riding our bikes around and I'll just stop randomly... At first Elder N was a little bugged by it but then we read that thingamajiggy where it says "preach along the way"....... ATTITUDE CHANGE! :D hahaha - funny stuff. :P

OK that's all I got for now..... It feels short still haha… I think next week we will be using the library so I'll send pics and a longer email. :D Woop!

I love you guys soooo much! PREACH ALONG THE WAY! and take care of each other!

I'm gonna make some small emails for some other peeps now. :) I might remember something small later and shoot you another quickie. :P


BYE!

 Elder 9er

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