Dear Mom,

I did get my camera back. Thanks for those extra pics by the way. :) I will try to take more pictures. I've kind of realized that I haven't been taking as much as I could. For some reason, it's just harder for me to take pictures. But I'll try. Also, thanks for the dinosaur eggs oatmeal. I've forgotten about those! 

That's good to hear about Brandon Halverson. I'm glad he decided to go on a mission.  

So many things seem like that they're changing. Those pictures you sent me the other week from Kaylee's baptism, it looks like Kyle is really getting pretty tall. It's going to be really exciting to see everything when I come back.

  

So this last week has been pretty good. I think you already know about Alan. Well, he came out with us right after lunch on Friday. Our original plan was to have him help us for about three hours. But Alan was having a good time. My companion and I were forced to speak in Spanish all the time, so Alan ended up coming with us for the whole day! He was with us until we had to go home at like 9:00 pm. I think he was worn out. But he enjoyed it. I know I enjoyed it. We had a Spanish tutor with us for the whole day. Whenever I had a question, I could just ask him. I didn't have to wait until I got home to look it up in a grammar book. It was really nice. Alan is awesome. He's one of those members I probably won't ever forget. 

We had an almost really scary moment on Friday. We were walking down one of our streets on our way to go see one of our recent converts. The recent convert is nine years old and has missed the past few Sundays. It's kind of frustrating. Unfortunately his mom is really less-active for some reason. My companion and the other Elder here before me were hoping that the baptism of the son would help reactivate his mom. It hasn't worked so far. Anyway, that's not the scary part. On that same street is another member family. A really cool family. Actually the family of Eddy de Leon who talked to you on Facebook, mom. His dad served a mission, but is kind of struggling in life with work and stuff. He really misses his country and doesn't like New Jersey very much. Lately, he's been pretty sick. Something with his throat or tonsils. He can't get proper medical care, because he doesn't have insurance. However, he can't get insurance, if you know what I'm saying. He has a strong testimony and loves the Gospel. Well, when we were walking on that street on Friday, we saw an ambulance close to the De Leon's house. We stopped for a second and thought for a second that the ambulance was at the De Leon's. We went over there and realized that the ambulance was there for something else. I was definitely relieved. We decided to go visit the De Leon family anyway. Brother De Leon is doing better. He's still sick but has some medication. On the mission, I've just really become good friends with a lot of people. I don't think they ever have that same feeling usually, because they love all the missionaries. But I think most missionaries really start to care for most of the members as really good friends, even though they only have known them for only a few months. It's really fun to get to know the members. Every one is different and you learn to love them a lot. Just like with the De Leon family and Alan Castro.

On Thursday, we had a lesson with an inactive 20 year old guy and his mom. He was baptized about five years ago, but for some reason stopped coming to church. It's really weird because he doesn't even show up on the ward list and there are just a couple members who know who he is. It's kind of an interesting situation. The mom was an investigator for a long time too. We, as missionaries, have teaching records to keep track of what we teach people so that missionaries in the future can have an idea of what they should teach and how the lesson went with the investigators, how they liked and understood the gospel principle and so forth. Well, the mom, Monica, has several pages on her teaching record. That's a lot for an investigator! She was actually very close to baptism. She had a set baptismal date and had a baptismal interview and passed. But for some strange reason, she never got baptized. We've been passing by the past few weeks to talk to the son, Antonio. We finally got Monica to sit in on a lesson. We taught them the Plan of Salvation. They seemed to follow along pretty well. Antonio seemed pretty interested and sincere about it. Unfortunately, he doesn't remember it very well. It has been five years since he last heard it though. Monica, however, said that she didn't believe it. We asked why. Then she started saying how she can't believe this and that. It was really confusing, because she was explaining parts of the Plan of Salvation, but just a little differently. It's hard to explain, but basically, she already had beliefs in the Plan of Salvation, but she didn't really think that her beliefs were essentially parts and bits of the Plan of Salvation. I told her that what she was explaining were more or less steps the Plan of Salvation. She still seemed a little confused, but sincere about it. At least she wasn't like a lot of other hard-headed traditional Catholics who say that we're wrong but can't explain why we're wrong or what they themselves believe in and why they believe in it. It was all in all kind of a frustrating lesson. I still can't figure out if was a language barrier, her understanding, or her just trying politely to say that she doesn't want to believe in what we believe. We committed both of them to pray about the Plan of Salvation. Now I just hope and pray that they follow through on their commitment. Sometimes, it's just so hard to teach people. They don't understand sometimes or don't really want to understand. Sometimes, I still think it's a language barrier which automatically means that there's going to be a culture barrier. I guess that's why the Spirit is so important. Preach My Gospel says that everyone has the light of Christ in them since we're children of our Heavenly Father. That could be the culture that everyone can share. Now just to get the lesson in a setting where the Spirit can touch them and help them understand the truth. That's the hard part!

We also had a very interesting morning this morning. It started yesterday when somebody called us, in English, from the Union City chapel before Church. He was asking for a Priesthood blessing. We got there at the chapel and met Dakota from Florida. He's was a member and he was a little lost. He was up in Secaucus, NJ delivering a load for his trucking company. He was driving a semi-truck. He got to where he was dropping of his load and he started to have a really bad tooth ache. He went to the hospital on Friday night to get some help, but the hospital turned him away because there wasn't a dentist on the job and they weren't coming in until Monday. So he wanted to go to church on Sunday. Since he was driving his semi-truck he couldn't find parking anywhere in Union City. So he parked somewhere else and spent the last of the cash he had to get a taxi to the Union City chapel to go to church and get a Priesthood blessing. He didn't know, however, that the Union City chapel only holds one service and it's in Spanish. Dakota doesn't speak Spanish. Luckily, us missionaries do! We gave him a blessing and for the third hour of church, the first councilor in the Bishopric, who speaks some English, took him back to his truck. We received special permission from President Jeppson to pick him up this morning to take him to a dentist's appointment in Newark, NJ. He couldn't drive there himself because there wouldn't be anywhere to park his truck. So we took him. Unfortunately, the dentist told him that he would need to see an oral surgeon. Dakota said that his job probably wouldn't let him go home back to Kentucky, where he's living now with his wife and baby girl, for maybe about a week. He has to endure another week of mouth pain until he can get back home and get proper medical attention. It was a pretty neat experience trying to help this guy in this desperate time. He had never been to New Jersey before and was a little intimidated by the city. He grew up in Florida on ranch and is used to the open field. He also has a deep southern accent. He's about 22 years old and has just about two years in the church. We went to drop him off at his truck and he has a quad with him and the Book of Mormon on CD. Really cool guy. It was a fun experience trying to help him out. 

That's about it for this week. I'm excited for March to come. I'm coming up soon on a year away from Utah. My 10 month left mark is coming up. Instead of thinking that in a year, I'll still be somewhere in New Jersey, I'm thinking about what kind of job I'll have in Utah in a year. It's really weird to think about being an RM. I'm enjoying it here while it lasts!

Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin

 Q of the W:

1.  What has been the best thing you have eaten so far on your mission?

Mexican tacos (Mexico obviously), lomo soltado (Peru), and Inca Cola (Peru). If you have some time and you're in Provo, look for some little hispanic store and buy Inca Cola. It's pretty good. If you don't, then just wait until I come home and I'll make you try it.. haha

2.  What person has been the most inspiring for you so far on your mission?

I will always say President Jeppson. However, there was a member that was my exact age, except he was born on Sept. 24, that was a convert. He joined the church even though his mom said that he was stupid to do it and all his cousins telling him that being a Mormon was dumb. Then he moved to New Jersey to live with his grandpa who was a member, but then passed away a short time later. He has lived such a hard life, but has given everything to the Lord. He's now serving a mission in Georgia. He's a pretty good example.

3.  What 'words of wisdom' would you give to someone who is struggling to come back to church?

That's tough. It really depends on the situation of the person. I would have to know why they're not really coming to church. There's a Mormon Message on lds.org called "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father". It's a really good analogy to help us understand who is our Heavenly Father and what his love is like. Anyone who is straying from the Lord's Church needs to understand the love of their Father in Heaven and their Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ. They should study the scripture more and they should pray harder. They should attend the Temple as often as their schedule permits, even if it is just baptisms for the dead. Then they will recognize and understand the reason behind the commandments, which is pure love. Then they can understand that the loving advice for us in the last days comes from the mouth of prophets; modern just as well and ancient. It requires a lot of work on their part, but that's what faith is. There's a reason why faith is the first principle of the Gospel. When they have enough faith, they'll try it. When they try hard enough, they'll do it. When they do it, they'll realize that it's worth it.