I was thinking the same thing. I think that every member should know about what they talked about in that training. It definitely makes me want to work harder!
The All-Mission Conference was great! We were told to wear t-shirts and jeans. No shorts. They warned us that if we brought shorts we would be sent back to the apartment to change into jeans. I don't know exactly the reason behind that, but I think it was that they didn't want anyone to get ticks. We weren't anywhere much more than just grass though.. But, everyone obeyed. It was really hot though. We went to a park in Morristown and played some sports. The park that we went to had stuff permanently set up for sports. They had a street hockey rink that we used for dodgeball, then we had a small soccer field that we used to play beach soccer. We just used a giant beach ball for the soccer ball. We also had kickball and volleyball. It was pretty fun. It was so just hot in those jeans! After that we all went over to the Morristown chapel where we had skits. Each zone the previous week made up a skit that had to do with the mission. Ours was about zombies and sister missionaries taking over the mission field. It was pretty funny, but I didn't record it. The other skits were pretty funny as well. Then we got to hear from the Temple President from the Manhattan Temple. He taught us a little bit about the temples. One thing that he said that stuck out to me was that the biggest difference between a temple and a chapel is that a chapel is where we go to worship and learn together. The temple is where we go to worship and learn individually. Pretty cool. I love the temple! After that we went home. No Apostles. And the mission t-shirts this year aren't nearly as cool as the ones last year. Sadly, I don't think there were very many people that were impressed with them this year.
That's kind of understandable that Kelsie wasn't able to attend church in Greece. I looked on LDS.org and there are only three Greek Branches and one English Branch in the whole country. There isn't even a stake in Greece. Kelsie's trip may have largely increased the total number of members of the Church in Greece, haha! I can't wait to see some pictures of Greece!
That's pretty gross to hear about the E.coli problem. I'm glad it didn't last very long. Do you know if anyone was affected by it? Here in New Jersey, I don't think that there are very many people that drink the tap water. It tastes kind of funky. I usually brush my teeth with it and everything but to drink it usually everyone has a filter, or they buy those large 10 gallon things of water, or just bottled water. Could you not even shower during that time?
Sounds good about the NYC trip. I'm down!
This last Saturday, we had a meeting with the other leaders of our zone. It was the zone leaders and the other two district leaders. Like I've told you before, every month we have a certain focus to help us improve our missionary work. The zone leaders all meet up with President Jeppson on Friday, and then on Saturday, the zone leaders meet with the district leaders to discuss how we're going to apply the monthly focus to all the missionaries in the zone. So this month the focus is on the Book of Mormon. President Jeppson challenged all of us to read the Book of Mormon in three months, by the end of September with a certain focus. We just recently did this same focus back in November/December, but since then we have received over 100 new missionaries in our mission, so President Jeppson wanted to do another focus on it. I'm excited for the challenge! I don't know what I want to do it on yet. We were also talking about one of the more important purposes of the Book of Mormon is in the gathering of scattered Israel. As missionaries we are fulfilling ancient Old Testament prophesies in the gathering the lost tribes and many other prophesies. It's cool, the Book of Mormon is so important in these last days. The Book of Mormon is actually full of stuff pertaining to the gathering of Israel.
Yesterday, we had a pretty cool lesson with a very less-active family. It's the Munoz family. They haven't been to church in a long time, but they always tell us how they love when we come over because we bring a good spirit with us. This less-active family is a little different than many other less-active members. Usually other less-active members call us 'the brothers'. It's really weird sounding in English, but in Spanish 'los hermanos' sounds very, very normal. Usually the members that have been in the Church for a while and understand the doctrine better will call us by our proper titles, 'elders'. Like the Bishop and many other ward leaders will call us 'elders'. Well, the Munoz family is different because they call us 'elders'. When we visited with them yesterday, we followed up on the commitment we had left them the previous lesson which was to say a kneeling prayer everyday as a family. They didn't do it, at all. Brother Munoz said that he just hasn't had the desire to get the family together for a prayer. He also said that he simply just didn't have the desire to come to church on Sunday. It's kind of hard to help people that don't have a desire. We ended up reading Mosiah 4 with them as a family. Sister Munoz was a little sick so she didn't come out. After we read we talked a little bit about the chapter we read. We asked the two kids to share the scripture that they liked the most out of that chapter and then we asked what Brother Munoz had liked from that chapter. They all gave very good answers. Our team up, Javier (who is 27 years old and is a convert), shared his testimony. After that, I felt impressed to share with them a little bit about my experience as a youth in the Church. I told them that I never really understood the Gospel as a youth, but that when I went to activities in the Ward and camps, the leaders would always share their testimonies and we would always have little firesides that was strengthening my testimony without me really knowing about it. All my leaders were always very good examples and that was one of the reasons why I'm on a mission. Then the girl, 17 years old, said that she has always liked those activities and that she felt the Spirit when going to them. I saw that Brother Munoz got a little excited and happy about that. I then asked Brother Munoz if he felt desires now. He said yes. Amazing lesson! Pray that they'll come to church! They're a really good family and they need to be more involved in the Gospel.
Love you mom! Miss you a lot!
-Justin
1. Do you think Scouts and going to camps prepared you to be a great missionary?
Maybe a little bit. I'm sure that it had some influence, but I can't really think of anything specifically with which it has helped me.
2. What apostle do you think would be the best for you to meet in person?
I don't really know. I really want to meet them all. I think that it would be a fun opportunity to meet Elder Bednar.
3. If you could ask one question for our Prophet, what would it be?
What has been the most spiritual experience that you have ever had?
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