July 8, 2013

Dear Mom,

Our 4th of July was kind of boring. We didn't do much. I was really hoping to still be in Union City at this time so I could see the fireworks over the Hudson River. President Jeppson advised us that we were not to leave our zones to watch fireworks. I'm about 45 minutes away from Union City. So we got together with some other missionaries and went to a small town called Milltown to watch some local fireworks. It was pretty good. Out of all the fireworks that I've seen, those were definitely one of them. Haha, nothing too special. Then last night, when I was calling some the missionaries in my district to follow up on how their week went, a bunch of fireworks started going off over the highway right next to us. The thing was, these fireworks were better than the ones on the Fourth of July. They were super loud because they were pretty close and pretty distracting. I watched some of them during calls from our window.

That's funny about Kelsie. That would happen to her.

I honestly didn't pay too much attention in Seminary unfortunately. I think they definitely taught me things about the scriptures. I remember one seminary teacher who directed us to page 119 in the Doctrine and Covenants and showed us verses 9-11 about forgiveness and then pointed out how both those numbers are 9-1-1. He was relating it to the 9/11 incident. Afterwards, he told us to take that as we will. I also just remember the examples from my seminary teachers. I don't necessarily remember exactly what they taught me, but their excitement towards the Gospel and the Scriptures made an impact on me. I never really saw the personal importance the scriptures had to me, so I never paid too much attention. I'm excited to go to institute after my mission and hopefully eventually those classes at BYU to learn more about the scriptures. I'm studying in depth the New Testament right now. It would be great to go through it in a classroom setting at the same time, but I'm on my own right now.

Good news about the Munoz family: They came to church yesterday! All four of them! And they said that they really enjoyed it. Brother Munoz was smiling most of the time, and the 17 year old girl, Yaxiri, said that she felt the Spirit. I was very excited to see them there. We had a lesson with them this last week and we talked to them a little more about the temple and the blessings they may have if Brother Munoz receives the Melchizedek Priesthood and they all go to the temple. They said that they wanted to do it. I'm excited for that family!

My six month left mark has been pretty normal. Just like I said before, when people find out they always tell me how little I have left. There are many other missionaries in the mission right now that I've known for quite a while. They were pretty new missionaries when I first came in. They're all starting to finish up here pretty soon. Some finish the end of this month. Most of them end their missions the end of September. So I just think that they have to finish before I do. It feels like I still have a while to go, and I kind of do. I still have the possibility in serving in two other areas after here in New Brunswick. We'll see, maybe my next area will be the last. I've heard that sometimes Mission Presidents will send missionaries home if their departure date is close enough to Christmas. At first, my departure date was several weeks after Christmas, so I didn't put any thought into it, but now it's exactly two weeks after Christmas. In my opinion, that's pretty close to Christmas. What would you think if President Jeppson gave me the option to come home a few days before Christmas? I'm not saying that I will, because he hasn't talked to me about it, so as far as we know, I'm still coming home beginning of January. I just want to know what you think. :)

This last Friday we had a special training in Morristown. It was a meeting for all District Leaders, Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders. It was all about how to be a great leader in the mission. They talked about all sorts of things that have to do with leadership in the mission. It was pretty good, I liked it a lot. They talked about how to make our District Meetings and Zone Meetings better. President Jeppson talked about how he has many meetings and many times, he'll come out of a meeting and say, "Out of all the meetings that I've been to, that was definitely one of them!" He said that he doesn't want missionaries to come out of our meetings and say that that was just another meeting that they've been to. He said that he wants missionaries to come out of our meetings filled with the Spirit and a desire to fill the world with the Book of Mormon! I'm really learning on my mission how to make meetings better. Well, at least make a good District Meeting. I don't know how well I'll be able to put together other meetings, but I guess we'll see. I plan on telling Bishop Jensen and President Trent that I want to keep teaching. Maybe they can get me a calling that I can continue teaching.

Then on Sunday, we had a great Elders Quorum Meeting. The Elders Quorum President, Michael Allongo, taught the class on the Priesthood. It was a really good class. I actually learned quite a bit. For a while now, I haven't really ever learned anything new at church. Usually it's all refreshing my memory. I don't know if that's bad or not, but I still love going to church. I think that reminders are very important. We can't always remember things forever. However, in Elders Quorum, he talked about why we initially received the Aaronic Priesthood in Moses' time. He broke down the experience with Moses and his people and why they didn't deserve to have the higher Priesthood. I had a basic understand of that but I didn't know it nearly as well as Brother Allongo. He also talked about what we mean when we say that we know that the Church is true. Basically it boils down to two things: 1) We know that we have the, and 2) We know that the Prophets and Apostles are receiving revelation. All in all, it was a really good lesson. That's where I hope I can be in teaching a class after my mission. But Brother Allongo is really smart and already graduated college and is a criminal prosecutor, so he has a lot of experience under his belt.

So that was my week! It's really hot here. I get to some lessons after 25 minutes of walking across town and my shirt is wet from sweat. Fun experiences on the mission.

Q of the W:

1.  When you are teaching families the gospel, do you tell the father that it is his responsibility to lead the family in prayer?

We usually just have him pick on somebody for the prayer. We just respect him as the head of the home. Usually they understand that concept. We'll invite him many times to say the closing prayer. It just depends on how we feel.

2.   Do the in-actives or less-actives ever talk about their Home Teacher or Visiting Teachers?  What is your opinion on Home Teachers?

They sometimes talk about them. Usually they'll either tell us how they've been coming by lately. Sometimes they tell us that they haven't had them in years. Haha! I've thought a lot about home teaching. It's just going to be a continuation of a part of missionary work when I get home. I'm excited to do it. I think that it's very important to do.

3.  How is your supply of Diovan and contacts?  I feel the need to get you more Diovan?

I may need more contacts soon. I should be good on Diovan.

Love you mom!!

-Justin