August 26, 2013

Mom,

I can't even imagine the change that has happened at home. Kyle says that it's weird that he's the oldest one at home now. I really hope that I can help him with school and stuff. I've been thinking a little bit more about what it'll be like with Kyle in high school and Kelsie away at college. I'm sure it's going to be fun! I'm just scared for myself. I just don't want to catch the 'laziness' bug again like I did when I graduated high school. I enjoy being busy on the mission.

I'm super sad to hear that President Trent is going to get released. I was just thinking the other day that I just have to get through one more Stake Conference in the Lindon West Stake and I'll be sure to have him as my returning Stake President. Ah well. It's always exciting to see a new Bishop or Stake President. I remember last year, close to this time, I was in the Scotch Plains when they got a new Stake President. The Stake President at that time had been there for at least ten years! That's so long! Even though I didn't personally know that Stake President or the newly called Stake President, I felt the excitement and the Spirit during that Stake Conference. I imagine that this upcoming Stake Conference will be somewhat like that. I'm looking forward to finding out who the new Stake President is. I guess it is time for President Trent to spend more time with his family and rest a little.

Kelsie sent me a picture of 'her space' at her new apartment. That looks very similar to how I've been living for the past year and a half! haha! Hopefully she will be at home better than I have. I can't say I eat better in general, because I know that the Hispanic food I've had will beat anything she eats in Price, UT. By the way, what college is it that she's going to?

I can't believe that I have just over four months left. It seems way longer than that. I just think that I'll be going home right after Christmas, but Christmas still feels like forever away. I'm starting to get nervous thinking about going home. I just don't want to stop teaching people. This last week was a great week!

Q of the W:

1.  Who is Neal Ferrell?  old companion I think? He posted a picture of you and him on facebook.  It's awesome!

Neal Ferrell was my trainer. He's been working in the Washington DC area, but he made some time last weekend to come up to New Jersey with a couple other mission friends and visit the mission. His last stop before he headed back down was to come and say hi to me. It was really cool to see him after such a long time.

2.  So when I read in Nephi, I tend to skip the chapters that say 'compare Isaiah'.  How have you learned to understand his words?

I'm still trying to figure that out. I've heard a lot about how amazing Isaiah is if you can understand it. He speaks a lot about Jesus Christ. In the chapter headings of many of the chapters in Isaiah, it says that he speaks Messianically. I can't see it sometimes. I've planned that I'm going to find an Isaiah study guide from Deseret Book and spend some time in Isaiah after the mission.

3.  Has President Jeppson mentioned anything about having missionary reunions in the future?

He hasn't said anything. I'm sure it'll come up though once he starts nearing the end of his mission.

So first of all, this transfer is coming to an end next week. I may have a chance of leaving, but we'll see. I just want to let you know.

Last Monday, we had a very annoying lesson with a man named Fabio. He's a Seventh Day Adventist. That's a very annoying religion. Fabio was just stubborn. The Seventh Day Adventist church says that the Sabbath day never changed with the Apostles. That's basically all they focus on, hence the name of their church. Any time on my mission that I have met a Seventh Day Adventist, they ask my two questions: Do you keep the Sabbath day holy? and, what day do you keep the Sabbath on? Even if they haven't said what religion they belong to, once they ask that first question, I know exactly what church they go to. It's super annoying, I hate that church. Not the people! Just the church. Anyway, Fabio was saying how could the Book of Mormon be true if it's telling me that I need to keep the Sabbath Day on Sunday when that's not true. Very annoying. We stopped visiting him. I could have destroyed his beliefs with the Bible on other topics that would have proved his church wrong, but I knew that that wasn't what we were there to do. It was very tempting to do so, but that would have driven away the Spirit. He's just simply not ready to accept the Gospel. After the mission though, I think I might be a little more ruthless to people who do stuff like that.

Last Sunday something funny happened. We were in the hallway at church right after the last meeting had gotten out. We were talking to a member named Brother Paz. He was asking us if we wanted to go out to eat with him during the week at a restaurant. We said okay. He doesn't have family to go out with so he likes to take the missionaries to go eat so he doesn't eat alone. That's not the funny part though. That's the tender part. The funny part was right after he walked away, another member who had overheard our conversation came up to us and asked if we knew where he was taking us. He said that he wanted to take us out to eat as well, haha. A little competition. So we went out to eat twice this week paid for by those members. Being a missionary has some temporal benefits sometimes too.

We also had a nice lesson on Saturday with a returning less-active member and his girlfriend who is an investigator. His name is Jorge and he has been a member since he was little. His girlfriend, Stephanie, has just recently started meeting with us. She's still thinking about baptism. I'm pretty sure that she'll get baptized. We had a lesson with them on following the prophet and then switched to the Word of Wisdom. It was a great lesson, because during the first few previous lessons, her understanding wasn't very good. We were worried because we thought that that might make her a little frustrated that she couldn't understand leading her to not want to continue learning. Fortunately, her understanding was very good during this last lesson with her. As we left, we had high hoped for her. The word of wisdom made sense to her. She's been reading the Book of Mormon diligently and she's now starting 2 Nephi. We told her it was okay if she wanted to skip the Isaiah chapters. She's coming to church every Sunday and she likes it. Jorge has born strong testimony of every lesson so far on how much he loves the Gospel and how much he regrets ever growing away from the Church in the first place. He knows that he missed out on blessings. He was also talking to us and he was telling us how blessed we are as missionaries to go to so many homes and to see different parenting styles and families and to be able to know how to raise our family so well in the future. So true! There are many things that I've seen on my mission that have made me say, 'I will definitely do that in my family.' Also I've unfortunately said to myself, 'I will never do that.'

Sunday was an amazing finding day for us. We received a referral from Plainfield the other week. Her name was Marisa. We finally were able to stop by at the right time to find her home. She's from the Dominican Republic. She seemed excited to learn. We had a quick lesson with her because she said that it would be better for us to come by during the week so we could teach her along with her husband and her four kids. Wow! I'm excited!

Later on that night, we stopped by someone's house that we had met just a few weeks prior. She's been hard to get in contact with. When we knocked on the door, a 17 year old Dominican by answered the door. He told us to come in. As we talked to him, he said that about a month before he moved from the Dominican Republic, he started meeting with the missionaries. His two cousins in the DR are already members and one of them had served a mission! He seemed pretty excited to see missionaries here and to have them knock on his door! His little sister as well hopped in on the lesson. She's 15 years old. Every time I see how big 15 year old kids are, I think of how wild it is that Kyle is their same age. We have a return appointment with them both next Saturday.

The work is moving forward in the Garden State! I'm loving it!

Love you mom,
-Justin

PS: Now my other shoes, the Florsheims, are starting to wear down too. The inside of them is falling apart. I was wondering if Mr. Mac would be able to do the same thing with those as well...