September 23, 2013

Mom,

Thanks so much! I did get the package! Thanks so much. I'm so excited to listen to those talks from Truman G. Madsen. He's such a good speaker. Thanks for everything else. By the way, I sent a package home today. It's full of accumulated books that I can't read right now. Got to focus on the Standard Works! There are also two books with... well, not correct doctrine. You'll see ;) Other books though that anyone can feel free to read! Just be careful with the older ones.

I don't really feel much different now. I think I feel like I'm more 18 years old right now.

What a dumb dog. You'd think that he would have learned by now... I guess there's just so much that can fit into a small brain like his. It's probably been full for a while, haha.

Kelsie did tell me about William. That is sad. I hope that he can go out again soon. That's so rough to have to go home and then have to come out again. Maybe I'll be here before he goes back out and I can help be a positive influence on him returning to the field. I didn't know that about Brandon Halverson.

So many temples in Utah. I love it! There aren't too many temples out here and now I see how blessed we are to have so many temples close by in Utah. I'll definitely remember that blessing when I come back. I hope that I can always remember that.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be home for your birthday. With a weird week change back in the beginning of this year to accommodate the major increase in numbers of missionaries entering the MTC, they shaved off a week of my mission and that of almost all missionaries that were in the field at that time. I'm pretty sure that I'll be home the 8th of January!

Q of the W:

1.   Are you guys allowed to be on facebook?  Our Ward Mission Leader told us that our local missionaries are allowed 1 hour a week - for missionary purposes only - of course.

Not yet. Since the change in internet use was announced a few months ago, they've been slowly introducing it into one area at a time. They say that we should start seeing the change of internet uses in our area the beginning of 2014. That goes for Q of the W #3 as well...

2.    Does the Primary in your branch do a Sacrament Meeting Presentation each year?

So far in the New Brunswick Spanish ward, I haven't heard anything yet. So I don't know the answer to that question.

3.  Have you heard about missionaries carrying ipads instead of scriptures?

Just in time for me receiving the right to use those toys for my own use again... :(


This last week was a really tough one. We didn't get very many lessons at all. We had many appointments bail on us when we showed up at their house or cancel on us at the last second. It's super frustrating when that happens, and this last week it happened a lot. We woke up on Saturday with seven set appointments throughout our day. We were planning on it being a busy day. By the end of the day, only one of those appointments actually let us in. It was crazy frustrating. I have to be honest; I was very tempted to go home early that day. However, the Lord blessed us for our obedience. We ended up showing up randomly at a part-member's house. Our purpose was to get in contact with those of the house-hold that aren't members. The husband is not a member of the Church. He's met with the missionaries in the past, but nothing has ever happened. It came to my mind to simply teach the steps of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. At the end of teaching and explaining those steps, I asked the husband, Carlos, why he never chose to be baptized in the past when the missionaries were visiting with him. He didn't really give a clear answer. It seemed as those he was avoiding the answer. I asked him if he wants to get baptized soon. Again, he didn't really give a straight answer. I can't remember too much of what happened during the rest of lesson. It didn't last very much longer though. However, I do remember one thing that Carlos said during the closing prayer that he offered. He asked the Lord to bless the Elders as they preach thy gospel. Afterward, he gave me a firm handshake a wonderful smile. I've known him since I first came to this area back in the end of June, but this handshake and smile was different from the past. Something told me that he knows it's true. I was happy the rest of the way home. It just kept going through my mind that he knows that it's true! He didn't come to church yesterday, but he did come to our fireside that we put on and he seemed to love it.

So the fireside is another story. We had been planning this fireside for a couple months now. We finally got it to happen yesterday afternoon. Our plan for this fireside was to teach members how to do missionary work. We had the Bishop talk for a little bit about missionary work and he talked about his conversion story when he was 17. We also had a member from the Stake Presidency talk as well. It all went very well and we feel like the members are going to feel more comfortable doing missionary work now. We're super excited to see how the missionary work goes now in our ward. We also had some special referral cards made for us to hand out to the members to get them started thinking about with whom they could share the Gospel. I have a good feeling about it! That non-member, Carlos that I was talking about came as well. Even though the fireside was directed towards members, we had two of our investigators there including Carlos. Before the fireside started, I went over to greet him and his wife, who is a member. He gave me the same firm handshake and wonderful smile as the previous night. I know that he knows it's true! Now just to get him to act on it!

Love you mom! I miss you too!

-Justin