November 12, 2013

Mom,

I haven't received my flight information yet. Maybe it'll come today or tomorrow. It might even go to the mission office I'm thinking so I won't get it for another couple weeks or so. We just barely got a delivery of mail from the mission office, so we won't get more for a little bit. We'll see I guess. I'll definitely let you know as soon as I get it.

My teachers in the MTC told me that they finally figured out how to be a missionary once they hit the end of their mission. Now that I'm finally starting to feel comfortable in Spanish, I'm coming up on the end of my mission... Crazy.

So the pictures that I was tagged in are from the Noche de Hispanidad from this last Saturday. In English it's called Hispanic Night. It was basically a ward activity that they do every year to celebrate Hispanic culture and all the countries that people are from in our ward. There were in total tables or booths from Columbia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. Then for the first time in the New Brunswick ward, the United States was represented as well from all eight of us missionaries serving in the New Brunswick ward! Not really a Hispanic country, but everyone was super excited to see what we would bring. At all the booths there were little items and things on display from every country and all typical foods found from every country. There was SO much food there. I'll include a couple pictures from the US table next week since I don't have my camera with me today. It was a lot of fun. We thought it would be funny to have the most simple and funny American foods. We had hot dogs, chips, red cool-aid, and green jello. We get a couple American flags and I borrowed an American flag tie from another missionary working in the English program. I just tried to be as 'American' as possible that night. The reason we were dressed up is because we helped out with the Colombians in a couple skits. I was a paramedic in one of them. In the other one I was just trying to be as ''cool-looking'' as possible. They were both pretty fun skits and we made people laugh a lot. It was great!

Hopefully I can help you out with the cabinets!

Jesus the Christ is a pretty thick book to read. You really just have to have patience while reading it and stay on top of it. He goes really slow through all the phases of Christ's ministry and other things so you really have to keep up on it so you don't forget where you're at in the story. I guess you really just need to build up a lot of momentum to read that book. I read a really cool part of the book this last week about the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Talmage says: " Jesus, who when miles away and without any ordinary means of receiving the information knew that Lazarus was dead, doubtless could have found the tomb; yet He inquired: “Where have ye laid him?” He who could still the waves of the sea by a word could have miraculously effected the removal of the stone that sealed the mouth of the sepulchre; yet He said: “Take ye away the stone.” He who could reunite spirit and body could have loosened without hands the cerements by which the reanimated Lazarus was bound; yet He said: “Loose him, and let him go.” All that human agency could do was left to man. In no instance do we find that Christ used unnecessarily the superhuman powers of His Godship; the divine energy was never wasted; even the material creation resulting from its exercise was conserved, as witness His instructions regarding the gathering up of the fragments of bread and fish after the multitudes had been miraculously fed." I think the reason that this paragraph stuck out to me so much is because it demonstrates the personality of Jesus Christ so well. He really does expect stuff of us. He won't force us to do our part. Another part earlier in the book talks about the will of God and how it's part of our responsibility to bring to pass God's will. It definitely is not His will that we go less-active in the Church or that we stop obeying the commandments. Talmage mentions as well that it's not His will that people kill other people. We can stop things like that from happening and bring to pass God's will. It really is an amazing book. I made a goal to finish it before I finish my mission. So far, I'm doing very well with that goal. I also want to start reading it a second time as soon as I get back.

I haven't heard too much from Kyle Byington lately. I'm pretty sure that he'll come home two weeks right after me. He left two weeks after me so I'm assuming that the same will happen with coming home.

Q of the W:

1.  Do you know what you will be doing for Thanksgiving?

Not yet. Hopefully we'll be getting fed. But hopefully we won't be fed too many times. I don't think it'll be anything too special. Thanksgiving is more of an American holiday. Lots of Hispanics here have adopted the holiday though, haha.

2.  Will you be able to go to NYC again before you leave?

Yes. Probably twice. This December we'll have the privilege as a mission to go there again. Then the during the last week of all the missionaries, they go to the temple again with President and Sister Jeppson. So I'll be doing that probably the week before the week I get home. It should be a lot of fun!

3.  When you study the scriptures in the morning - are you studying them in Spanish or English or both?

We have an hour of personal study and another hour set apart for language study. I usually do my personal study in English, but I always spend time in the scriptures and stuff during the hour for language study as well as studying the grammar.

Last Monday night while we were trying by a less-active family a lady pulled over and rolled down the window and asked us if we were the Mormon Elders. We said yes. She said that she had just moved from Virginia and hasn't come to church in a while and wants to start coming again. It's pretty cool how sometimes the Lord just hands us people to teach without us really trying at all. What a blessing! We set up an appointment with her for the following Wednesday and we passed by to visit her. She said that she's been talking with her boyfriend, who is not a member, and that he wants to learn more about the Church! We haven't been able to see him yet, but we'll be in contact with her later on this week. She says that she wants to come back to church because she misses it a lot. Unfortunately she wasn't able to make it to church yesterday, but returning to activity in the Church is more of a process than it is an event.

The biggest event of the week was by far the Noche de Hispanidad. We had several friends of members come to it and a couple investigators as well. Hopefully we'll be meeting with those friends this next week or two to start teaching them. Ward activities are GREAT opportunities for members to invite their family and friends to get to know the church and the members so that they can feel more comfortable coming to church and meeting with the missionaries. It also provides a good break to us from the normal routine and have a good time while enjoying the companionship of the members. I love ward activities!

I also randomly remembered the show Restaurant: Impossible this last week. I don't remember why it came to my mind, but I remember all the fun times we had watching those shows and hearing Robert Irvine yell at people. Fun times! Any new episodes of that show?

Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin