November 18, 2013

Dear Mom,

Haha, I can't wait to talk to Grandpa Lee about Gospel-related topics. I'm sure that he still knows a ton more than I do. I don't know anything about Church history either. I'm sure he knows quite a bit about that. Hopefully I can continue my studies as well as soon as I get home so I can keep up how much I'm learning. We don't know exactly what we're doing yet for Thanksgiving. There is the Allongo family that has invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. We're trying to get permission to go over to their house because they're out of our area. I'm sure though that we'll get permission. We've also received permission to have a Turkey-bowl. Half of the mission is going to go to the Princeton University stadium and the other half of the mission is going to go to some place in Newark to play football that morning.

I did hear about the typhoon in the Philippians. I haven't heard much about it though. That's an amazing miracle about those four sister missionaries! I'm down for whatever the week after I get home. In fact, if you want you can plan whatever for those two weeks or so. I've only been able to think of a couple things that I want to do. I want to visit Jesse Rackiewicz. I don't think he has gone anywhere. I don't know if Seth is going to be in town or not, but I want to visit him as well. That's all I can really think of.

Q of the W: 1. Will we still be able to skype you at Christmas?
YES

2. In the scriptures - some of them such as Lehi, Nephi, Mosiah, ect. end their book by saying they are dying or soon to be. Do you think they knew when they would die or was it their way of saying they were old?

I think that it's possible that they knew approximately when they were going to die. I think that as well when they were closing up their parts in the Book of Mormon they were probably old, haha. I think it's a mix of both knowing that they were going to die soon after and that they needed to make their last remarks in the scriptures before they passed away. I think as well that many of them ended in that way, not necessarily because they knew that they were going to die soon thereafter, but that they knew that their part in the scriptures was near completion and that they needed to finish up and hand them down.

3. Do you know how long President and Sister Jeppson have left on their mission?

I think that they're going to end their mission in July. I'm definitely going to that homecoming!

So this last Friday was interviews with President Jeppson. That was my last regular interview with him. The next interview I have with him will be a few days before I go home. I don't know what exactly he talks to us about in that interview, but I heard that he gives some good advice and going home and helping us feel ready to do it. I guess I'll find out. It was a great time being with President Jeppson. He advised me not to talk too much about going home. Something common among missionaries is being ''trunky''. The term comes from missionaries starting to live out of their trunk the last few weeks/months of their mission so they don't have to pack anything once the time comes to finally go home. Today it has more reference to missionaries slowing down in missionary work and always talking about going home and stuff. I can really have a bad effect on missionaries sometimes. When they let it affect their missionary work, the work in their area slows down. President Jeppson advised me to bust through the finish line tape at full speed! That's the best way to end a mission! So far the idea of ''going home'' hasn't affected me too much. I am excited, but I'm still working hard!

We should be having a baptism coming up in the next few weeks. Most likely on the first of December. It will be for a nine-year old boy named Marco. His mom Jackie was less-active for years and years when finally we found her. We were just going through the ward list and knocking doors and calling phone numbers of members that we didn't know. We got in contact with Jackie and during our first appointment with her a few months ago she told us that she wants her son to get baptized. It's been hard to get him baptized soon, because she's really busy with Marco and her other younger son and her job as an Elementary school teacher. But he's getting prepared. He's good at learning what we teach him and remembering it. Hopefully we'll be able to see him get baptized soon.

So on Sunday we had an appointment with a member couple. The sister is named Isidra Nunez. She's usually at church every week, but her husband, Santos, hasn't been to church for probably ten years. Isidra told us that he got baptized and then soon after when they wanted him to do home teaching, he stopped coming. Kind of sad. We haven't ever really been able to talk to him about his experience with church and religion and all that. Last week we were able to visit her and he sat in on the lesson. I started thinking about him a little more and I had the feeling that it would be good to invite some leaders over to the ward to start fellow shipping him more so help him feel invited and wanted at church. So yesterday, we brought the Elders Quorum President and the first counselor in the Bishopric over with us. As we talked to him, he didn't show that he ever really felt like the Book of Mormon was true or that the Church was true. From talking with him, it sounded like he was just following what his wife was doing. His idea was that there can't be a true church, because any church, like all the churches now a days, claim to have all the truth and that it causes tension among everyone. It's a good point that he has and that's why there are so many people that are against organized religion. They believe that they can worship God in their own houses in their own ways and that they'll be good. Unfortunately, from the experience I've had, most of those people hardly do anything on their own. If they really read the scriptures sincerely and prayed sincerely, they would feel obligated to do more to serve their God. I felt God's love for Santos during that visit, and I really wanted him to come back to Church. The first counselor in the Bishopric and the Elders Quorum President are very strong members and are also both converts in their adult years. They both bore powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of the restored Church and the prophets and apostles. (Side note, the Book of Mormon was the key in their conversion for both of them. I learned that even for us who have been born into the church still need the Book of Mormon to be the key of our conversion.) The Spirit was strong in that room, but I really felt like Santos wasn't going to come back to church quite yet. We'll keep working on him.

There have been a few people that I've met that have expressed feelings that they think that all the churches are just different ways to get back to the same God. It's hard to put that doubt to rest. Christ clearly taught that He was the way to get back to the Father. I really don't like comments like those. I honestly feel like that is something that the adversary puts into the hearts of as many people as possible. It keeps them from desiring to learn more and from thinking that there is one truth. One example I like to use with people is the example of Judaism versus Christianity. They both teach us to believe in God, but the Jews completely reject Christ as the Savior, so who's right? The Christians or the Jews? Was Jesus the promised Messiah or not? It's a frustrating doubt to get through, but I've seen that the example of the beliefs of the Christians versus the Jews really gets people to realize that there is one truth. That's when I can tell if people are just making excuses or if had sincerely believed that concept. Unfortunately, it is usually an excuse. Oh well, people have their agency.

There's a few other interesting insights from Jesus the Christ. I'm starting to come to the end of the book. I've been reading basically about the Savior's Atonement this week. In the Bible, Luke makes an interesting comment. In Luke 22:44 it says, "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." James Talmage says that many Bible Scholars doubt that He actually did sweat drops of blood because of the way Luke says it. James Talmage gives thanks to modern scriptures in that it clarifies many of the aspects of the Atonement of our Savior: "...for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people." -Mosiah 3:7. When I read that, I really felt the Spirit and realized what an enormous blessing it is to have the Book of Mormon. President Jeppson has advised all missionaries to refer to the Book of Mormon as "The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ" when introducing it to people. Another interesting thing that James Talmage talks about is the illegality of the trials of Jesus Christ. It was against the Jewish law for someone to be arrested at night, like Jesus was. The scribes and the high priest then commenced to hold a trial that night, which was also against the law. During the trial, the vote was unanimous to put Jesus to death. In their trials, if someone was ever convicted of death unanimously, they were to try them again and again until it wasn't unanimous. They did this to avoid those judges of secretly conspiring to put people to death. Jesus was convicted of death, and they held no second trial. As well with the death penalty, it was required of law to hold at least two trials in the case of death penalty. Again, no second trial. They also required witnesses against people to punish them. They couldn't find any witnesses against Jesus, so they found false witnesses but their 'witnesses' didn't agree with each other. Jesus was convicted for blasphemy. As Talmage words it: Jehovah was convicted for blasphemy against Jehovah. The only witness they had of His blasphemy was from His own mouth. Their law didn't allow for anyone to be convicted upon their own confession, yet that's exactly what happened to Jesus. There's even more things that were completely illegal about the trail of Jesus. But it's really interesting to read about it all. During that whole time, Jesus was completely calm. He was this way because of what He had previously said to His disciples: "but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." -John 16:33. He had indeed overcome the world and there wasn't anything in world that had power over Him. He was ultimately in charge, yet His will was perfectly in line with that of the Father's.

Love you mom!

-Justin

PS: Next week is transfers! I'm guessing that I'll stay here for my last.

PS: I accidentally hit something on the keyboard that prematurely sent my letter.

One more thing, Could you send me a CD or two from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? I don't have any music from them, and I was thinking about how nice it would be to be able to listen to that every morning. If you could, I want one CD with the song "This is the Christ" on it. Thanks!