eMail of November 2, 2009

I´m not sure I really remember who he is, Ed. I´m glad he came to Church though. I will see what I can write this coming week. I´m glad to hear that things are going so well in the ward. As for the Christmas package, I really don´t feel like I need anything. Everything is going well. Candy and snacks are just about the only thing else. I don´t have batteries though, AA at least. I have a ton of AAA but I need AA. I messed up I guess and brought two things of AAA instead of a thing of AA. It would be cheaper to send me them as well. It´s like $2.50 for two AA batteries here at least, and the most you can buy is four. But nothing else.

As for what happened this week there are a few things. We met a bunch of new investigators. We have a few that nearly got baptised a year ago and seem like they are going to progress right now. During the week we helped a less active family move from their house. I had fun. I couldn´t take any pictures though because my camera doesn´t have batteries. I need to fix that. Anyway, It wasn´t the easiest week in the world but we had success.

Yesterday though, during the last hour of Church a mother with her young daughter walked in and said that she wanted to get baptised. She had heard a friend talking about the Church, he´s a return missionary, and she just felt a strong desire to join. So she walked in and asked us what she needed to do to be baptised. The bad part is that she lives just outside our sector. But she is set and getting baptised and I´m sure she will. In the end I am glad to have been of help to someone else.

I am grateful to be here truly. I have also been learning a lot about relationships. We are teaching a family that has been nearly torn apart. They went into a viscous cycle of blaming one another and not changing. We are trying to help them get profesional help. From the outside perspective you can see how relationships go bad when one accuses the other always and never accepts their own faults. It is better to be kind, than right. Marraige is too great and sacred a thing to put away because you can´t just swallow your pride. That same problem
keeps many people from joining the Church and accepting the Book of Mormon and prophets.

We have had many people straight up reject us. Some have lied, others are just rude. But at the same time many do accept us and listen. There are many people who just simply don´t know and don´t realize what we have even when we tell it to them. We just hope that they will accept when they realize the importance of these things. In the end, you just learn that everyone is a son or daughter of God and you just need to love them and show them respect. God is no respector of persons, and neither should we be.

Well, I love all of you and am grateful for your prayers and support. I hope that everything continues to go well. Have fun, be happy, and know that we are all children of a loving Father.

[email to Dad] To be honest I feel like I haven´t kept up on my journal as I should.
I am relearning lessons right now that I remember to have taught to other people before, and learned before. I need to just write more of the experiences I have and what I learn from them. Not just how I feel. I just felt before like I didn´t need to make anyone worry about me. Nor do I want to fall into pride. But I am beginning to understand those things better, though staying away from pride is impossible in the state we are in. If we could, it wouldn´t be so much of a trial this life. Sometimes our greatest trials are with ourselves, not others. I will share more of those experiences with you. I will also try and keep the right balance between what I should and shouldn´t say.

As for losing a companion prematurely, there were a lot of learning experiences there. His actual leaving wasn´t the trial though. It would have been the same to me if he was there or not. In fact I would have liked to keep going with him. It was most difficult not to have a true companion in the sector. I learned why you need a companion. To be honest, I am still learning from the experience. In truth, the trial is still going. My current companion really isn´t that different and is having some similar difficulties.

I am learning more than anything right now how to develop good relationships of trust even when it is difficult to do so, with those that trust very little anyone else. However, despite all that the sector is improving, and so am I in my work. This is perhaps one of the most fruitful times of my labor, even though there haven´t been any baptisms. We have a good set of more solid investigators that I have felt and am sure will be baptised some day. We are just trying to work on getting them to progress now.

I have some more experiences to share but I will share those with everyone. Well, thank you for your prayers and support. I love you and hope you know how grateful I am for the example you have been to me in my life.