Good morning, today is... my birthday!
(haha) the 25th of June; and I will finally be 20 at
9:54pm. Which... technically if it was 9:54pm in Utah, it's like
what... 7:54pm here. So, I'll be awake for that – oh, I'd be awake
for 10 o'clock anyway, but that's beside the point. It's my birthday
(haha), and I'm happy to no longer be a teenager. It feels pretty
weird to be twenty.
Well... we have the most amazing
members that we live with. They are very awesome, and I love the ward
here. They are really helping us out a lot. They really trust us, and
we are making a really good influence for the better. We have shown
that we are willing to be obedient and that we are going to work
hard, and the members see that. When they see that we care about them
and their friends, then they let us know who to go visit. It's kind
of basic, but that's how it works (haha). Unfortunately, it takes
some time for some missionaries to figure that out.
The members we live with are very cool.
She is very musically talented, and she's going to teach me how to
play the piano. I'm so excited. I love music! I have gotten pretty
good at the Ukulele. Elder Conlin is pretty musically talented too.
We like to sing improv songs, and he'll do stuff on the piano and
I'll play something on the Ukulele. It's pretty fun, and I really
want to take music theory when I get back (haha).
There is a less active member that is
going to take us out to Cold Stone's today, because it's my birthday.
That was nice of him.
On Monday we had a pretty neat
experience with one of the families in the ward. We went over to them
and really encouraged them to share the gospel with their friends.
The mother of the mother was needing a blessing, so were able to take
part in that. It was a really spiritual experience. They definitely
recognized us as representatives of Jesus Christ. It was really neat
to be able to be doing what the Savior would be doing right then. I
wrote about it in my journal for sure.
On Friday we slaughtered chickens.
We had a pretty cool training meeting
on Thursday. We watched that new bible video that's about Jesus
calling the twelve. We talked about our calling and how to do
companion study a little better with roll playing and things like
that. I found out there are some Farnsworth's in the ward. So, I am
going to go see if we are related to them (haha). It seems like we
are related to everybody that is from Arizona – but that's another
story.
We did a little tracting on Saturday
with the zone. It went fairly well, but then we went over to this
other street and the first house we went to was pretty cool. He let
us in, and we talked with him for a little bit, and we were able to
share the gospel with him. He lives right next door to some of the
members (haha), so it works wonderfully. We'll see if we can't set
something up to have the members invite him into their home to be
taught.
We gave our talks in church. It was
cool. The Spirit was there pretty strong, especially when the young
women were giving their parts on the young women's camp. They always
talk about their testimony meetings and how spiritual they are. All
the guys end up feeling like they missed out (haha). Elder Conlin and
I gave our talks on how we gained our testimonies, how the members
can help us in missionary work, and shared some quotes from Gordon B.
Hinckley in Preach
My Gospel. The ideal situation is that the member invites their
non-member friends into their home to be taught by the missionaries
where they can feel the Spirit. We talked about how really the best
way to help us is by helping us find people to teach. They seemed to
love it, which was really cool. I think they will really help us out.
Which will be really nice because – well they trust us and they
know we can teach their friends, but now they can really feel like
they are helping out and doing good.
There is that Elder Bednar quote that
you, Dad, used to quote a little bit; talking about Moses
1:39 where it says, “my work and my glory is to bring to pass
the immortality and eternal life of man.” Elder Bednar said that's
God's work, then he talks about how there is a companion scripture
that is not near as frequently quoted in D&C
11:20 which says, “your work is to keep my commandments with
all your might, mind and strength.” Yeah, it's God work in Moses
1:39 and our work in D&C 11:20. I found that quote in the
Doctrine and Covenants DVD set – the one that has the five movies,
like Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration, Legacy, and some of
those other ones – it's in disk one. You just go to the scripture
reference to Doctrine and Covenants section 11, and it will have that
little clip of Elder Bednar saying that [see “The
Tender Mercies of the Lord,” Elder David A. Bednar, General
Conference, April 2005].
I read your letter, Dad, and really
appreciated that. It was really neat, and I like learning about the
Plan of Salvation. I
looove the temple, and I am thankful for the wonderful examples
of the people in my life and how much they have influenced and helped
me.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm
going to have to be doing my college applications soon. So I'll get
on and figure out my passwords and send them to you guys. I'll need
help to get the transcripts for everything sent to where they need to
go. I'll make a list of all of the colleges I want to apply for. I
already have it, it's like (haha) pretty much they are all in Utah,
except for BYU Idaho.
That's kind of been this week so far.
It was really fun. We were able to do a lot of good visiting a lot of
people. We have a couple of investigators who are just so solid, and
will be baptized pretty soon. We love them, and we love to help them.
We are thankful for their spirits and how much they try to do good
and seek to do Heavenly Father's will. It's really special to see
stuff like that as a missionary, but a lot of times you will have
people who are like, “yeah, I don't want to do that.” But, it's
nice to have people who are sincerely trying to find the truth. It's
wonderful because we can help them find it.
I know the gospel is true. I know the
Book of Mormon is true. I know that as we read it, we can get
closer to our Heavenly Father and receive answers to our questions
and concerns. I say that in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
Love, Elder Record
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