Helping While Healing

Hello family. This week I wasn't able to go out a whole ton because of the gum surgery. It was pretty cool. Elder Terry was helping out as Brother Mischler's assistant. It was a pretty neat experience, but unfortunately I was on a liquid diet for the next two days. That was interesting (haha). I wasn't allowed to smile. I wasn't allowed to talk for those two days or smile. I'm not really supposed to smile, so I'm trying not to, but I'm not perfect. It seems to be healing really well. I was inside for a good part of four days letting that recover.

We did get to see a couple of people. There is this one guy – I think I talked about him last week or maybe not – but anyway, he accepted to get baptized. He is going to take that jump of faith and do the things that he needs to prepare himself for that. So we are going to help him, and we made him a little calendar that has a scripture for every day leading up to the baptism. We are going to help him do those things he needs to do to get baptized.

We also had a neat experience where I felt prompted to go to the mission home to help Sister Beesley out to avoid smiling, and let my companion go on exchanges with some of the elders that were there helping Sister Beesley. So, Elder Terry went with that elder to go visit a part member family. The other elder that they brought ended up clicking really well, and they ended up inviting the Spirit. The invited them to basically do better (haha). We kind of figured out that they are converted to missionaries. So we need to help them get converted to the Lord. If there are missionaries that are bad or lazy, they will just hang out with them and not progress. If the missionaries are good, they don't really like the pressure to do good. It is kind of tough because they want to be excused from everything. We figured out it is because they are mostly not converted to the Lord, just the missionaries. So anyway, the missionaries had a really neat spiritual experience teaching them and invited the Spirit. Hopefully that helped motivate them to do good and to stay on track and progress, and not get complacent.

We had a lesson with another investigator who is preparing for baptism as well. We talked about conversion a little and what baptism is and about baptisms for the dead, and how he can extend the blessings he has been given to his deceased ancestors. His mom passed way, so he seemed pretty touched that he could be sealed to his family and to do the baptism for his mom. That was a neat experience.

We had stake conference this weekend. It was all about Christ and the Spirit was there. They had two sessions. We went to the first session and then we were able to get another person to come, so we went to the second session.

One thing that happened the week before was we got to go to the temple. I neglected to mention that. It was a really neat experience.

I will continue to try and heal, and not talk too much and smile too much. Hopefully I can do that pretty soon because it's hard to put off bad if you're never smiling. Hopefully I'll be able to still smile with my eyes; I still haven't figured that out yet (haha). President Beesley kind of messes with me. He came up to me and gave me a great big smile and then said, “don't smile.” Of course I can't help but smiling. So yeah, he's getting me there and messing with me (haha). That's okay, it's funny, but I'm not supposed to laugh.

I hope all is going well with all of you. I love you. I'm having a wonderful time up here in Alaska helping people. I pray that I can continue to do so and be close to the Spirit. I know the Church is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I'm glad I get the chance to share that with others. I am grateful for the Lord and how He strengthens us and helps us to become what we can't on our own. I know He has a big part in our lives and in the work, because it's His work. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love, Elder Record