I am so blessed to be your son! If I have learned one thing on my mission, it is the importance of centering the home on the teachings of Jesus Christ. I remember clear as day when I was SO tired and would try to sneak up to my room to go to bed and Dad would catch me for scripture study and family prayer. Looking back, I could not be more grateful for the righteous and diligent efforts you made to make sure we did what the Prophets and even Christ (3 Nephi 18:21) has asked us to do. I am convinced that it was because of that, I am able to bare strong testimony of those principles and that it helped me to prepare for a mission. I love you both so much and happy 25 years of marriage! :)
We had a great week. It was freezing, but the Lord blessed us for proselyting anyway. Last week we only taught 7 lessons and this week we jumped to 15 (which still is not a lot but it's great progress)! Elder Mathis and I are getting along well and I feel like he is growing every single day. It is a hard transition coming to the mission field. We had some really good (long) discussions about what things the Lord is willing to bless us with if we keep our eye single to His glory.
Tuesday we helped clean a non-members 108 year old house. She apparently has bad vertigo and the house is not level (with it being so old) so it was making her really sick. While cleaning we discovered weed (marijuana) and she offered us used, poop-stained underwear to use as rags. We declined and used dish rags haha. She claimed the weed was medical but you could tell she was super nervous about it...vertigo huh? After cleaning for an hour we asked if we could share a message about Jesus Christ. She wouldn't give us the time of day. Few things make me more upset than when someone takes advantage of your kindness and aren't even willing to talk about God with you.
Wednesday was New Years Eve! We celebrated by volunteering at the food bank. It was odd because I had volunteered at this food bank nearly 2 years ago on exchanges! We dated canned food, sorted, and bagged meals for people. The rest of our day mainly consisted of sharing a video about Resolutions and setting at least one spiritual goal. The stake here is doing a missionary initiative which actually started when Elder Rasmusson was the Zone Leader here and proposed it!
Elder Ballard when he was a member of the Seventy gave a conference talk called, "Write Down a Date." Basically, as a family you write down JUST A DATE to have someone prepared to take the missionary discussions by. He promises that by writing down a date, without even a family in mind, the Lord will provide you with the name and family that is ready to hear the discussions by that date. Cool promise or what?! We just need to pray every day for that name and act on the prompting. Will you do that? The full talk can be watched or read here: https://www.lds.org/
We were permitted to stay out till 10;30PM...wooo partyyy!! The ward help a new years activity till midnight at the church where Brother Williams (who we lived with) DJ'd and they had board games to play. Fun stuff! New Years day we tracted into a college student named Kyle who we taught the following day. He accepted baptism and wants to clean up his lifestyle. Please pray for him! We later visited a less-active couple with twin, non-member boys. The dad went off on this rant about how imperfect the members of the church is and how bitter he was about some of the leadership and even started to speak ill of Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve! I reminded him that he shouldn't let others affect his own salvation. I wanted to say many other things...
Friday we did some service at the Bargain Basement. It is basically a charity thrift store owned by the Catholic church. They let us volunteer there which is pretty cool. We taught several lessons Friday. We are really trying to work on a couple by the name of Harvey and Boots. They are the family we had Christmas Dinner with. Till now, they really have not allowed the missionaries to come over. Harvey is not a member and Boots has been less-active for a long time. Neither are interested in church at the moment. But we had two really good visits with them this week about Family History. Harvey is extremely interested in Family History and we are trying to slip in hints about eternal families and the temple. If there was anyone we would ask you to pray for, it would be Harvey and Boots Lake! They paid for our dinner at the most expensive restaurant in town and love us coming over.
Saturday we helped the Sister missionaries move from one host family to another since we have a truck :) Sunday I realized was my last Fast and Testimony meeting. I decided to bare testimony of the message I have been called to teach: The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a pretty odd realization but it felt good to testify over the pulpit and basically teach the entire Restoration in less than 3 minutes.
That is so great that Grandpa and Grandma got smart phones! Grandpa's selfie was hilarious haha. And I would absolutely LOVE to do a session with everyone in the Phoenix Temple! Somehow I want to see if I can volunteer there weekly as an ordinance worker. Thank you for the spiritual thoughts dad! It goes to show how blessed we really are to be the "few" in the Lord's Vineyard (Jacob 5). And thank you mom for the Family History updates! It has become so much more exciting to me as I learn about the valiant ancestors we have.
I was very humbled yesterday when I received news about the baby I blessed in Missoula. If you recall, I was called by Valerie Marhshall (in Sheridan Ward) to give a blessing to a baby in ICU. The baby's parents were less-active. When I gave the blessing, I did not know the baby was in Acoma and the chances of the baby living were slim. In the blessing I felt prompted to promise the baby that it still had a life to live. Yesterday I found out that 20 minutes after that blessing, the baby woke up. I offered the parents blessings and they kindly declined. They took it to Washington to see a brain specialist. The baby will permanently be blind but will live. Valerie called me again yesterday to tell me that these parents were so grateful for the blessing given and heard that I was serving in Dillon (30 miles away from Twin Bridges/Sheridan). They asked if I could come see them, give them a blessing, and maybe even teach the discussions. There is power in the Priesthood. The Lord knows where he needs his servants and President Mecham holds the keys and revelation to know where the Lord would have us be as well!
Have a great week everyone!
Pictures:
Curloms? (Book of Mormon referenced animal) And a one-eyed Sheep.
