Dear Family--
Hello everyone! How are you all doing today? I'm good enough now. I had a bit of a depressive bout last night but I am back to normal now. This week has been pretty great because the area is starting to turn around. We have been working hard and have finally gotten some investigators!
One of the is Lenny. He lives in a place called ----. It is a homeless shelter with some requirements to get in so it is a cut above the rest. It's pretty nice actually and we met with him and he accepted a baptismal date! Not only that, we also have a standing appointment with him every week at 10:30 a.m. every Saturday that he is having them announce to everyone. Needless to say it is a super positive situation, we hope to help a lot of people there. I'll probably mention this in the e-mail too, but I'm just really excited about it.
Something really cool that happened this week was we read a talk called " Do Things That Make A Difference". It is a great talk by M. Russell Ballard. He extended a challenge to everyone in that talk that I really want to take to heart. The challenge is yo write one thing every night that you are doing that you know is holding you back and then commit to simply quit. It can be something big or small, it just has to be one step forward. I've been writing one every night in my journal.
www.lds.org/ensign/1983/06/do-things-that-make-a-difference?lang=eng
www.lds.org/ensign/1983/06/do-things-that-make-a-difference?lang=eng
The second part of the challenge is to write another thing that you will do to improve yourself. So it is a two part challenge, one part to quit and the other part is to replace the action with. It's pretty great I think and I hope to use this to improve myself everyday. He also said " don't wait to improve yourself ". I guess I will come back like an apostle if I really do this well, ha ha.
Ok, time for the real stuff. Going on a mission is no easy thing to do. I walked into it really light-heartedly and I wish I hadn't. It will be the craziest, most fun, most trying, most spiritual and hardest thing you do, bar none. It really is a big choice, but luckily I am already here so I can give you some advice:
Let's look at the scriptures, shall we?
D&C 4:1-3-- Who is called to the work and what do we serve Him with?
D&C 11:21-- What do we need to do before we preach?
Alma 37: 36-37-- This scripture tells us how we act as missionaries.
Also, the first line tells us how to get direction.
Some scriptures about being a missionary:
Alma 38: 1-12
Alma 42: 31
Moroni 9:6
Jacob 1:9
D&C 4
D&C 11
Just some guides to look through to help. The main thing to do is pray and be worthy.
One final piece of advice. Don't put your mission off. There will always be a reason not to go if you look for one. So I guess the consensus is it is good as soon as you feel ready and not a second later.
Don't worry if you feel like your testimony is weak because if you ALWAYS turn to God, He will help. Never doubt your faith before your doubts. I forgot what talk it was, but Elder Uchtdorf talked about not doubting faith. He used a story where a man says " Yeah Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief."
Um, everything else was kind of unnecessary or I will write it in the other e-mail. Except our biscuits, I forgot about those! We've been trying to get the recipe just right for about a week and we finally did it! We just guessed the ingredients and measurements literally. We just kept mixing and matching til we got it right. It only took us two tries too, ha ha! We call them "manna biscuits " because we joke about receiving revelation to get the recipe right.
Anyway, that's all for now. I love you all and hope you have a good week!
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