Aug 27, 2012

Mom I can't believe its here for James.That so exciting. "James, you are going to love your mission. My advice to you would be to never compare your best to anyone else' best. Do your part to be obedient. Love your companion, and if you struggle with that, prayer to love them. The best way to have love for someone is to serve them...There heart may never be softened but you will have done your best and the lord will bless you for that. Always have a prayer in your Heart and a cheerful song (hymn, Disney movie) in your head. This truly is a great work and a wonder that we both have an opportunity to take part in. Every day i am reminded how the lord doesn't need our help in sharing the gospel. But he loves us and wants to let us help him. I am so proud of you little brother. Make sure to email me." I can't think of anything i need. I have clothes, blankets.. all the necessities. No sweets! But if you think of anything i am more then willing to accept. Pictures are always good. Updated ones. CAN YOU MAKE SURE TO SEND ME JAMES ADDRESS AT THE MTC. MAILING AND EMAIL. Just in case i want to send him anything. Its funny how this was pretty much a year ago that went through this same thing. DAD- That's so cool that you have sisters now. I didn't even know our mission had sisters. We do have senior companions. I haven't really served around them,. Many of them serve in the office. But i think there are one or two sets that are proselyting missionaries. On Monday we got together with the zone and had a Zone P-day. We Played Volleyball, soccer and then ended with a water fight. I can't jump anymore, its so sad. And then for the water fight, the elders filled up pitchers and water balloons and placed them in bowls all around the front of the church. I didn't feel like getting wet because we had an appointment right afterwards but elder Terrazes quickly changed that. He came out of no where and soaked me with a pitcher of water. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!. But miracle that night. We were headed home after an appointment and on the way home one of my companions wanted to stop by a gas station to pick up a Dr. Pepper. As we were pulling in, on of my companions and I saw a girl with no shoes on filling up her car; she was wearing mismatched socks. My companion said that i should go and talk to her. So i did, I made a remark about her socks and the conversation took off from there. It was awesome. I introduced myself and then we had a neat discussion about Jesus Christ and what we love about church. We were talking for a while when a voice came over the speaker and they told us to move our car because we weren't filling up our car with gas. We finished our discussion across the street and set up a time to meet up with her later this week. Sadly we haven't been able to meet up with her yet, she's pretty busy with school, work and other etxra-curricular activities. But we're hoping maybe later this week when we return from exchanges. Meeting Kelli was such an awesome experience. We would never have met if I hadn't gone over and said hi. Only the Lord know if she is ready, or even close to being ready to receive the gospel. Its so important to as missionaries and as members to open our mouths and speak to everyone around us. When we don't share with them the knowledge of the Gospel we aren't letting them exercise their agency to accept or reject the message. I think as members we go about looking for that golden investigator. That one person who is ready and will accept. Although there are those who are ready, there are so many others who are not. There is a section in D&C that talks about how we need to not rush through life searching for that one person while we are surrounded by people who are perishing in unbelief. We are all sons and daughters of God. We see them at the grocery store, at school, work...Everywhere we go. It is my testimony that if we simply put our trust in Heavenly Father and open our mouths we will know what to say and how to say it. We had exchanges with sister Randall and sister Lowe on Thursday and Friday last week in Fredrick Town. It was soo small. Its only a little branch, and they meet in this tiny chapel right off the highway. I love exchanges, its such a refresher for me. Its gives me an opportunity to see new places, and new people. I had a really neat experiences finding with sister Randall on Friday. Our first door we set out to knock was a potential investigator. The individual we were looking for wasn't currently home but his wife was there and gladly welcomed us in. As we were talking, she told us that she could feel herself getting closer to God. And that when she saw us she couldn't close the door on us. She knew God had sent us. That set the stage for an awesome lesson. We introduced the book of Mormon using the pictures in the front cover. We invited her to read and prayer about Alma 32. She accepted the book and said she'd read it while she was at work. We were able to set up a follow up appointment for this coming Thursday. Heavenly Father is so amazing! He is so aware of all of us and our decisions. There have been so many instances on my mission when I have felt the Love my heavenly Father has for me. He is so loving, and so merciful. He wants more than anything so see us come safely home. That's why the plan was presented. Its the through the plan of Redemption that our souls can be redeemed. Its through that same plan that we can find eternal happiness. We were never promised that this life would be easy, or that we would be above trails. I know that it is through those trial we are given that we are able to more fully appreciate the blessings of our Heavenly Father has for us. We have to experience opposition in all things, if we don't, we wouldn't appreciate how good things really are. Jesus Christ is my savior, i love him so much. I know that this gospel is true. Love sister salmon