November 17, 2009 - Week 14

Hey everyone,

Well we had breakfast with President and Sister Belnap today because our zone is doing really well and we are having a lot of baptisms. So that's why I am emailing so early today. It usually wouldn't be this early. I haven't gotten any emails from you guys yet but that's okay. Again time is short but I am going to try and write a lot. I'm a fast typer. I got all your mail and it all came at once so Thursday was like Christmas to me. It sounds like Halloween was really fun. I want to see that pumpkin Daniel carved. Did it turn out okay. It also sounds like the AutoRx party was fun too. Remember when I got second place haha. And then everyone thought my shoes were part of my costume. Nope they were just my regular shoes. Crazy that was only a year ago. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is next week? I'm still talking about Halloween. Hey dad your costume sounds great. I hope you guys took a picture of that too. I'm sure Lyndsie did.

That's kinda sad that Christmas will be changing this year. But I guess it has to happen some time and a good time to do it is while I'm gone because it's going to be different for me. Mom you sound real busy. Hows your feet doing? The kids sound like they're changing so much. Just from the letters you write me I can tell that they are talking a lot more. Weird. Alright the U is tearin it up too. The TCU game will be pretty big. If they can beat them then the U will probably rise pretty high. Thanks for the updates. How are the Jazz doing this year?

Well this week has been pretty awesome. On Saturday Elder Holland came to the mission and spoke to us. It was so cool. We got a mission picture with him and they are going to print it off for all the missionaries. Sister Belnap said she might just send it home for Elder Olsen and I if we are gone. Then we walked into the Gage building (my old area) and we all got to shake his hand. It was awesome. Also Elder perry of the 70 came and Elder Neilson, President of the 1st Quorum of the 70 came as well. They were all great talks and they really hit hard on teaching with the spirit and then living up to the covenants you have made even after your mission. Elder Holland said that we should not even think about going back to "Real Life" after our missions. We need to take everything we get from our missions and take it home with us. He said a mission is as close to real life as you are ever going to get. It really made me think about life in terms of eternity. Our life here on earth is such a short time compared to the overall picture. And once we pass away from this life we have so much more to do and learn. And it will all be centered around the things I teach and learn on my mission. So the mission really is the closest thing to real life, in terms of my eternal life. He also came and spoke at the Pasco's Stake Conference so we got to hear him twice. They blocked off the whole chapel area for investigators. There were over 100 investigators who came to hear Elder Holland speak. What a miracle. E. Holland said three things about the church. He talked about in Acts where Peter heals a lame man. The man stands up and rejoices and starts leaping and jumping for joy. Then he also talked about when Christ healed a blind man with the clay. And when people came to talk to the blind man he said in my own words, Once I was blind but now I see. From these two examples he said 1. you can't deny the truth, the man simply said, "Once I was blind but now I see." You can't get anymore truthful than that 2. the blessings keep coming. Those who are faithful in the church, the blessings just keep coming, just like the lame or blind man. 3. then he said that this is God's truth and it will never go away. People thought if they could get rid of Jesus it would all go away. Others thought if they could just get rid of Joseph Smith it would all go away. But Christs church is still on the earth and it will never go away. So those are 3 powerful things Elder Holland talked about to over 100 investigators. The spirit was so strong and we are going to capitalize on this event because those 100 investigators had to of felt the spirit.

Well also during this week we had some great lessons with two of our investigator families. One is the Raddy's. Actually since I last emailed we have taught them twice. The last time was last night. We have had two fantastic lessons with them. We read about the tree of life last night and asked them if they want this love for their whole family. The dad said that with work he can't make it on Sundays. Elder Cashin for the first time listened to the spirit and read 1 Nephi 3:7 and promised him that God gave us a commandment to go to church and He will provide a way for it to happen. He said he would pray about what he should do. They are a great family. They have 4 daughters and they all want to be baptized, its just the parents holding them back. The oldest daughter bore testimony in sacrament and she also expressed that she wants to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. She is 14. Our other lesson has been with this lady named Vien and her son Michael. Vien was previously Buddhist and has just converted to Christianity. She currently goes to a baptist church, but knows very very little about Christ. We have had to take things really slow. But we talked about a lot with her and she said that she has never felt the spirit. So I shared Moroni's Promise with her and I asked her to look for what Moroni has promised us. When she read it her eyes got real big and she said, "OH!" She said that she would pray to know if the things we taught her are true. She is doing really well. Her Son is incredible. He is only 7 but he sits with us and participates and asks us questions. He said he would pray too and he asked his mom to read the scriptures and to pray and then he told his mom he wants to come to church with us. She was kinda of hesitant so we are doing a church tour with them this week. I think it will go very good. So those are my big things for the week. The work here is great. Like I said, last night was the first night Elder Cashin has taught with the spirit. He told me last night that he has been so worried about being senior companion that he hasn't really focused on the spirit. Hes a real good kid. He is really shy and he said that I'm a really good teacher and he wants my help. So like I have said in past emails I know we can learn a lot from each other this transfer. And my high hopes for the area are actually getting higher.

I hope everyone at home is doing well. I'll try to write some letters today. Its been hard because planning has taken so long I haven't had any free time. Today we are going to play basketball and soccer too. It should be good. Well I have like 10 minutes left and I want to email some pictures home so I guess I'll send this off. Love you all and have a great week.