March 26, 2011

First of all, I'm sorry to hear about (name omitted for privacy)'s girlfriend. It's always sad when things like that happen. In moments like these it really helps to have an eternal perspective - internal peace can be found in God's words communicated either by himself or by His past and present servants. I love the comforting words of Christ in 3 Nephi 9:14 - ''Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I recieve; and blessed are those who come unto me.'' Anyone can come unto the Lord. Naturally this will require repentance (key word, come), which can be a difficult process, but just as it says in Psalms 147:3 - ''He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.'' It is my hope that (name omitted) and all who are hurting may search the comfort that comes as a result of the healing power of Christ's Atonement. I know it will help them achieve internal peace.

This last week we were traveling the mission, once again. I feel like I've driven more here than I ever did back in the states! Except for that one trip from Nebraska to Utah...and from Utah to Virginia... It's a good experience, though. This week we had three multi-zone conferences in the north, middle, and south regions of the mission. Elder Rubilar and I prepared a message about focusing on teaching people, not lessons. We started out by picking a missionary and bringing him up in front of everyone and then had Sister Swenson buz a line across his head, haha. After she did the hack job she said, ''Alright, done!'' and sent the missionary back to his seat. A nice shock factor, don't you think? The message of that was that there isn't a ''one-size-fits all'' in missionary work; every person is different and has different needs so we must adapt how we teach to make sure that the Spirit is there and testifies to their hearts of the truth. To demonstrate a good example we spliced a few scenes from Patch Adams (the four scenes with the terminal cancer patient), and that got everyone thinking. It was a good experience - the missionaries seemed like they had a lot of good ideas to put into practice in their sectors.

Oh wow, it's almost conference time again! I LOOOOOVE conference - Kelton better not skip priesthood session! I've decided that I will make sure I have work off and studies planned so that I will never miss another session of general conference. Could be a little difficult...but not impossible, right?

We had a cool day this week - Elder Rubilar and I hardly had any time in our sector because we were getting everything ready for conference and all that jazz, but Monday we did manage to be there from about 6:30 to 10 pm. We only knocked about 5 doors, but we got let in to many of them! One of them was an ''athiest'' guy named Franco. He actually ended up being really receptive and cool (Ian would get along with him - he's a metal head with long hear, haha). Before leaving we left a picture of Christ in Gethsemane and he told us that whenever we wanted we could come back. So we'll take him up on that offer! The next person who let us in was just amazing. Her name is María José, and she just barely moved to Hualpen for work. We got into hear house by offering her a picture of Christ and asking if we could come in and share a short message about Him. She said yes, and after a little while talking to her we found out that she had gone to an LDS church with an LDS friend before and loved it, but had never decided to continue in any religion. For awhile she has felt confused and a little lost spiritually - or maybe just not so decided. She does know that God exists, but nothing much past that. We decided to give her a Book of Mormon, which she said she would read and then she said she'll come to church with us on Sunday. It's so refreshing when you find someone like that! And then that night we had a FHE with a family in the ward, to which they brought a non-member mother of a member-girl. The mom is battling depression and doesn't really know where to turn. Something cool that happened with her is that after the FHE while I was saying goodbye to her I asked her if she was going to come to the ward activity on Saturday (today) and to church on Sunday, to which she said ''no''. I asked her why and she asked me what good it would do her. Peace in your life was the only thing I told her, and I knew that she felt the Spirit and wanted more because her attitude changed immediately. She, Edith, said that she would be there with her daughter to learn more about it. So yeah, that was an amazing day!

Well, I think I've blabbered on for enough today. I didn't really take any pictures this week...should have done that...but I'll get on it for next week and get you all some good ones. Sorry! Love and miss you tons!

Love,

Trevor

PS. When does registration open up for USU? I hope everything is being taken care of there - I can't do too much from here. Thank you!

PPS. CUMPLEAÑOS FELIZ!!! TE DESEAMOS A TI, CUMPLEAÑOS FELIZ!!! QUE LOS CUMPLA FELIZ!!!! That's for all you old fogies that had birthdays recently! Love you!