Hi Fambly:
I loved the pictures of Audrey and Elijah! I have the most beautiful niece and nephew in the world! I loved Ryan's description of the head tourniquet....Gosh I love our family's brains.
This was a way cool week. As missionaries, we try really hard to have a lot of church members present at our lessons, but because of work, schedules, faulty phones and such, 5 member present lessons a week is pretty dang good. So.....10 member present lessons. I'm not entirely sure how that happened. But I'm so grateful!! Hermana Strong told me that knocking doors, even if nothing specifically comes from the knocking itself, and sometimes even if we don't get around to it, if we at least PLAN to knock, the Lord will bless us in other areas. And HE DID!! Actually, we had a really wonderful experience tracting the other day. We started talking to a woman named Rita who was doing her very best to put us off and communicate that she was Catholic and not interested. We asked if she would share with us her views about God. She scoffed and said "What for?" We talked to her about being members of God's family and how every uplifting moment in which we can share our beliefs is a blessing. Her face completely changed in that moment. She was still trying a little bit to get rid of us, but by then, she was too intrigued and even invited us in to talk for a long long time. We answered a lot of questions, attempting to follow a general lesson 1 (restoration) outline, but ended up teaching principles about the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even some of the commandments and genealogy. It was so cool! As we were leaving, she said "I'm glad you came. You came at the right time. I feel better."
I love being a missionary!
Speaking of genealogy, our Branch President told me yesterday that he had come across a story about a mormon pioneer from Australia with the last name of Beauchamp who served a mission in Denmark. I told him I didn't think I was related, seeing as my Australian ancestors weren't Beauchamps and were Irish criminals, but I told him I'd ask if we were connected. So this is me asking :)
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I've been studying a lot about the Spirit of Elijah this week in personal study and I'd really like to be more involved in Family History work. Mama, could you send me that folder with Alva Keller's story?
Also, I had a really cool experience studying 3 Nephi the other day. I had been having a hard time figuring out a good way to explain the necessity of proper priesthood authority in oridnances like baptism. A lot of people ask: "If it's done sincerely, shouldn't one baptism be just as good as another?" I was reading about Christ's parable of the wise man and the foolish man and their respective houses built on sand and stone, and I thought of when one of my MTC teachers said "Really the only uniquely different thing our church has that other churches don't is the Holy Ghost" I'm still working through that one, but I thought about how it's true, one house with 4 walls and a roof IS just as good as another. They can both be claimed as property, both be decorated, be called home, etc but during times of trial, if it doesn't have a sure foundation, no amount of walls is going to matter. It's the same with our baptisms. They may be done very sincerely and blessings will ALWAYS come from showing faith in God, but if our baptism isn't "sealed" with the gift of the Holy Ghost, the blessings that come from having been baptized will be void.
I hope I explained that well enough. It was a good learning moment for me :)
PS Dad I'm SO stoked about that CD DVD set John Butler is coming out with. Please tell me you're getting one! That daddy/daughter date with you will always be my very favorite date ever! Plus the music rocked my ugly missionary shoes right off.
I get to go to a Leadership conference this week and I'm really excited! I always love conferences and trainings, plus I'll get to see Elder Torres, Elder Castro, Elder Banuelos, and Hermana Waite! I love them all so much!
We were talking to a young man the other day and the topic of Jehovah's Witnesses came up. He had quite a bit to say, and seemed mortified that JWs don't celebrate holidays. "Yeah man, they don't celebrate nothin! Not birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, not even Leap Year!"
Of all holidays. They should at LEAST celebrate Leap Year.
Also we had dinner the other night with our recent convert Amanda and her family. Her 3 year old boy Brody was telling me some kind of story, but I was mostly just zoning out and nodding. He caught my attention with the end of the story with wiggling his little fingers at me and saying "Undead! Undeeeeeeaad!"
I love my life.
I love my family!
Thank you for writing me, dear family!
I'll probably be ordering contacts later this week, just FYI.
Love you more than all the blessings Heavenly Father is getting ready to pour out on our family!
Hermana B
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