Hello my amazing family!!
This week has been great! It’s actually starting to get
cold! Not as cold as Bama though, I need to be careful what I wish for, I
thought it would be great, but Nah. It’s not very enjoyable after 3
straight hours of riding your bike in 40 degree weather every day. It also
rained for the first time last week, which was awesome! But it sucked riding in
it because it was so cold.
Contacts have been great this week. We set our weekly
goal for street contacts for 70 and we hit 71.
This week we taught our first solid lesson with Robert.
He likes to talk a lot and do things that make it kind of hard to sit down
and teach him something. When we showed up for our appointment he was outside
doing yard work, so we picked up some racks and helped him out so we could
still have some time to teach him. We found out he hadn't read what we left him
and we were running out of time, so we decided to just read the chapter we left
him the week before, Alma 32. It’s the one that talks about faith. It was
amazing!! We had a wonderful discussion on the Book of Mormon
and he told us that it makes perfect sense that there would be additional
scripture and that Heavenly Father would continue to lead, guide, and
communicate with His children today, just as in times of old. He was really
excited about it too and said that he was going to show his wife what we had
read with him. So that really boosts my spirits about the work in our area,
there is progression. It’s the coolest thing seeing someone excited about the
gospel and seeing their testimonies grow little by little. It makes me so
happy.
Bishop Hymas told me a few things before I
left that have stuck with me. I asked him while I was making my decision to go
on a mission “Is a mission hard?" He sat back for a minute and then
told me "Ya know, it’s only hard, if you make it hard." Such
good counsel and it’s so true. If you work it easy, it’s hard. If you work it
hard, it’s easy. Another thing that he told me was “You will never
experience any other joy in your life quite like the joy you will get from
bringing the gospel into the lives of those who have been searching and
looking and waiting, and seeing the peace and happiness and direction that
comes into their lives because of you. The only things that come close are the
day you marry the love of your life and the day you hold your first
born child in your arms." It’s un-describable the feeling of joy you get
when you see someone come closer to their Heavenly Father. It’s funny how I
thought I understood the counsel that people had given me before I came out on
my mission, but I really didn't completely understand until
I came out here to California and experienced things for myself.
Last week we found out that one of mine and Elder
Anderson's past investigators from Fallbrook, Candy, was in the hospital
because of heart problems and something that was wrong with her breathing.
We were headed back from our Zone Conference and got permission from President
Kendrick to go and visit her. She was staying at Palomar Hospital,
which in like the nicest hospital in southern California, it looks like a
5 star resort! So we went to visit her and found out that she had been there
for a week and was going to have to go through a surgical procedure to have a
stint put in. She was worried because she had been in the hospital before but
never for that long and never had to have a big procedure such as that. So
Elder Anderson and I gave her a blessing. We found out that the surgery went
great and that she will be back home this week. She's a hospice nurse, so she
kind of flip flopped for a week.
Well I love you guys. Stay strong, stay true, and look
out for each other while I'm gone, alright?
-Elder Daniel
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