Elder Jon Daniel: 1-20-15

Anthony happy birthday!!! Your 7 years old man!!!! You’re an old man! Jeffery I got your video, (it made me super trunky), but that box looks sick, and man you’ve gotten good!!!! I can’t wait to have a session with you guys when I get back! I may be a tad bit rusty though.

So I’ve been able to rub the National Championship in everyone's faces. Everyone that I’ve talked to out here has given me crap for being an Ohio State fan, well looks like they have no room to talk anymore, haha.

Walter I got your package, thanks for the rad Cali socks bruh! And how the heck did you cut your thumb off with a sawzall?! I hope you’re alright! I need to see some pictures!

So this week we picked up 3 new investigators!! Myra, Anaid, and Anaid's cousin Jay! Miracles baby!!!

Elder Waechtler and Elder Steiner were on exchanges and contacted a guy out front of his house. They asked him if we could stop back by to share a message with him, he declined but said that his girlfriend might be interested. They met her and found out that she actually was a former investigator! They were able to set up a day to meet and we were able to teach her the first lesson and set a baptismal date with her for the end of February. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! And Anaid's story goes like this. She was in Utah over Christmas break with her dad. Her dad has been divorced for a little while and was getting remarried. He had actually been meeting with the missionaries for a while and was baptized the day after he was married! While Anaid was there visiting with her dad in Utah she met with the missionaries almost every day. She came back here to Oceanside and still wanted to meet with the missionaries down here because the missionaries were able to help her out a ton up in Utah. So we got the referral, stopped by not knowing if it was a legit referral or not, an old Hispanic lady answered the door who didn’t speak any English so we did our best to ask if she was there but she couldn’t understand us. As we were about to leave she comes up behind her and introduces herself! We were able to teach her and her cousin Jay about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are meeting back up with them tonight! So super exciting stuff!

I’ve been listening to a ton of talks lately. I want to share with you one of my favorite quotes from one of Elder Hollands talks from conference a few years back. In this talk he is telling the story of Christ when he comes back to give guidance to his apostles as they have gone back to fishing instead of being missionaries. Jesus says in affect “What I need are disciples and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone who loves me! Truly, truly loves me and loves what my Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do." Elder Holland then says, "Ours is not a fleeting task. It is not hopeless, hopeless or to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of almighty God and it is to change the world."

He then say talks of how the apostles have chosen something as mundane as fishing to become more important than preaching the gospel. Christ said “Did not my life and my love touch your hearts more deeply than this?" and that hit me hard. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do when I get back home a ton lately. About school, life, and especially skateboarding. I’ve realized that with the things that I like to do, like skateboarding and other stuff, they are things that I will cherish for a life time, but the gospel is forever. It’s not something that is here for a time than ceases to exist it. It is for eternity. I will do the best I can to be an effective advocate of my savior and to preach his gospel as long as I can.

I love you all so much!

-Elder Daniel

Somebody really likes the scripture Joshua 24:15 Im going to do this to my fence when I get my own place..