Onward

Soooo

My thoughts are not very collected today, so I may be scattered all over the place. But - Elder Haworth. From South Jordan. Waaaaaaayyyy more layed back than Elder Tharp. Its a mixed blessing. A lot more like myself I'd say. So far so good. He's been out 19 months, but he doesn't know anything about the area, so its kinda like I have to be in charge all the time. I make all the calls, I did that anyway most of the time, plan most of our activities each day. It’s a lot of responsibility, but the Lord has really made me equal to the task. I'm not pulling it off as well as I could or ought to be, some things are kinda falling through the cracks, but I'm doing what I can. I gotta kinda figure out a system for all these different things. Really I'm just prioritizing right now. People need to get taught. That’s what needs to happen most, so I try to make that happen first. It will all come full circle in time. Elder Haworth is a good Elder so once he gets the hang of things a little more, I think we could see some good things.

People. Lets see... Some good things are happening. These 2 fantastic families have kinda taken a liking to one of our investigators. She's getting great fellowship and many things just seem to be strangely falling into place. I love it. She's Episcopal (I think I talked about her last week), and every time we ever brought up church, she would just say how she's going to her church. That was always a big barrier. We met this week and had a great talk about the BOM and what it means if it is true. She's been reading it and really likes it. She loves the language and the way it is written. She's a writer so she notices those kinds of things. She feels that it is the word of God. And yes, she is coming to understand that if that is true, then Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, His Church is once again established on the earth, and Joyce will have to make some serious changes in her life. Well, not gigantic, but changes.

Anyway, its awesome to see the progression. For some reason I felt prompted to tell her she'll need to come to our church soon. It makes perfect sense, but in the past its gotten us nowhere, like I said. But I told her and she agreed that she would have to give it a go here soon. YES! She is seeing the fruits of the restored gospel! Awesome families, strong relationships, good values, the Book of Mormon, how it makes her feel, etc. Truth! Real Truth! Not just interpretations that sound nice. The Gospel is not someones best guess as to the meaning of ancient scripture! (paraphrased from Pres. Uchtdorf). Some things I feel just can't be denied.

It's crucial to live our religion as BEST as we can. Pray everyday, read the Book of Mormon everday. Say family prayers. Have FHE, the list goes on. I can see first hand the difference these things make. You can almost pick the families out at church. The ones that do these things and the ones who don't and you can see the difference. Everyone does just fine I suppose, but some people just have a little more of a light in their eyes. One of the poorest families in our ward is absolutely one of my favorites. They have the most wonderful positive attitudes about life and others and are always trying to help everyone. We ate at their house a few weeks ago - everything was bishop storehouse stuff, but still I hear them inviting investigators over for dinner. They are wonderful. They have nothing, but they do the things we need to be doing, and they get by. Just barely, but the Lord makes it work. Aah, I'm rambling I'm sorry.

A member was telling us about a man who was instrumental in his conversion. He was EXTREMELY wealthy, I can't remember how, but years ago, he set out on this full on quest to disprove the Book of Mormon. He had the resources to do it all, investigate all the different avenues. Eventually he joined the church because he could not do it. Silly people can speculate about this and that all day long, but that, to me, goes to show that if you actually do it right, search out information in a legitimate way, and don't cut corners or make assumptions, and seek out rumors and such, you will find the truth.

I suppose I've been getting into a new level of testimony in the past weeks. Perhaps. Like I said, there are some things that just can't be denied. They can be forgotten, and put out of mind, and justified and reasoned with, but some things just are. Some things are just far too coincidental. Something like that. I love this gospel. The more I learn about it and how it works and our purpose here and what we have to look forward to and why we come here in families and so much more... it all just makes so much sense. It is perfect. It really is Gods perfect plan. Man, no man, could ever come up with something so pure and wonderful. Its not within man to do such a thing. There is tooooo much to all this for anyone to have come up with it. The founding fathers were surely some of the most inspired and intelligent people to have been around in a long time. Our system of checks and balances, and how they still work today, its ingenious. But the gospel is something far, far, far beyond that. The truth that is present in this church...it is absolutely incredible. I could go on for hours I'm pretty sure. But I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is truth. LDS Church is just a title. People get all caught up in titles and what they associate with them. There is so much goodness in all this. This is God's plan. We know why. How wonderful that is. Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you. I know some people don't think one can "Know," but I think we can know enough. The Lord will give us witness enough if we want it. Enough to do the things we ought to be doing. We can forget the things we know, our own special witnesses, but if we keep doing the things we need to be, we won't forget, it will make sense, and in the long run, all will be well. Happy day, all is well!!

Man I have rambled forever today! Shows the importance of having a plan sometimes. Hope you enjoy it, I know some of you may not, but these are the things in my mind. Love you all so so much! Mission is crazy and super hard but the best thing I could ever do ever in my whole life! But its still super hard and many times I want to come home, but I won't! So many blessings! Hope you are all seeing them like I am!

LOVE!
David