First
we have one investigator (i am pretty sure i talked about
her before) but she is super awesome, the only reason she hasnt gotten baptized yet is just because her mom is a less active member that is
super anti mormon, and her dad hates mormons as well, so for the past
while we have been teaching her secretly in the church. But she is
awesome and has a super strong testimony. But hasnt gotten baptized
because she is afraid of talking the her parents about it (shes 17 so
she cant get baptized without their permission) But she came to general
conference this week, to both of the saturday sessions. And then told us
that she really wanted to come to the sunday sessions but wasnt sure if
she would be able to.
And then the next
morning at like 8am we get a call from her, and we see its her and me
and my comp both think ´´Dang it...Its probably her calling to tell us
that she isnt going to be able to call´´ And so we answer the phone and
she shouts ´´ELDER!!!!!!!! MY MOM IS GOING TO LET ME GET BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!´´
And then she told us the story of how after general
conference she felt like she really really needed to talk to her mom
about her meeting with the missionaries, and she was afraid to do it,
but she knew it was the spirit telling it to her so she decided to do
it. And when she talked to her mom, the mom just just super feliz that the daughter was meeting with us, and then expressed how she supported her 100
percent, and to show her support, has started reading the book of
mormon with her and helping her to understand it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats so awesome. im so happy for her, because i mentioned her before
about how when the mom left the church she started burning all of her
church books, and thats when the girl rescued the book of mormon when her
mom wasnt looking.
But yeah im pretty happy about that.
She
hasnt been able to talk to her dad yet, and frankly im more worried
about her dad that i was about her mom, but we shall see what happens
The invesitgator that had his hands burned off came too, and he really liked it,
we had an appointment with him too where we were going to invite him to
be baptized but the cita fell, so we are going to swing by later today,
and are going to invitarlo.
But ok i have to
confess something though, when i was in general conference i thought
that i shouldnt keep my returning date a secret from you. I should be coming home on January 3rd. I really want to talk to the mission presidente, and in fact am going to talk to him today about letting me
stay until the 11th, or some date close by there. I know that MCC starts
on the 12th and i want to be here the absolute most time possible.
I
have another secret that i should probably tell you about. It was one i
have been keeping for pretty much my whole mission, but ill tell it to
you in story mode,
So generally speaking i have
always had like one conference talk that i felt was just written just
for me. But i was doing some self analysis, and i realized that there
was/is pretty much nothing bothering me, and i wasnt/am not really
having any big struggles in my life right now, and so i was just
expecting that this conference would just be a really good one, but just
not have anything directly pointed toward me. And there wasnt, up until i
think it was the last session of conference when there was a man who
gave his talk in Portuguese, and he spoke about making decisions. And immediately when he started talking i could feel that it was the one that
was going to be focused on me.
And i dont have
my conference notes with me right now but there is one thing that he
said which made me want to tell you about something.
I
am pretty sure that it was the 3rd point in things you should do when
making an important decision. And it was talking about telling your
plans to your loved ones. And he talked about how if you do that they
will be able to help you and support you, and help you see things out of
a clearer scope. And honestly i want to still keep the secret from you
of about what i want to do, but i knew the spirit told me i needed to
tell you so i will.
After the mission i really
want to join the Air Force, and almost every talk in general conference
made me more sure about my decision. but now i want to tell you why and
i would like to hear feedback.
Ive actually
wanted to join the Air Force since even before i was a missionary actually. But one thing that i always told my self each time i wanted to
find out more about joining was ´´I will do my duty to my God and
[then] to my country´´ And i always wanted to help others win the
freedom that i had enjoyed for so long.
But as i
served a mission that desire kind of changed, or at least was more
focused, later in my mission i wanted to serve in the military to become
an even more spiritually mature person, i would remember that before
the mission i would often sing the song ´´How can i be´´ And i would
reflect on how the men like Nephi Moroni Alma and other men from the
book of Mormon, how they became the man that they were. And i realized
that almost every single one of them fought with their lives to defend
their faith and their freedom and their families, and although there are some that it dont specifically say that they fought in a war who
became the men that they were, i assumed that their testimonies became
so rock hard unshakable is because that even in the face of death they
help onto their testimonies and it turned them into strong disciples of
Christ.
But then that desire also went or even
more refined as i kept going on my mission, and one seed was planted
by a really dear friend of mine, she wrote me telling me about how she was part of a choir that went around to
military bases and sang, and she told me about how many many people who
while serving in the the military came to believe in the restored gospel because their member service men preached them the gospel when
they were living pretty hard lives, and they got baptized
Now
all of you know that i love preaching the gospel, i see that as really
one of the biggest reasons of why i am here on the earth right now, and
i am going to tell you probably one of the biggest fears i have (had). I
have been terrified of the idea, that one day i am going to end my
mission, and am going to lose all of the spiritual progress that i have
made, all of the desire that i have gained to preach the gospel, and i
will just turn into ´´Just like everyone else´´
I know all return missionaries say that they are going to get home and leave with the missionaries all the time, and they are going to give the missionaries a
million references and what not, and then do..for about a month, and then
when schooling and jobs, and girls come back into the picture they fall
into a state that is just slightly less iniquitous than how they were
before the mission, and they lose an incredible amount of who they just
were a few months earlier.
And i am terrified of that. I have seen in
happen so many times, before the mission, during the mission, have had
friends write me, that shows that its happened to them, and i am
positive that i am going to see it after the mission to. And i will not
let that happen to me.
And i see joining the
Air Force as one of the few things that can keep me on a higher plane of
thought, of being, and a greater chance of sharing the gospel than the
so common ´´Flirt to convert´´ that most idiot return missionaries do. And i could explain why the air force but that part of my thought process is not as important.
But
summing it up, that is why i want to join the Air Force after my mission, to do my duty to my country (and my God at the same time) To
continue with my spiritual progress, and last but not least to preach
the gospel to souls that are probably more spiritually distraught than
most.
Im still planning on Entering MCC on the
12th, and i will wait at least as semester before enlisting. And i have
alot of things written down in a notebook about what i want to
investigate about it before i make any serious choice. But i would really
like to hear your feed back.
Welp thats my
secret...both of them. I think my only other secret is i think i might
be addicted to oreos hahahaha Just kidding, but dang it is so hard to
only eat one.
Welps i have to go now. But i love you all. Keep me posted with how you are all doing
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