Hi Elder Nicholas Dees.
5/8/12 Tuesday
This is mom.
How are you doing?
Your spoke of teaching a lot of discussions and that’s nice to
hear. Many will accept the message
and many will not. I suppose it
was the same in the time that Christ walked the earth, even with him among the
people many still denied him. I
pray you are studying to know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and if you
believe they are real, because only then can it change our actions, goals, etc. Do you read the Book of Mormon and Bible? I need to finish the Old
Testament. I don’t fully
understand all of it but I do receive the witness of the Holy Ghost sometimes,
testifying of the truths I read but unless I read I can’t receive that witness. Anyway, I hope you are studying.
I don’t know what it is that you are wanting to
tell us. I had fasted for you this
past Fast Sunday. I hope it is
good news but with your hesitancy to readily tell us I must say I am worried. Is the mission a
blessing in your life?
I receive Elder Bennett Maxwell’s emails via
Brittney and I was thinking you might enjoy this past email. I hope you will read it. He seems to be
doing good as a missionary.
Email of Elder Bennett
Maxwell: 5/7/12
MISSION LIFE
This week was so awesome and flew
by. I got my travel plans Saturday and I am really leaving Tuesday the 22.
Meaning I get Monday for a pday then we all spend another night at the mission
home which I am way excited for. I have gotten pretty close to the mission
President because I am so close to him and see him almost weekly. My flight
leaves to Salt Lake City at 8:10 and arrives at like 10. Then I leave to San
Diego at 11:10 and arrive at 12 pm their time. Then I guess I will just drive
across the boarder and finally be in Mexico!!!!! I have been writing my friend
who is in Tijuana mission and he said he doesn't speak any English. haha I am
so stoked but at the same time a little sad to be leaving. Being a missionary
here is seriously awesome and we see the funniest/craziest stuff daily. haha
MIRACLE STORY
First off our baptism last week
got moved to this week because of family issues meaning this week we have 3
baptisms!!!! I have been so lucky to see so much success in the short time I
have been out here. All three of them have been coming to church and are way
solid. One has 3 little girls who are way cool. Yesterday was obviously
testimony meeting and I sat by them and told the oldest (who is 6) to go bear
her testimony and she did! She has only been to church a few times and already
had the faith and courage to bear her testimony! She ended up going up there
and saying a few words then coming back to me crying but hey, she tried! ha
After I realized that I didn't
bear my testimony and that would be my last time to do it in English so I was
pretty disappointed in myself. But last night we had a recent convert fireside
where recent converts bear their testimonies and it was so awesome! And at the
end I was one of the 4 out of like 50 missionaries to bear my testimony which I
am so grateful and even more surprised that the Lord let me go up and redeem
myself.
So all that is cool and I
consider them to be miracles but the biggest miracles come from the converts.
First off, our convert who was baptized a month ago spoke and did awesome and
on Saturday I got to go up with him to the temple and do baptisms for the dead
and I was the one who baptized him! It was so cool! There was another convert
who went to school for 4 years and graduated to be a Baptist minister then went
to Salt Lake, was handed a Book of Mormon, completely converted and is now
baptized. He threw away everything for the other church! Him joining the church
means that he lost his career and is now working construction after completing
college. Only the true church can have such drastic changes on people. It's
such a miracle to see the faith that people have who are so new to the church
and the gospel.
SPIRITUAL THOUGHT
The stripling warriors are
seriously so cool to read about. We all know the success they had but there are
several things they did in order to be successful. I just want to quickly talk
about one of those things and it's found in the 21st verse of Alma chapter 57
it says "yea, and they did obey and observe to preform every word of
command with EXACTNESS; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto
them" I don't know about you but exactness to me doesn't leave much room
to mess around to say the least. ha Anyone who has served a mission knows that
their is a huge emphasis on exact obedience but it applies to everything in life.
"and when we obtain any blessings from God, it is by obedience to that law
upon which it is predicated" D&C 130:21 The only way to be completely
victorious like the stripling warriors is to obey with exactness.
It's after obedience that we see the miracle of all their lives being saved. I
really believe that the miracles I see daily come from my obedience.
CHALLENGE
Since the last transfer (3 weeks
ago) me and my companion have tried hard to "tune up" our obedience.
It was small things that we struggled with like listening to a Spanish CD that
wasn't approved (even though we couldn't understand it anyway) ha and me having
to stand behind the car every time he backs up. It's little things like these
that made us go from one baptism last transfer to 3 this transfer. Even though
we may think the commandments are stupid and they don't all apply to us, they
do. I hope we can all find those small rules that don't seem to have a point
and obey them anyway. I promise that as we do that we will see the blessings.
God gives us commandments so he can bless us.
Well familia y amigos. I am
loving life and growing daily. I hope all is well back home and if you're super
bored, I guess I wouldn't mind if you sent me a letter every few weeks... haha
if not that's fine too because I will be calling home Sunday at like 1ish but
maybe not until like 3. but Have skype ready so we can chat it up! My whole
family better be at my house so I can see their ugly faces! :) haha
Love Elder Maxwell
I
love that you are serving. Do it
well. No regrets in the next 16
months ahead! You will be proud to
have served and served well.
We
pray for your safety, health and strength and testimony on a daily basis.
Looking
forward to seeing or hearing from you on Sunday. We have church from 10-1. So that’s 11-2 your time. Of course it will take us sometime to get home but we look
forward to it ---- if you even want to call me/us. I will not say anything negative. I can’t function like that anymore.
I
love you, I pray for you, I long
for your success as a missionary, young man and hopefully someday a family man.
Love
mom.
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