Howdy hey family and friends!
Thanks so much for all the emails I got this week! It was so great! I
got emails from aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, counsins, of
course my wonderful parents, etc. I always love getting so many
emails from my loved ones. I loved the pictures you sent me too!
Tyler´s nongirlfriend girlfriend looks a lot like Lacey in the pic
from the bbq place. Brad is a stinkin stud and Trina´s hair looks so
long in the pic from the show at the Hilton! Send me a copy of the GQ
magazine with Brad on the front cover as soon as it gets released!
Quick request: Dad, would you please send me my Line of Authority? I
could have sworn I brought it, but I can´t find it :( Thanks!
So I´m super pressed on time, but I wanted to share a few experiences
I had this week. It was a week of miracles! It started out rough when
I found out that my old investigator´s baby died during the C-section
operation on Monday, but we´ve done everything we can to help them--as
much as they allow anyways. But throughout the week I witnessed
several miracles and tender mercies of the Lord. We´ve been struggling
for about two months to find new people to teach, and finally after
much hard work, fervent prayers, and diligent obedience, we found a
few possibilities that we´ll follow up with next week. One of them was
a reference from another set of missionaries that met a member´s
friend while visiting a less active family. After many attempts to
find her this week, on Saturday we finally found her at home and had a
fantastic gospel discussion with her. As we discussed all the
spiritual experiences she´s had throughout her life, it dawned on me
how prepared she is. What a huge blessing. She even brought up the
Mormon´s blue book and told us she´d love to read it some day. We of
course whipped out a copy of the Book of Mormon, read the
introduction, and she understood the purpose of it--AKA, testify of
Jesus Christ and support the Bible. She was so excited when we offered
to give it to her as a gift! What a blessing. I felt like a true South
American missionary as we sat on a dirty cement block in front of her
humble shack and discussed the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I so
wish I had a picture of that wonderful experience.
We´ve also been working with a family of 5 for the past two months.
The mother and 3 children have told us they know the gospel is true
and want to get baptized, but they won´t do it until the dad supports
them--the problem is he won´t listen to us. But this week as we taught
the Plan of Salvation to the family, he stood in the doorway and
listened. He´s done it before for 3 or 4 mins at a time, but this time
his attention was caught. He even asked several questions and
participated in the lesson. He wouldn´t sit down to join us, but I
know he learned something that night. It was SSSSSSOOOOOOOO great!!!
How grateful I am for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the opportunity I
have to help people learn for themselves if the Church of Jesus Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is really true or just another
religion to choose. Obviously we missionaries are in all parts of the
world to teach and explain, but a person will never know for sure
until they read the Book of Mormon, ponder about it, and ask Heavenly
Father in sincere prayer if it is true. That´s the promise He has
given us. If it is true, He will tell you. But no one can receive that
answer until they fulfill their end of that deal. As a representative
of Jesus Christ, I testify that the Book of Mormon indeed is sacred
scripture written by ancient prophets called of God. A humble young
man during the 1800´s was then also called by God to translate the
ancient manuscript into English. Every person can know with certainty
whether it´s true or not by taking the time to read some of the book
and pray about it--it´s the physical evidence we offer that can be put
to the test. You can´t decide that a cake is gross until you try a
bit, just like you can´t know if the Book of Mormon is true or false
until you try it. I know that living the gospel principles found
within the book will improve your faith in Jesus Christ and thus
improve your life. I know it. If I didn´t know it with a certainty, I
wouldn´t be giving up two years of my life to testify about it. I
didn´t travel this far and endure this much to tell a lie.
Have a wonderful week! My love and prayers are sent your way!
Much love,
Elder Long :)
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