HEY EVERYBODY!! :-D REPORTING LIVE FROM SOMEWHERE ASKING HOWZIT GOING?!?! :-D
Hey guys, How`re things? :-D I hope the best :-) Mom I think for the call I forgot to say Happy Mother`s Day so here goes, Happy Mother`s Day :-D That card was actually for your birthday but since you were thinking that it was for yesterday I was going to not say anything but my conscience got the better of me :-D
So hopefully things on the other side of the world are going good. The pictures are hilarious by the way dad and that looks like a super fun tea party but is Sophie the only one thats dressing up? :-D As for me, things here in Gorbea are going good. Our family (William, Maria Jose, and Isis) continue to go to church except that yesterday Maria had to leave after the sacrament to go and sell some things. She and William had made some wooden plaques (English?) for mother`s day on Saturday but they used some varnish that needed all of Saturday to dry and so they couldn`t sell them :-P So Maria had to go out and try to a couple of them yesterday and fortunately she was able to sell a few :-D William hinted that he and Maria had argued a little in the morning and its possible that he told her not to go out to sell the thingys on sunday. That topic never came up and I`m not going to ask :-D We went over yesterday to explain tithing because they had been asking questions about it and as well fasting. They want to do everything before we teach it :-D You will find people on your mission (Sam) like this family, and they really are a blessing. The rest will be an interesting combination of people who wish you were dead, have a desire to know about the church but perhaps not to the point to commit to anything, have family in the church, or simply like to have your company and no words :-D These are the people that we need to WORK with. We need to always remember that God loves them as much as everyone else even if they are honestly awful people :-D All of these people just need to know some thing that will turn them golden because if you really UNDERSTOOD that you gotta get baptized with proper authority to get to heaven, you`d do it in a second. Thats where we come in to explain :-D Its fun too if you got a sense of humor (sometimes a twisted sense of humor but regardless the ability to laugh in a difficult situation). Its hard somedays but they really are the best two years :-D
Thats it for me for the week. I wanted to share something that Pres Swenson shared the other day and its really cool. He got up in front of everybody and wrote two words down, Route and Destination. He then asked what is destination of our investigators. We were like ``BAPTISM, GOING TO CHURCH, MAKING COVENANTS WITH GOD`` and he was like and what happens after that and we were like `` There`s another lesson?``. Then he said that this is the destination of our investigators. ``The destination and greatest gift of God is eternal life and to get there we have the greatest gift in this world, the supreme gift of the Holy Ghost``. We were like `` MY EYES!!! HE`S TOO AWESOME!!!`` but seriously I at least was very surprised and very impressed. As well I was disappointed that I hadn`t had that in mind in my lessons. Every lesson is just the route, especially baptism. I laughed when I thought of this but baptism is really the beginning of the straight and narrow path not the the end not even close, so heads up, there`s more on the way :-D As well when your goal for your investigators is ETERNAL LIFE you`re going to have a little more focus and a heck of a lot more power and authority in your speech and in your lessons. The lessons aren`t for baptism, they`re for the second part, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and we have THAT gift so that we will eventually make it to the Celestial Kingdom. Gospel bomb. So that was what I learned this week :-D I wish everyone could go on missions and get this kind of information :-D
Thats it for me :-) For rills Sam, Read PMG and the Book of Mormon a lot before you go. I wish I did more. It will give you so much power when you ask people to read the Book of mormon because you`re doing it too :-) and knowing the lessons will help the spirit remind you of what you already know. For everyone one else . . .keep doing what you`re doing :-D So until the next, Mom Dad Sam, Meri Grace and Sophie I love you all and Be HaPPY
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell
p.s. I wanted to know if you guys could send me a good pair of spanish scriptures for this family to me. They don`t have a bible and they want to read everything. If you could, that`d be great :-D PEace