email dated 12/30/08
So even though our Pday is on Thursday, we need to write today because on Thursday all the Cybers will be closed and the bussing isn’t going to go either. Also, because we are such pretty American boys they want us to avoid going outside on new years because there is a great deal of alcohol consumed and that combined with common anti-American sentiments isn’t a good thing. So I am writing today. It wont be much but I do have the chance to throw you all a quick line.
Christmas came and went. It was good because I got a package from home and I got to call home. It was sad because it didn’t really feel like Christmas. It is 100 degrees and they celebrate differently here. Next time Christmas rolls around I will be rolling around on carpet underneath a Christmas Tree. Holidays are just more fun in your own house with your own family. Nothing against the mission, but I am glad this is my last Christmas away from home.
We had a baptism on Sunday. It has been a while since I have had a baptism. It was a baptism of an 11 year old girl named Caroline. In the process of her baptism her parents and grandma and Uncle and cousins have all come to church the last few weeks. Now let’s hope the ward recognizes the family that was missing and RETAINS them. We can’t retain all the members by ourselves and the ward here doesn’t seem to be making much effort. Hometeaching and Visiting teaching is even officially assigned to the missionaries for specific families and persons. Oh ward! Get it together! Missionary work is too stressful.
I have decided that what makes missionary work so hard is that you can’t control your results. In a way you can. You can control your personal development and growth, your studies, etc... but as far as what happens you have no power. Everyone has their agency. It isn’t like school where if you want a better grade you study harder. Sometimes you work your tail off and have nothing, or as is the case with this my latest baptism you had mono and worked half days for a few weeks and had a baptism. There is no method to the madness. The Lord does that on purpose so we don’t become proud I think.
I am still in Cerro, Montevideo. I have been in this area since August and won’t be out until at least February. I just feel like that is such a long time to be in the same area. But I have to be careful not to complain because I could easily stay another transfer after this and be here until about April.
I have found that if you don’t get in any doors for a full day you get really sunburnt, which is the case for me today. Yesterday was all contacts and knocks and fallen appointments until 7:00 at night. And since they took the Siesta from us, that means I was outside from 1 to 7 on my feet in the sun. I hope all those silly missionary sayings "the more you tract the prettier your wife will be" are true, because if so my wife is going to be drop dead gorgeous after yesterday. Or maybe she will be gorgeous on account of how attractive I have become from tanning in the Uruguay sun every day. Correlation does not prove cause and effect. We may never really know why my wife is so beautiful, we will only know that she is.
Anyway, say goodbye to 2008. It has come and gone. I wish you all the best and hope that you make good goals for the new year. Pick a few things you want to change or do different and do them. Don’t make too many goals because you will become overwhelmed and the goals will lose meaning. Make a few. Make em good. Do it. Love y’all!!
Andy
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
It is better to have found and lost than to never have found at all
email dated 12/8/08
Well... the work has gone better but my companion and I have both been sick. It is by divine placement that we are together. I really believe so. Because if we weren't together we would be wasting two companionship's time. We still have been going out and visiting our investigators. There are frustrations and investigators lost of late that have broken my heart. But you know what they say: it is better to have found and lost than to never have found at all. At least the seed is planted and I believe they will get baptized later. We have a baptism set up for this week that I hope doesn't fall through on us. It is an 11 year old girl and nobody can figure out why she never got baptized. Her whole family is member and the grandma takes the girl to church every week and the girl loves it. She is so cute. Her little sister is 9 and she goes to church every week too. That girl is very cute as well and she will be baptized a few weeks after her sister. Their grandmother is very insistent that these girls know everything about the gospel before they get baptized. Both of them know more than I did when i was baptized, but we respect the wishes of the grandma and their mother and so we will take a few weeks of careful preparation. In the meantime, we can see if that mom will get herself back to church. She needs to figure out what to do with her boyfriend though. He isn't very interested and she isn't very keen on the church scene because "everyone looks at her, ya know". But she is willing to go to the baptism. I think that a majority of the time, the people that feel judged are making it all up in their mind. They feel bad about what they did or are doing and they assume that everyone thinks less of them for it.
So it is Christmas in Uruguay!! I hope you all know what that means!! A year ago I was here for Christmas. And I am here for Christmas again. Ere go, this will be the very last Christmas I have to spend away from HOME!!! But I am not trunky.
Christmas in the Guay is very different. There are Christmas trees. But everything else seems different. It is so hot and the real celebration is the 24th, "la noche buena", when everybody blows up fireworks, drinks, and opens all the presents that Papa Noel would have brought had they all gone to sleep. I don't understand how their kids believe in Santa Claus here, but they still talk about that jolly old man. The fireworks are incredible. It is a show that wouldn't be legal in the United States. But there is no risk here, none of the houses are made of wood. Anyway, it literally seems like a war zone. Bombs bursting in the air, explosions for todos lados for 30 minutes... it is cool.
Mostly I am excited to call home. And get my Christmas package. Other than that, Christmas season on the mission is just not very special.
We did have our special Choir Performance, which turned out VERY WELL!!! We filled our stake center with over 800 people to hear it, and it was such a hit we are putting on the concert in Colonia this Saturday. Colonia is the richer part of the country where we don't have many baptisms. I really want to go there. The songs were very powerful and we are making a DVD so I will be able to mail one home soon and you all can see what a good choir it really was. It was fun. Some of the investigators that came left the concert resolved to get baptized. They weren't my investigators, but I thought that was a cool story.
I don't have much more to say as of right now. I hope that you are all well and that you are keeping your noses clean. Keep the Bumpus dogs away from our Christmas turkey and don't use soap boy on Luke's mouth if he swears...we wouldn't want him to get soap poisoning and go blind.
Take care!! Love yáll!!!
Andy
Well... the work has gone better but my companion and I have both been sick. It is by divine placement that we are together. I really believe so. Because if we weren't together we would be wasting two companionship's time. We still have been going out and visiting our investigators. There are frustrations and investigators lost of late that have broken my heart. But you know what they say: it is better to have found and lost than to never have found at all. At least the seed is planted and I believe they will get baptized later. We have a baptism set up for this week that I hope doesn't fall through on us. It is an 11 year old girl and nobody can figure out why she never got baptized. Her whole family is member and the grandma takes the girl to church every week and the girl loves it. She is so cute. Her little sister is 9 and she goes to church every week too. That girl is very cute as well and she will be baptized a few weeks after her sister. Their grandmother is very insistent that these girls know everything about the gospel before they get baptized. Both of them know more than I did when i was baptized, but we respect the wishes of the grandma and their mother and so we will take a few weeks of careful preparation. In the meantime, we can see if that mom will get herself back to church. She needs to figure out what to do with her boyfriend though. He isn't very interested and she isn't very keen on the church scene because "everyone looks at her, ya know". But she is willing to go to the baptism. I think that a majority of the time, the people that feel judged are making it all up in their mind. They feel bad about what they did or are doing and they assume that everyone thinks less of them for it.
So it is Christmas in Uruguay!! I hope you all know what that means!! A year ago I was here for Christmas. And I am here for Christmas again. Ere go, this will be the very last Christmas I have to spend away from HOME!!! But I am not trunky.
Christmas in the Guay is very different. There are Christmas trees. But everything else seems different. It is so hot and the real celebration is the 24th, "la noche buena", when everybody blows up fireworks, drinks, and opens all the presents that Papa Noel would have brought had they all gone to sleep. I don't understand how their kids believe in Santa Claus here, but they still talk about that jolly old man. The fireworks are incredible. It is a show that wouldn't be legal in the United States. But there is no risk here, none of the houses are made of wood. Anyway, it literally seems like a war zone. Bombs bursting in the air, explosions for todos lados for 30 minutes... it is cool.
Mostly I am excited to call home. And get my Christmas package. Other than that, Christmas season on the mission is just not very special.
We did have our special Choir Performance, which turned out VERY WELL!!! We filled our stake center with over 800 people to hear it, and it was such a hit we are putting on the concert in Colonia this Saturday. Colonia is the richer part of the country where we don't have many baptisms. I really want to go there. The songs were very powerful and we are making a DVD so I will be able to mail one home soon and you all can see what a good choir it really was. It was fun. Some of the investigators that came left the concert resolved to get baptized. They weren't my investigators, but I thought that was a cool story.
I don't have much more to say as of right now. I hope that you are all well and that you are keeping your noses clean. Keep the Bumpus dogs away from our Christmas turkey and don't use soap boy on Luke's mouth if he swears...we wouldn't want him to get soap poisoning and go blind.
Take care!! Love yáll!!!
Andy
So Complicated
email dated 11/25/08
This week is complicated because of interviews and because of our choir concert and because my companion and I have both been out sick. P-Day was yesterday but I only felt good enough to go out and do email for 30 minutes before feeling faint and wanting to go home. Being today P-Day for many other parts of the mission, I am justifying writing home today because a man in our ward suggested that we use the church computers in the family history center, right across the street from us, to do our emails.
So I won't have any good stories for this week because my companion and I couldn't go out after Tuesday of last week. It is lucky that we were both sick at the same time. It made it easy to rest because we didn't feel bad staying in knowing that the other had to stay in as well. I am starting to feel better, but my companion sounds and feels the same as a week ago. If this keeps up as I start feeling better we will have to do divisions all week so that I can go out and work. I prefer to work with my companion and not have to do divisions with members so I ask that you all pray for Elder Stevenson so that he can recover and we can resume work as usual.
Last week I wrote about a very sensitive matter. My main goal behind that was to inform you all that this hasn't been easy for me. You all know how I am politically and you all know that I am a devout Latter Day Saint. I felt torn. In this current situation it seemed that faith and politics were pulled into the same plane. That complicated things for me. It still isn't easy, but I stand by everything I said last week.
The Book of Mormon is true! Every other issue, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, pales in comparison. Because when I know that the Book of Mormon is true, I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that His church is on the earth today. Elder David A. Bednar of the Council of the Twelve came to the MTC while I was there. I remember his talk as if it were yesterday. He talked about the 13 Articles of Faith, and how every question or doubt our investigators may have we can take it back to the basic steps of the Articles of Faith. If our investigator asks "why didn't blacks get the priesthood until 1978.." they aren't asking about the priesthood. Their doubt is whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet. If they ask about polygamy, again the same thing. And now the personal application, if I ask about gay marriage, indeed a very difficult issue for me in our times, etc... My confusion very well may be whether or not it is appropriate for the church to get involved in the issue, but the doubt doesn't change. Did a 14 year old boy see God the Father and Jesus Christ 200 years ago? I don't understand everything. But I can have no doubt that the Book of Mormon is true. And I have no doubt about that book. And with that testimony I can face any difficult to understand topic, because whether or not the answer to the question is attainable in this life, I can rest assured that if I do as the Book of Mormon teaches me and as my Savior teaches me, the answer will be revealed unto me.
"There is nothing which is secret save it shall be revealed, there is no work of darkness save it shall be made manifest in the light, and there is nothing which is sealed upon the earth save it shall be loosed." (2 Nephi 30:17)
"Behold, great and marvelous are the works of the Lord. How unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of him. And it is impossible that man should find out all his ways. And no man knoweth of his ways save it be revealed unto him. Wherefore brethren, despise not the revelations of God." (Jacob 4:8)
"For behold he judgeth, and his judgment is just. and the infant perisheth not that dieth in his infancy, but men drink damnation to their own souls except they humble themselves and become as little children, and believe that salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ." (Mosiah 3:18)
"And now behold, my brethren, what natural man is there that knoweth these things? I say unto you, there is none that knoweth these things, save the penitent." (Alma 26:21)
"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true. And if ye shall ask with sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." (Moroni 10:4-5)
I have tried the Lord. I have read that book more times than I can count. I cannot deny the feelings and the impressions that come to me when I read it. My mind truly has been enlightened by the Spirit many times. I know that my feelings and my testimony are not as convincing on paper as a well written persuasive essay. Nor does my testimony obey the rules of intellectual discussion. I am aware that my testimony can be ridiculed as something indiscernible and blind, and placing too much trust in 12 old and imperfect men. But when I choose to be a member of the church and follow the counsel of the quorum of the 12 Apostles, that is not blind following. Because if I choose to follow them, it is only on account of the testimony that I personally attained through my study of the Holy Scriptures and their words today. I know that I do my best to choose the right. After so much inner battle wondering if my heart is really pure, I tell you today, my heart is pure in this. I did not come to these conclusions because of my friends or my family guided me through this. Rather, I arrived at these conclusions only after COUNTLESS hours of critical analysis, meditation, and sincere prayer.
I bear witness that the Book of Mormon is true. There is a power in that book that is indescribable. I bear witness because I have seen with my own eyes the lives of many persons changed in miraculous ways because of that book. It answers the questions of our souls, whatever they may be. It guides us to a path of good, tolerant, christian action if we abide by its teachings. But even more, it is better than a good book that helps us to be good neighbors and do good things. It contains the words to eternal life.
Remember Jesus with his disciples in the book of John chapter 6 when talking about the sacrament:"when they had heard this, they said this is a hard saying, who can hear it?...From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." (John 6:60, 66)"Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." (John 6: 67-68)
I doubted my faith and to some extent, I still don't know, considered going home. I read the Book of Mormon again. And I heard these words from the book of John spoken to my mind, as I finished the book of Alma. Where on Earth would I go? I don't want to just be in a good path. I want to be in the right path. I want the "words of eternal life."
I know the scriptures are true and that the Lord is aware of each and every one of us. Jesus Christ is His son and He did come to this Earth and pay the price for ALL of us. There is no other name given whereby mankind may be saved. "Everything that is unfair about life will be made right through the infinite Atonement of our Savior." (President Gordon B. Hinckley) I place my trust in Him and trust that if I sincerely try and do what is right, He won't let me falter too far. "ask and ye shall receive", "if any of ye lack wisdom, let him ask of God." That is what I did.
I pray this testimony is as humble as possible. We all have our doubts. We all face our "hard sayings to hear". Whether it be gay marriage or living prophets or a really bad bishop, we must face the difficult situation as did Peter of old and ask ourselves and the Lord Himself "Where would we go when He has the words of eternal life." It is more than good path. It is the correct path.
I love you all so much!!
Andy
This week is complicated because of interviews and because of our choir concert and because my companion and I have both been out sick. P-Day was yesterday but I only felt good enough to go out and do email for 30 minutes before feeling faint and wanting to go home. Being today P-Day for many other parts of the mission, I am justifying writing home today because a man in our ward suggested that we use the church computers in the family history center, right across the street from us, to do our emails.
So I won't have any good stories for this week because my companion and I couldn't go out after Tuesday of last week. It is lucky that we were both sick at the same time. It made it easy to rest because we didn't feel bad staying in knowing that the other had to stay in as well. I am starting to feel better, but my companion sounds and feels the same as a week ago. If this keeps up as I start feeling better we will have to do divisions all week so that I can go out and work. I prefer to work with my companion and not have to do divisions with members so I ask that you all pray for Elder Stevenson so that he can recover and we can resume work as usual.
Last week I wrote about a very sensitive matter. My main goal behind that was to inform you all that this hasn't been easy for me. You all know how I am politically and you all know that I am a devout Latter Day Saint. I felt torn. In this current situation it seemed that faith and politics were pulled into the same plane. That complicated things for me. It still isn't easy, but I stand by everything I said last week.
The Book of Mormon is true! Every other issue, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, pales in comparison. Because when I know that the Book of Mormon is true, I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that His church is on the earth today. Elder David A. Bednar of the Council of the Twelve came to the MTC while I was there. I remember his talk as if it were yesterday. He talked about the 13 Articles of Faith, and how every question or doubt our investigators may have we can take it back to the basic steps of the Articles of Faith. If our investigator asks "why didn't blacks get the priesthood until 1978.." they aren't asking about the priesthood. Their doubt is whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet. If they ask about polygamy, again the same thing. And now the personal application, if I ask about gay marriage, indeed a very difficult issue for me in our times, etc... My confusion very well may be whether or not it is appropriate for the church to get involved in the issue, but the doubt doesn't change. Did a 14 year old boy see God the Father and Jesus Christ 200 years ago? I don't understand everything. But I can have no doubt that the Book of Mormon is true. And I have no doubt about that book. And with that testimony I can face any difficult to understand topic, because whether or not the answer to the question is attainable in this life, I can rest assured that if I do as the Book of Mormon teaches me and as my Savior teaches me, the answer will be revealed unto me.
"There is nothing which is secret save it shall be revealed, there is no work of darkness save it shall be made manifest in the light, and there is nothing which is sealed upon the earth save it shall be loosed." (2 Nephi 30:17)
"Behold, great and marvelous are the works of the Lord. How unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of him. And it is impossible that man should find out all his ways. And no man knoweth of his ways save it be revealed unto him. Wherefore brethren, despise not the revelations of God." (Jacob 4:8)
"For behold he judgeth, and his judgment is just. and the infant perisheth not that dieth in his infancy, but men drink damnation to their own souls except they humble themselves and become as little children, and believe that salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ." (Mosiah 3:18)
"And now behold, my brethren, what natural man is there that knoweth these things? I say unto you, there is none that knoweth these things, save the penitent." (Alma 26:21)
"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true. And if ye shall ask with sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." (Moroni 10:4-5)
I have tried the Lord. I have read that book more times than I can count. I cannot deny the feelings and the impressions that come to me when I read it. My mind truly has been enlightened by the Spirit many times. I know that my feelings and my testimony are not as convincing on paper as a well written persuasive essay. Nor does my testimony obey the rules of intellectual discussion. I am aware that my testimony can be ridiculed as something indiscernible and blind, and placing too much trust in 12 old and imperfect men. But when I choose to be a member of the church and follow the counsel of the quorum of the 12 Apostles, that is not blind following. Because if I choose to follow them, it is only on account of the testimony that I personally attained through my study of the Holy Scriptures and their words today. I know that I do my best to choose the right. After so much inner battle wondering if my heart is really pure, I tell you today, my heart is pure in this. I did not come to these conclusions because of my friends or my family guided me through this. Rather, I arrived at these conclusions only after COUNTLESS hours of critical analysis, meditation, and sincere prayer.
I bear witness that the Book of Mormon is true. There is a power in that book that is indescribable. I bear witness because I have seen with my own eyes the lives of many persons changed in miraculous ways because of that book. It answers the questions of our souls, whatever they may be. It guides us to a path of good, tolerant, christian action if we abide by its teachings. But even more, it is better than a good book that helps us to be good neighbors and do good things. It contains the words to eternal life.
Remember Jesus with his disciples in the book of John chapter 6 when talking about the sacrament:"when they had heard this, they said this is a hard saying, who can hear it?...From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." (John 6:60, 66)"Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." (John 6: 67-68)
I doubted my faith and to some extent, I still don't know, considered going home. I read the Book of Mormon again. And I heard these words from the book of John spoken to my mind, as I finished the book of Alma. Where on Earth would I go? I don't want to just be in a good path. I want to be in the right path. I want the "words of eternal life."
I know the scriptures are true and that the Lord is aware of each and every one of us. Jesus Christ is His son and He did come to this Earth and pay the price for ALL of us. There is no other name given whereby mankind may be saved. "Everything that is unfair about life will be made right through the infinite Atonement of our Savior." (President Gordon B. Hinckley) I place my trust in Him and trust that if I sincerely try and do what is right, He won't let me falter too far. "ask and ye shall receive", "if any of ye lack wisdom, let him ask of God." That is what I did.
I pray this testimony is as humble as possible. We all have our doubts. We all face our "hard sayings to hear". Whether it be gay marriage or living prophets or a really bad bishop, we must face the difficult situation as did Peter of old and ask ourselves and the Lord Himself "Where would we go when He has the words of eternal life." It is more than good path. It is the correct path.
I love you all so much!!
Andy
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