Tuesday, July 12, 2016

better than what I expected

heyy hows it going,  this email it is probably the last one I will write in the mission. but yeah this has been a good last week for me, already gave my last talk in Church now we are mostly preparing to go. today is pday tomorrow ill be finishing things up and then well finish things up in the office and in asuncion on Wednesday and then ill be on a πŸ›© and then ill see yall soon. but yeah the end of my mission has been good so far, didnt really expect it to be quite like this but I think it is better than what I expected so thats good. πŸ‘
yeah i had a interview with President E today, he is the new one, he is really cool, and it was interesting for me in the interview how i have seen that my testimony has grown a lot. also i sort of noticed that i have found a lot of good friends here in the mission, i feel pretty blessed for that aswell. πŸ™‚☺
i am glad i will be able to go see you guys again, it will be fun to see what kind of new things you all have going on love you and see you soon 

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people;

that is cool about Beccas rash thing that she could get better for at least now hopefully later too, she told me in one of her letters about it, she was very optimistic about it. one of addis letters was really nice, that reminds me in Church this week we listened to the primary sing a song, it is really cool to see them sing and in Sacrament meeting a whole bunch of them went up to give their testimony. and i am not kidding they were really cool simple testimonies, it was really interesting, so thats a good memory for me. yeah and so i am running low on time but ill see yall soon enough right love ya chow
well sounds like you guys have some fun stuff going on, that is cool that you got sustained, does that mean you will be teaching Melissa now? i remember it was fun when i was in your class with mike. one thing that i usually try to do to have the Spirit strong when i teach is i first of course try to prepare, i have to ask for help. I have had some times where the Spirit has given me a topic to focus on, those times almost always have turned out pretty good but sometimes where hard for me because i wasnt sure how it would turn out. I had to have faith that things would work out. one big part of preparing the lesson is that it makes it so i am not nervous. I think the Spirit is more easily heard when you are prepared,  you feel like you did your part and are ready to recieve guidance and dont necessarily have to use the things you prepared. 
Another thing that has helped me have the Spirit in my teaching is just listening to the people when they talk and trying to open things more up to discussion.  if you just nod your head and move on most the time people wont care or wont say anything but if you want people to participate a ton tell them that by the way you listen and try and build on what they say a little bit so that they feel like their comment is important. I remember in the class you taught when I was like fourteen or so you where pretty good at that and you tried to find ways to help us participate. that stuff is pretty cool, so yeah i think that, listening, is really important and is all part of loving the people. I was looking at this one new book from the Church on how to teach and the first thing was ``loving those you teach`` which only makes sense. I like that one part of the Bible when that guys asks Jesus ``what is the great commandment`` or something like that  and He responds number one and too, love the Lord and your fellow man. and all the law is based on that. I like how that can be the base of teaching it only makes sense, it seems to me like one of the only righteous motives to teach. It doesnt matter how much you know, and mabye it doesnt matter how much you teach if you dont have charity. if you dont have charity your nothing. so yeah with that just them recieving the message from your heart, I mean if you are really sincire then I think that helps a lot. ``for when man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.`` 2ne33. 

i dont know i hope that helped a little, that is cool that Jared will get his endowments in the temple when I get back, I am excited for that. I love the temple, it s soo cool.

speaking of, i had a dream that i was in a gang two nights back, it was really funny, it reminded me of the opening scence on batman two, where a bunch or robbers come and rob a bank in masks but in my dream we were  missionaries not clowns. it was a pretty weird dream, almost kind of dark. but yeah i dont recomend batman 2 its pretty dark as well πŸ€” and yeah in my dream i remeber there was a part where i grabbed someones backpack without them looking and then threw it over a wall,
and i also had a dream where i was eating at the table with you guys too, it was kind of trunky but also scary, at the end someone asked me a question, and i said no if i do that then i will wake up and it will be a dream, and then i woke up it was really weird. πŸ˜³
speaking of wierd, we had a zone confrence, it was my last one and the last one of our president, he will be finishing the mission here in july as well so we are the group that leaves with President McMullin. so my last interview will be with some other new president but I am sure it will be good all the same. and in the confrence this time he mostly just told us cool stories. i feel like we all got to know him a lot better and it was a little bit interesting to see him as a Dad. I think it made us all apreciate what he does  a little more but one of the interesting things he told us is that there were a lot of cool miraculos stories that he had seen from his time in the mission. also he explained to us how it is to get called as a mission president, i guess it is kind of cool, they have someone in the first presidency call you and interview you and set you apart and all that, he said there is a plane on President Uctdorfs desk and a statue of two missionaries on bikes and a bunch of other stuff like thatπŸ€“. then he said that they all go to the provo mtc, them and bunch of other mission presidents and there are no missionaries there, it is just them and the first presidency, well at least all of the first presidency that isnt feeling sick. and they get capicitated on everything. 
he also explainded some interesting stuff about his family, like what happened to them while they went to Paraguay and all that. it was interesting stuff. 
o yeah and i got the pin you guys sent me and the letters that went with it, i like the pin it looks like there used to be horns on top of its head, also the mission gave us a pin that says preach my Gospel its pretty cool ill have to show it to you guys. 

and yeah some interesting things have happened this week, i can definetly say i am seeing miricales, things i think are amazing. 
and yeah all is well, one cool thing i have been realizing is how the Lord has helped me say the things i want to say
Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;
 For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.
 But a commandment I give unto you, that ye shall declare whatsoever thing ye declare in my name, in solemnity of heart, in the spirit of meekness, in all things.

but yeah i really like that scripture and the principle, i feel like when i apply that, all goes well and i some times find my self saying things that are beyond me, i think sometimes the Spirit can calm and clarify things you never really understoud while you are talking.