"Hey Family
This week was great, just like all of them! Elder Tello and I have now been companions for a month. We continue to work hard and feel that the Lord is pleased with what we are doing in Las Brisas.
Pretty much all of the progressing investigators we had fell through this week... A couple we haven't been able to find, a couple who didn't want to come to church, and a couple who told us they just didn't want to listen anymore. It has been a little discouraging, but the funny thing is I'm not discouraged. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement-- discouragement has a germ of its own." Thanks Mom, for the quote, by the way. Sometimes the amount of work we do and how obedient we are isn't directly proportional to the amount of visible success we enjoy. However, I am finding a lot of joy in the little things that really matter... As President Chipman said in the last zone conference, the most important success we find is in the things we cannot measure.
Shirley and Jhon came to church with us yesterday with their four year old daughter, Karoline... I'm pretty sure I wrote about them. Earlier in the week we were able to have a really good lesson with them about the Plan of Salvation... I was able to feel God's love and forgiveness as I spoke about the Atonement, and I know they could feel it too. It looked like they had a good time in church yesterday, although Jhon got a little confused in Principles of the Gospel... The lesson was on repentance and the teacher ended up talking about the three kingdoms and baptisms for the dead. Ha ha but it was all good.
We were able to visit with Hyrum this morning... He is a 17 year old "oveja descarriada" according to his grandpa (lost sheep). He comes from a family of members and is going through a lot of very big struggles right now. He told his mom he was going to internet for and hour and didn't come home for a couple days. Apparently this happens a lot. She is really worried for him, because she doesn't know what he could be doing... I would be too. (Mom... I really wasn't that bad of a kid.) I sure hope we can help him, because he still has a tiny desire to maybe go on a mission (a very good sign). We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon every day this week. He said he would.
I love you all lots. I'm going to try to send a voice note this next week, because I really want to write everyone back individually. I seriously LOVED the talk that Mom sent me by Jeffrey R. Holland. There's a cool quote that says: "You can change anything you want to change, and you can do it very fast. That's another satanic suckerpunch-- That it takes years and years and eons of eternity to repent. It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you to say 'I'll change'-- And mean it." He goes on to talk about how although restitutions must be made and suffering must be endured, our own repentance process can be as instantaneous as that of Alma-- who went from being one of "the vilest of sinners" to becoming one of the most powerful prophets of the history of this world. I love the principle of repentance; what it has meant to me in my life and what it means to all children of God who make the decision to follow His Son." --Elder Bassett
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