So this is what I said to him:
REX! I love you so much! I hope you're having a good week! I love that you made that Commitment to keep a journal! That is awesome!!! Study journals are the best too! I'm glad you have one of those too! I found a scripture that I wanted to share with you! IT'S ABOUT US!!!! Alma 17: 12-13 STOP AND READ IT NOW BEFORE YOU READ THE REST OF THIS!!! That is what we are doing Rex! We are only separated from each other and the other people we love because we know that the work we are doing, this season of harvest, is GREAT. And it is only a season. This month I will have been on my mission for a year and it feels like I blinked. There are a lot of things that I still need to change about myself and there's a lot that I need to work on. Start your mission off right - become a consecrated missionary. There is a talk by Elder Callister called Becoming a Consecrated Missionary. It was a devotional talk at the Provo MTC so I don't know if you'll have access to that. But if you can get it GET IT! I will try to send you a copy of it. I also sent some talks home to mom to send to you. One of them is called "The Fourth Missionary" Which I wish I would have had when I first started my mission - it is incredible and helps you have a vision of the missionary that you want to become. So when you get them READ THEM DILLIGENTLY OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Rex I love you so much and I am so proud of all that you have accomplished. You are incredible and I know that our Heavenly Father is so proud of you. I asked Mom to send me her patriarchal blessing to read and in it it talks about how she will have elect spirits for children. Rex I know that you are an elect Son of God and that He has called you to His work.
Keep up the great work Rex! Don't forget that if life was hard for our perfect Elder Brother, it's not going to be easy for us either. But He will be there to help us every step of the way.
LOVE YOU!!!!
And this was his reply:
Rachy B!!!!! You are the literal best!!! I miss you so much and you just have the best spirit!! You're totally right this is only for a season. And we will be together at the Burg again faster than I'll know it. It is so crazy to think that I've already been out for two fast Sundays. And that I gave my testimony in Portuguese this past week. And carzier still to think that you've been out for a YEAR!!!!! Oh my goodness Rachel time has seriously flown by!!! I want you to read Alma 26!!! Verses 11, 12, 14, 16, and finally 36!!! This is our work!! And this will be our joy!!! To help others to come unto Christ!! I know this is the true church and that we are supposed to be here. I forget the title to the talk but its by Elder Holland. He talks about how the mission wasn't supposed to be easy because the salvation of man was not a cheap experience. And that when our missions are difficult that we are standing shoulder to shoulder with Cristo. This is going to be amazing and I can't wait to see you again. But not before our work is done in our mission and we are released as missionaries. I don't want to wait for that time but I do at the same time!!!!! Love you Big Sis!!! You are the best!! Pray for Sarah this week. She really needs it.
So he sounds like he's doing good! I'm excited for him to get out into the field! I need his address for his mission. I don't know if everyone's preparation day is Monday across the world, you'll have to check, some missions do it on a different day.
I am so excited for Keith and the Chapman's! That is so awesome! they are the best family! I hope Emma makes it out to BYU-I with me. I have some companions that have heard all about her and they want her to be our roommate. So she needs to get on that application! Yes, there is stuff you can do to help me get set up with that. I need to get my FAFSA filled out and I can't do that so if you could that would be fantastic. and then you might have to sign me up for classes come June or something. Find out when registration is for Fall 2014 on BYUI.edu and let me know if it's June or July because if it's July I might be able to wait till I get home... We'll see....
This has been a really good week! So our new investigator, Jim, IS GOLDEN!!!! He is so incredible! He's about to set a baptismal date - we're super excited about it.
Sis. Lemmon left. GUESS WHERE SHE WENT!!!! MASSILLON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Y.E.S.!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited for her! She gets to go to my home away from home!!! I couldn't believe it! I am so happy. She is going to love it and will be so well taken care of out there.
So my new companion is Sis. Bakker (pronounced bawker). At first I was a little nervous. We have met before and I didn't always get good vibes, she's kind of in your face. But I am really excited now. She is a super hard worker and knows what her purpose is. She's what the branch needs. She's great and I think this transfer is going to be great! It's already been a lot of fun and we get along pretty well. We both have pretty strong personalities, as long as we both just go with the flow I think we'll be alright. ha!
The weather has been terrible so the Felver's didn't come to church yesterday, but they will. It's going to happen - no doubts in my mind. They delayed church 2 hours, so we had it at noon, and they only had Sacrament meeting. So we didn't really get to do much. But it was a really good day.
We have some pretty awesome potential investigators that we have appointments with this week that I'm pretty excited about. One is this lady, Annette. she's the accountant for the food pantry we do service at every week. She seems awesome and really likes how at 21 we have our "heads on straight" is what she said. She has a 22 and 25 year old daughter and she wants to have us over for dinner to meet them both and share with them why we're like this. haha! She seems great! So we'll see what happens.
Tomorrow is Zone Conference and I'm pretty excited about it. I love getting to see other missionaries and Pres. and Sis. Vellinga! It's going to be great! And then we have an appointment tonight with Jim. and we have some other great appointments set up for this week. It's going to be a wonderful week!!!!
I love being a missionary. I love having a companion who isn't brand new and knows what's going on. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE TRAINING! But it's nice to get a break. It's already been wonderful. Sis. Bakker is such a blessing.
Hopefully this week is good for you guys and everyone stays healthy or gets healthy and everyone's happy!
I love and miss you all!!!!!
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