February 1, 2015

 

 

This week would have been just great if I hadn't gotten a bad cold in the middle of it. :( I'm almost perfectly normal now, but it was unfortunate. It didn't stop us from teaching though!! First of all, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, Maureen wants to come back to church!!! She said she's noticed a huge difference in her life since she stopped coming! She also wants to be baptized! The reason she didn't want to come anymore was because she felt like the members were too good for her. But now she's going to come! The bad news is that it took some pretty big measures for her to confess her desire to return. She was attacked and assaulted. Her good friend, Brother Mackay, gave her a blessing and she expressed her desire to return. So she wasn't able to come this Sunday because her ribs still hurt like crazy. But hopefully next Sunday!

As for Rieley, he's doing fine. He's a typical 13 year old. Any time we ask him a question, no matter the question, he says "Ummmm... I don't know..." It's a bit frustrating. We weren't able to get him to commit to a baptism date, but we're going over tonight for Family Home Evening! 

Barry is okay. He can't stay focused, that's the problem. But we left him with a Restoration DVD, so we'll just talk about it with him next time we see him. 

Is there anything I can pray for, for anyone in the family? I'd love to get requests haha Oh and I got Mom's two letters today! The one with the Family History and the one with the Seminary quotes. So Brielle and Ros are talking!! That's so cool!!

Last night Elder Wells and I were preparing for FHE today. He's got this game he wants to play. I don't know what it is, he won't tell me, but it requires a lot of pictures! If it's good, I'll tell you about it next week. He was actually looking for a specific picture of Jesus Christ with everyone around him. We tried everything, but we didn't find it.  Do you know the one I'm talking about? If you could email me it, I'd appreciate it. If this game is good, we'll be using it with other members, so that would be awesome. Thanks!

I'm glad everyone's doing well! Thanks for the picture of Marie and Jeff at the Temple! That was really great!

The last missionary here had a coupon for SuperDry, this Japanese store that sells some pretty nice jackets. So I bought one last week! It's not as nice as I'd hoped, but it should last me for the rest of my mission! And my gloves and scarf's are absolutely fine! So don't worry about me! Just pray that we can have a ton of investigators, and then we'll be inside all day long!! Haha :)

I like what you said about missionaries coming home exhausted! Every time I think about getting off that plane when I go home, I can't help comparing it to death. Think about it! Like, when you die, your soul gets on a plane to the spirit world. And if you did everything right, you'll stumble off that plane, exhausted. But then before you collapse, someone will catch you. And when they do, they'll say with tears in their eyes "Well done, my son. Welcome home." I always have that picture in my head every time I think about coming home. I like it. I don't know if it's true, but I like it. The days are like weeks and the weeks are like days. January went by like that *finger snap*!! I was talking with Elder Jamieson (he's in my group) earlier, and we were both like "I can't believe it's been 7 months already!!" So yeah, missions are swift for the missionary!

Satan is good at what he does! He's clever. Any time I have just a moment of weakness, just a moment of letting my guard down, BOOM! Satan's good. But the trick is to be better! :)

As for the Superbowl, Aw, dang it! We were so close!! Gah. Oh well! Next year! I hope Jeff and Kate had a good time with you guys! They were probably the life of the party sine they're used to being up in the middle of the night!

Thanks for the scriptures and the advice about church, Mom. I'll do that. Thank you for the reminder! You're sweet, awesome and powerful, Mom!  Dad, I like that quote you sent, too! Don't do all you can do, do the best of all you can do! That doesn't just mean do all you can do, but do those things that are best! Don't waste your time on random things that don't matter anyways. I like it, thanks! :)  How's being in the Stake Presidency? Sounds like you've got a lot of stuff on your plate! I have no idea how you even have time to think! I love you Dad and admire you greatly! You're such an example to me! Keep being awesome!

I love you all so much! Say hi to everyone back home for me!! Thanks for the scriptures and the love! And especially the family history! I'm looking forward to devouring that letter! :)

Love,

Elder Bates