"YOU" MUST BE YOUR GREATEST CONVERT

I cant believe Cameron is home and that Caity is graduated! Things seem to be changing rapidly at home for the Good. That must have been a very sweet reunion with Cameron at the airport. I cant wait to see him again. Thank you for the fax number and I am wondering if it would work to email you the receipts or do they have to be scanned? In any case I think I will just fax them to you. I should be able to do it today but I am not sure. We had a great week this week. We taught the most lessons I have ever taught in a week. We taught 29 lessons this week 10 of which came from Tuesday alone. We have been teaching like crazy and I having been feeling the spirit more than I thought was possible! I cant even begin to describe the wonderful feeling that comes from feeling the spirit work through you and touch the lives of others. We have also started a Saturday movie night that has turned into a huge success. Last Saturday we had less actives and investigators there with the members and everyone had a great time :) We showed "How to train your Dragon" which is a great movie. we had one confirmation on Sunday and we have one baptism coming up this Sunday so the work is going very steady and good. Being on the Lords errand is one of the greatest experiences of my life and I know that mission is just the launching pad for bigger and greater things. I was able to speak with my mission President not to long ago and the topic of returning missionaries came up. We talked about how in many cases missionaries will abandon most, if not all, they had learned while serving the Lord. It was him who told me that serving a mission is but a mere launching pad upon which we should base our life choices off of. Yes we do a lot of good in serving others and bring salvation to those who otherwise would have fallen by the wayside but when all is said and done you must be your greatest convert. We must learn all we can to be able to take those things that we do learn with us throughout our lives both spiritual and temporal. I am learning things that are opening my mind to new possibilities and understanding of our Father in Heaven and His great Plan of Salvation for us. I am seeing things as I have never seen them before and I thank God everyday for this new understanding. I am so grateful to be here in South Africa at this time learning these lessons in the way my Father in Heaven would have me. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been Restored to the Earth by Christ's duly called and ordained prophet and that through him His Kingdom has once again been established upon the Earth with His teachings in beautiful simplicity. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the very Son of the very living God, and that He lives. How grateful I am to know this and to be able to share this message with the world for the rest of my life.

Thank you for all that you do for me. I just sent a letter in the mail this last week so it should be there by the end of this week or beginning of next week. Thank you for the birthday wishes, its gonna be weird being 20 but I guess it had to happen haha. Have a great week.

 

I LOVE MY NEW AREA

Sounds like things are going good at home though. It doesn't surprise me that Jordyn is in the top 10% of her class but that is awesome! I am sure Chad is getting to be a giant now, it will be weird to see him when I get back. He will probably be able to beat me up by then haha (not likely). You are now a ward missionary! That is so cool! I used to not understand how that calling completely worked but now I realize how important that calling really is now. If I could give you one piece of advise it would be to get a "Preach My Gospel" manual and study the lessons in Chapter three. There are five lessons that we teach as missionaries and in that chapter is everything we need to teach to prepare people for baptism and enduring to the end. Once you know all those lessons you will be a powerful missionary for the ward and a great asset to the Sisters. The Bishop of our ward just yesterday asked us to start a Preach My Gospel class for all the ward missionaries and my companions and I are very excited to start teaching it. I am in a threesome right now and it is a blast! Elder Ray and I are already great friends and are working are tails off. The area I am at was just combined from being two areas so President is seeing if there is enough work to keep one or two sets of missionaries there. It is called Protia Glen and it is a massive township. We have about 20 lessons already scheduled for this week and we need to plan about 20 more so that week can see everyone. We also have a lot of less actives. There are about 150 or a little more at church every Sunday but the ward has 700 members so we have our work cut out for us and I love a good challenge. We have two baptisms scheduled for this Sunday and they are every excited to be baptized.
I love my new area and I love my new companions. Working is the best way to stay focused and concentrated on the work. The Lord is truly pouring out His tender mercies upon us. This work that we both are engaged in is true and Christ is at the Lead. He calls those that are prepared and that are able to help His children to return to Him and our Father in Heaven The Church is true but even more importantly the Restored Gospel is true and is the only way back to our Heavenly Father and we have it :) Oh the joy that fills my soul that I am on the path of redemption and that we have the great opportunity to be together forever in eternal happiness. Love you mom, have a great week and know that I am well and doing what is required of me and am having a blast doing it.