Feb 10th Letter

Queridisima familia,

Thank you for everything and your great understanding. I am sorry about last week and writing on the tuesday again. I am truly blessed to have the family I do. 

I am truly sorry about the passing of Jocelyn and the great sadness that has come upon the Lonsdale family. If you could send me their mailing address (we found out we are allowed to write people other than family as of a few weeks ago), just to write a little note or something. Siento con todo mi corazon que esto haya pasado. Espero que todos puedan tener el consuelo del Senor, y su gran misericordia. I have studied with depth in prayer and in my reading of the great mercy of the Lord. While in this life we may believe that nothing is certain, that we are not significant and that for some reason the most faithful receive the hardest and most arduous of trials, all is truly made whole through Jesus Christ and his great love. I believe the most faithful are the ones who face the hardest trials, as they are being prepared for even greater, while it may not seem so, and that there is purpose to what we do. Please comfort those in need of comfort. There is no greater work than to bless the lives of others. Do not feel as though prayers have not been answered, rather remember that ¨all thine afflictions are but a passing moment¨. I know that you will all be fine, and all else that passes will pass. Thank you for all your words and thoughts and prayers. Remember I am with you. I shared about our family in a meeting with my convert about Gon gon, and that he continues watching me, and for once in my life I understand him pefectly.

Sorry I cant send photos again. This computer doesnt work perfectly, like most machines I usually operate. Sorry about saying sorry, I suppose it sort of annoys my american compadres a little. The oregano oil works wonders like making my mouth burn for 15 seconds until I can drink something and also burns my acne if I put it on it (ten minutes of a knife in my face). We are having a good time out here and have had some great experiences with la gente. I hope it is the same with you.

So this week we faced disappointment with some again. But I really have learned that the reason they dont come to church or read or whatever it is that they do is only because they havent received the Spirit yet or are not willing to follow, and our job is to keep working with that. I dont suppose I will ever just walk into baptisms (as nice as that would be) like some people seem to do, and I wont be baptizing ¨minimum church attendance¨ either. I suppose I have really learned that a convert needs to be a convert and not just a ¨requirement meeter¨, that is not sufficient to truly be a part of God´s kingdom. We shall never meet his standard of perfection, but we better be progressing towards it everyday. I learned a great deal about the responsibility of having the gospel, and that if we do not magnify all that we do for the Lord, then we are accountable. I feel we should embrace such accountability, rather than shun it, and use that great responsiblity to effect great miracles. I suppose many times I have felt like Nefi in Helaman felt, discouraged as he returned to his house that the people still remained apart from the Lord and we as missionaries once again remained the only ones with the Lord. But always I receive something, some light that sparks. To be honest, many of those sparks have died at times, but that does not bother me. The sparks that have become flames are what I see. There is no point in looking into the darkness, you will see nothing and probably something will come out and eat you. So we should look at the light, where we can see. The Lord has granted us some success, a promising family, cousins of our ward mission leader, who are now living with him until they move (which we hope is never), but Im not sure I have ever seen such interest in a set of new investigators. I hope they truly progress, and that a family can enter the kingdom in this part for the first time in quite a while. Unfortunately, their work schedule is very unfavourable, so it might be difficult, but it will happen if the ward mission leader helps us out a lot. Our other investigators have stagnated in certain aspects, but we are going to work with them to progress, as the purpose of the gospel is progression! We hope to receive more references and are making efforts to receive them. Hopefully you guys are finding references or something. We have found the best work in partial families for sure. There is something about completing the family that brings people in.

Otherwise life has been pretty normal. Walking is still a little limited, but its fine. I sang a song in church for sacrament meeting (one in which Elder Diaz had a confirmation of two investigators). I sang ¨Homeward Bound¨ using the words from Joseph´s Smiths First Prayer. Apparently it was really good and people cried and it brought the Spirit. It was great to sing and have the Mercado family help out so much. The baptism of Elder Diaz´s investigator was REALLY special with the meeting, the actual baptism going so well and everything. The ward has really pulled together a lot more and has more zest for the work now. Hopefully this continues, and we can keep our zest for the work too.

Thank you for everything my great and wonderful family. That the Lord accompanies you in everything, and you never feel of great saddness, rather endless joy.

Con amor y mi corazon,

Elder Sullivan

PS I love you all!