Nov 24 2014

Hey!

Im glad that the beginning of the whole christmas thing is going really well (It always starts too soon). Keep on singing, we sing lots here too (every lesson in fact) and pretty soon it will all be just christmas hymns (well, at least they are the better hymns). Good luck with all those performances (and how did the school play go?). I hope the Christmas is wonderful and always remains focused on the Saviour and the great love we must have for all people. The church has some new initiative coming up, you guys will probably hear about it on the internet, it means more work for us out here haha.

Thanks for the help with the university stuff, I have been considering somewhat going to university with Dallin (I wrote him about it) although we both sometimes think about BYU, haha, but I guess we could always transfer. Let me know if you need any help with that.

Well this week was pretty cool. We are working really hard right now with the members in the ward, leaving with them to appointments everyday and trying to get references, and so far it has really been paying off with lots of new potential and some successes. Cruz Maria is still set to be baptized in december, and we are really excited as she has some good friends now amongst the members, particularly a neighbour and is also reading the book of mormon and continuing to truly develop in the gospel. Its an exciting thing! Shes way too punctual, keeps on showing up early to stuff and leaving her friend behind instead of going to church together haha. She appreciates our new punctuality, since Elder Reed is a lot better about that and wears a watch and stuff. Our other investigators are pretty cool too, we found a partial family of a less active which could be pretty cool and lots of interesting people. We taught this one family where they had read the entire pamphlet, really liked it, and really wanted a book of mormon, so much that the daughter almost ripped it out of my hands while I was explaining it saying ¨give me my book!¨ haha. A good find there. We even convinced a fairly stick in the mud investigator to read the book of mormon and the pamphlet at the same time but she has yet to come to church. This guy named Levitic is a haitian learning spanish and kind of a reference but not really but anyway hes really cool and has these really weird questions and its always hard to tell if we really answered him because he doesnt understand fully or always respond correctly and has to take a lot of time to prepare his answers haha. His questions are a lot about why are there so many religions if there really is only one God, and we are currently trying to teach him why. He questions faith because of all teh differerences, so this could be a good chance for him to find it all out! He keeps on saying a bunch of french words sometimes and is funny, everytime we teach something and he has a questions he says ¨Espera, pero las otras Iglesias no tienen profetas¨ (wait, the other churches dont have prophets) ¨Exactly hermano, thats why our church is true¨ haha. A particular large amount of plural marriage and baptism for the dead questions this week, thwarted with some sound doctrine and logical reasoning. We convinced (well, the spirit convinced) Mayco that he should keep the word of wisdom completely, we had him look at the benefits and told him to put to the test if the Lord would help him stay awake without coffee or not. Shared a favourite scripture with him from Isaiah, similar to the one in DC ¨And those who wait upon the Lord shall have new strength, they shall spread their wings as eagles, and they shall run and not be tired, and they shall walk and not faint.¨ or something like that (Isaiah 40 31). I hope he can take that promise up, as I know it has helped me countless times out here to remember that I shall spread my wings as an eagle if I always trust in the Lord. 

So yeah we are fairly busy, except for today, I mostly slept haha. A member is going to stitch our names onto our backpacks, so that will be neat. Its fun having the members really involved in the work as we get to talk with them lots and have really deep lessons with investigators (and the jokes are funnier, since the members are dominican haha). We had stake conference this week. Really cool stuff, our stake president is boss. President Nuckols was there too, and talked about finding and sharing happiness really cool. He said he searched on Amazon (what a tiger missionary, tiger meaning disobedient haha) for books on happiness and said that there are millions of titles. He found one called ¨Felicidad, Rapido!¨ or ¨Has llenado una cuberta?¨(Have you filled a bucket?) or my personal favourite ¨Mueve tus cosas¨ (Move your things). Anyway, he then held up the book of mormon and said that we have a book with the secret to happiness. And its free! The missionaries give them away! Happiness is free, in the worlds terms. It requires only diligence, faith, love and hope. Im so glad to have real happiness and the opportunity to share it with all people. Everyday I always like to tell people that the happiness they will achieve from living a life full of the love of God will brighten everything, and no matter what happens to them they can be happy. You dont have to change your surroundings to be happy, you have to change yourself. Just like a surfer doesnt craft the waves of each day, rather he crafts his board and his method upon the waters, and his joy is full! So remember to always be happy, and the best way is to always love, share and be loved! The book of mormon is the best self help book, so always read it!

Thanks for everything family, I hope the christmas is an awesome one!

Con todo mi amor siempre,

Elder Michael Sullivan