Hey family,
Well, this week has been
really good. I’m pretty happy because we were able to achieve almost all of the
goals that we had set, and I feel like we're becoming better missionaries each
week. So that was good. I was thinking a lot about your stake conference and
when Dad must have been having his interview. That’s pretty cool stuff, and I
really liked reading the journal entry. At 11:23am on Saturday, I had just
finished teaching an English class in the church, and there were about 10
people there. It was kind of like pulling teeth because nobody wanted to
participate, but I finished teaching the class at 10:45, and then walked with
my comp back to our house. I immediately sat down and started to read the book
of Mormon, because I was within 10 pages of finishing. So anyways, at 11:23am I
finished reading the book of Mormon, and the whole time I was thinking, "I
bet Dad is in that interview right now”. So yeah, around the same time that you
were sitting in an interview with Elder Nelson, I was sitting in my chair in my
room finishing reading the Book of Mormon. On October 3rd, I had finished
reading the book, and I made the goal that I was going to read it again in 3
weeks. So these past few weeks, I’ve been waking up at 6:30 and immediately reading
the Book of Mormon. I’m really surprised at how much my testimony of that book
has grown. I think that before my mission, I was at the point where I was
"fairly sure" that the book was true. But in these past few months
I’ve come to know without doubt that it’s 100% true. It’s actually really
addicting to read, and I have a hard time setting it down. I really wish that
you could all see my triple. It is so marked up, and to me it’s so awesome.
It’s worth so much more to me than any Xbox 360 or iPhone or TV, or anything
else. Anyways, I’m really happy, and I love reading the scriptures. You all are
reading the scriptures, right? I really hope that you are. I’m going to try and
read the book of Mormon again in 3 weeks. I started last night, and I’m already
in 2nd Nephi.
So in church we had a lot
of investigators, and many of them have baptism dates. E, the man that we
baptized on general conference received the priesthood last Sunday, and
yesterday he blessed the sacrament for the first time. I was really happy, and
he looks really happy. I gave him a tie of mine, and it’s nice to see him with
a white shirt and tie. He got up in elders quorum, and bore a testimony that
was like 10 minutes long. So I am really happy for that. His wife has a baptism
date for the 2nd of November, and E should be baptizing her. That’s what I’m
praying for at least. But they both had really good experiences in church
yesterday, so I am hoping that my prayers get answered, and that she gets
baptized this Saturday. Plus, one of their 2 kids, whose name is also E, is 12
years old and wants to be baptized as well. I’m really happy to be here in this
area, and to be the missionary that changes peoples lives. It’s the best.
Dad was saying something
about how I’ve been in my area for a long time, and it’s true. I have been here
a really long time, but we keep finding people to teach, and that is the only
important thing. I don’t really care where I am, just as long as there are
people who are willing to listen to us, and then I’m happy. Overall, I have
liked all of there areas where I’ve been, and I really feel happy to be here in
the mission. I've also learned a lot from each area.
I liked what Dad said about
receiving guidance on how to be a better bishop. It’s really cool, because you
completely have the keys to receive revelation on how to guide the ward. It’s a
huge responsibility, but it’s really satisfying. While I was studying in the
book of Mormon, I came across the chapter 13 of Alma, which talks about how we
were prepared to have the "high priesthood" before the world was
created. I copied and pasted the scripture here:
Alma 13:3- And this is the
manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the
foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of
their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to
choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising
exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that
holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory
redemption for such.
And later in verse 6 it
says:
And thus being called
by this holy calling, and ordained unto the high priesthood of the holy order
of God, to teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they also
might enter into his rest.
It was pretty interesting
to me, and I really learned a lot. Basically what I understood is that God
knows all of the things, and he prepared us to receive the high priesthood
because of our "exceeding faith and good works". And in the later
verse it says that we are to help other people that "they also might enter
into his rest". Kind of interesting, and it gives us an insight on how
amazing our callings are. But anyways, you should go to the temple and do some
meditating on how to be better. I would love to go to the temple, but I don’t
have the privilege here. So you should take advantage of it.
Life seems to be going well
here. My comp and I are working hard each day, and we are trying to help people
to keep the commandments. Its frustrating sometimes when the people are so
obstinate and they don’t understand that just by keeping the commandments, many
of their problems will largely be cleared up. But most of the people here don’t
understand that, and they won’t accept the fact that they need to change. I
think that apart from all of the convert baptisms that I’ve had, the most
important convert that I’ve ever had was myself. Truthfully I’ve really come to
know that the church is true, and that we are so blessed to be faithful members
of the church. I think that is the best thing that has happened to me, and I
wish that other people could have that same experience. But anyways, I’m happy
to be here.
So this week, there haven’t
really been any crazy experiences. We had a night where we found a couple mice
in our house, and we had to kill them. The first mouse that we found was in the
bathroom. I took a pretty funny video of us hunting the mouse down, and I was
thinking about whether or not I should send it home. After thinking about it, I
decided not to send it home, because it’s pretty crazy. And like 10 minutes
later, we found another mouse in a pizza box. With this mouse, we trapped it,
and put it into an empty pickle jar. We kept it for a day and fed it Doritos
and queso cheese. We called it our "mascot". But the next day we
killed it. So yeah, thus ends the mouse stories. (I’ll send a video home of the
mouse in the jar).
Well family, I hope that
all is well. I pray for you all each night, and hope that life is good back at
home. The time is flying by here. Thanks for everything. I love you all.
Elder Stark
To answer the questions
that I missed:
I’m not really sure if I
will be leaving this area in this change. The changes are on the 26th of November
(I think), and I still don’t know if I’ll leave. I have been here now for like
4 months, so we'll see what happens. And I don’t really want to point the
finger and choose which comp I like, and which I don’t. I've been friends will
all of my comps especially Elder P, and right now I get along well with Elder C.
Getting packages: We don’t
have a change meeting anymore, but President Collado visits us in the zones
maybe once or twice every change. So he always brings the packages with him.
Plus I’m happy that the package I sent arrived. I sent some stuff that you can
try. Let me know how it is.
Also, let Bailey watch “the
district" videos before he goes to the MTC. I have them on disc and the
mission gave me a mini DVD player because I’m training. So my companion and I
watch them occasionally, but not every day. Every mission is different, so
perhaps some missions require that their missionaries watch the videos daily.
Thanks
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