Monday, April 4, 2016

April 4 letters

To Dad:

I will live in the same house and the same room and everything as before. It's pretty crazy that I'm really back after such a long time being away. The area is going awesome and we should be having tons of baptisms. The attendance of the ward shot up this week and I believe that I can do a lot of work these last two transfers in the ward. The members here love me and will pretty much do whatever I ask so we are getting tons of references and tons of member present lessons. We get like 6 per day, haha. It's way nice. We are planning a wedding of three couples and the baptism of like 10 people at the end of this transfer that will happen for sure so it's way good. It was seriously such a glorious moment to see the old families again. We were so happy to see each other. 

The reason I was never leader is because I always told president that I didn't want to be one. I never wanted to be a leader. To me it's just added work on top of what is really important which is the actual missionary work. I certainly never wanted to go to the mission office as AP or anything. All you do is sit inside and do nothing. It would be the worst area ever. Fortunately I never ended up having that fate. Elder Hruby, one of my good buddies is AP, though and he hates it. He has asked to leave several times but the mission president keeps rejecting him. He will stay there until the end of his mission. He goes home with me. 


I haven't ever taught anyone who smokes. If they do I pretty much always drop them. It's a big enough fight with those who don't smoke let alone someone with that bad of an addiction. We teach a lot of people with drinking problems though. People are mostly just kind of too poor for smoking or maybe it's just not the culture, I don't know. In Swazi, the biggest challenge was bible bashes in every lesson. At the very least you would have to back up absolutely everything that you said with some scripture in the bible. I actually really loved teaching in Swazi. I really miss it to tell the truth. They understood so well and sharing the message was challenging but really fun. The success we had in my second transfer was really nice too. 

To Mom:

If Adam goes to Brazil then I will definitely be able to talk with him. I have now had 3 straight Brazilian companions. First was Elder Barros, then Elder Goes and now Elder Carvalho who is the old assistant yes. He will be going home at the end of this transfer yeah. I will then be getting one last comp and go home. I never talk about how many people I baptize to anyone. I really actually don't want anyone  to know. I will never tell anyone including you guys. If I get recognition and satisfaction from what other people think of me then I wouldn't get any of the blessing that God can give me. He will just say that I already have my reward. I don't want any of the credit to go to me. Really it shouldn't, the lord is the one who gave me any baptism that I already have had. We are just mere instruments. Do we compliment the pen when a wonderful author writes a way good book? No. So it is with the mission. That's why I admire the sons of Mosiah so much and enjoy reading their words and comments about missionary work. 

Seriously I'm way excited to get home at this point. The pictures that Adam sent of Caleb made me miss home a lot.  Also what you and him wrote about with Caleb made me feel so happy and thoroughly excited to see everyone again. 

Everything has gone super amazing this week really. The area is doing wonderfully. I love this area with all of my heart. We are working so ridiculously hard it's nuts. We are going to have tons of baptisms, honestly the lord is touching this ward. I wrote a poem last week but another missionary is helping me revise the poem so when it's done I'll have to send it to you. It's got biblical references and a clear theme and whatnot so I think you'll like it. 

Anyways, I love you and am way excited to see you,
Heald
(Yes, he signed his letter to me "Heald".  What? :))

No comments:

Post a Comment