July 18, 2011 Obtaining Charity

Well, please thank the missionaries for getting Jordan to realize how hard it is to teach and be a missionary! I don´t know how long it took the lesson with you guys, but normally the longest we try to go is 45 minutes maximum. Try doing the lesson in 15 hahahah! To help with the first vision we use the pamplets. I don´t know if you´ve seen the first lesson pamphlet but when we teach one companion relates Joseph Smith´s experience and the other shows the picture of Joseph seeing our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We actually use the pamphlets quite a bit, especially to help people make commitments.

Thanks so much for the packets! I finally got it and boy I knew my momma loved me when I opened it up and saw that bouncy ball. I think that was one of the best gifts. You did send S´mores stuff and Elder Amasio and I tried a couple last night, I forgot how delicious they are! THis week in the district meeting I´m going to divy up the rest and give it to the other missionaries to try. Luckily in the two other companionships there´s one north american so they can all learn how to do it right! I also liked the ties, very snazzy and cool. Also thank Jordan for the shirt he sent, I guess I can accept having a BYU shirt since it´s of where my brother went to dorm... I also thought the ballerine cookies were good and the S´mores goldfish were really cool, thank Amanda for me. Thank the McPHerson family for the socks, those are always useful, especially down here where it gets a bit colder. Thanks a ton for the two CD´s, they are really cool. My companion is already making a copy of the Josh Groban today, ha ha. Thank grandma and the passeys for the letters and yeah, it was awesome.

I haven´t heard anything about the new Harry Potter movie here but I did see a trailer and it looked awesome. I can´t wait to see it afterwards oh man! Yeah that is crazy about how long it´s been, I don´t remember well but I think Brian Lynn got us into the books because I at least remember going at midnight to buy the book with him one time early on. By the way, what´s SYTYCD??? Oooh, so you think you can dance. So how was that? Did anyone get the plane ticket? Thanks for keeping up to date on all my West Point stuff, I was actually about to ask if you have the physical test, because it´s already now past July and I need to see where I stand, pero mal. I also have a favor to ask: could you email some of those West Point pictures to this address waldo.mena@gmail.com ? This is the war history fanatic and would love to see some pictures, especially ones of me in uniforms ha ha. If you could do it today too it would be awesome because we have dinner with them tonight.

Now for spiritual stuff. We had a zone conference this past week and it was very different, president told us he taught us things that he didn´t talk about in any other meeting. We spent the whole morning talking about Charity. First he asked all of us who we wanted to become. So we told him what type of person we wanted to become and then we talked about the requisites for obtaining charity. He taught us that we can´t practice having charity, it´s not a talent we can develope. Charity is like a pair of glasses that when we put on changes our view of someone because we see them as Christ does. I´ve learned that after having an experience like that we are changed forever because even if we end up falling and not becoming more Christ like we cannot deny the thoughts and impressions we had for that person. It´s a love and understanding and a desire for their well being that goes beyond anything I´ve ever experienced before. It´s also helped me realize the importance of people getting baptized RIGHT NOW because really they will be cast off forever after this extremely short life and never be allowed to live with God or Christ again. It´s amazing how often we forget the purpose of this life and how important our daily effort to learn the gospel is. I´ve also learned that if people don´t go to church they will not convert, it is absolutely important that they get to church, not just so they can get baptized, but because they will not receive the revelation they need in order to know that it is really worth it to convert and join this church. This past transfer has been incredibly hard because of the 5 weeks so far, I¨ve only had one investigator in the church for two of those and after her third time going she told me that she didn´t feel the spirit anymore and wasn´t sure if she wanted to get baptized anymore. She also wasn´t reading and praying everyday so going to church couldn´t help much without those two things too, but still I´ve learned that we need to do all we can to get these people to church. Like our mission president told us, would tying these investigators up and carrying them on our shoulders be too much or overexagerated to get people to church for their first time? No, not at all. I´ve come to understand more the importance of going to church every week and taking the sacrament.

That´s what I´ve been learning in my time here, and thanks for all the support and send my love to everyone there at church and at PCM.

Con Amor,
Elder David Arrowchis