"I Am A Child of God"

Hi All!

We're starting to work with the less-actives. The Bishop and us Elders are working together to visit those less active members and try to fellowship them. It's pretty hard because a lot of them are hard to contact, and some are still bitter by something or someone who offended them years ago. We visited a less-active couple who went inactive over thirty years ago. He used to be a Branch President. They are a wonderful couple, but it's sad that they have not been able to raise their children in the Church.

The week has been pretty decent. For a couple of days this week, I was having a pretty hard time, having doubts and fears about missionary work and home, and I wasn't performing too well. I decided to read my Patriarchal blessing one night, and it was amazing. The answers to all my problems were listed down in my blessing. Not all of them were direct answers, but the blessing had much counsel that corresponded with the problems that I had been dealing with. I felt a sense of peace and calm in my heart and mind as I realized just hoe much Heavenly Father loves me, and how he helps and comforts us in different ways. It is so wonderful to know that he is always there for me, for all of His children, whenever we need Him.

Elder Pace didn't feel well at all on Thursday so we went to the doctors and they gave him some medication. I hope that he feels better soon. Sister Julie Beck, Relief Society General President, and Sister Lifferth, First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency have been doing a tour of Asia and they spent a few days in Singapore. On Thursday, they gave talks which we were able to attend. They are both marvelous sisters, full of humility and Christlike love. Sister Lifferth talked about the Primary theme for the year, "I Am A Child of God." It was a wonderful talk because it helped me remember just how important we are to our Father in Heaven, how much he loves us, and how everyone around us is a beautiful son or daughter of our Heavenly Father. It seems such simple doctrine, a simple Primary song. But, I think that if we each realized our place and privilege as children of God, we would be so appreciative of ourselves and those around us. She talks about 5 "C's" that we can and should follow. They are, making and keeping COVENANTS, be COMMITTED, have a CELESTIAL marriage, have CHILDREN, and come unto CHRIST. Sister Beck gave a wonderful talk on families, about how important they are to the Church and central to the Creator's plan. Satan really is trying to destroy the world by destroying families, trying to remove the family unit as important in our lives, and trying to trivialize the sanctity of marriage. I love my family, and I have seen just how important and amazing it is to have a family. I am grateful for the blessing.

It is definitely hard sometimes to work with a companion, but I love Elder Pace and we try to work well together. I have learned so much on my mission. I'm learning how to be humble and obedient and do what I am supposed to do as a representative of the Lord. There are so many people in the world to teach, and I hope and pray that I can help Heavenly Father's children return to Him. It is an amazing work to do.

Study, Believe, Love, Live, Teach. We read that during companionship study in Preach My Gospel this morning. For these couple of days, I'm working with Elder Grant who is here on a visa run, because missionaries can only be in the country three months at a time if they are foreigners. Elder Pace is in Kuching on his visa run, so I'll have him back tomorrow. Anyhow, back to the first part of the paragraph. Those are the five things that we each have to do to serve the Lord effectively. Studying helps us to understand and believe the truths of the gospel, and, as we come to love it for its beauty, we can live it and try to be as the Savior. As we do that, we can go out and teach the world of the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ.

We had to take a couple cabs yesterday. As we tried to teach the cab drivers the gospel, they talked to us about how hard life is, how hard it is to support a family and work in life. It was sad to hear just how unhappy they sounded, with the stresses of life around them. We tried our best to teach them about how the gospel can bless their lives. The point I'm trying to make is that I realized just how blessed my life is, that I have loving parents who care and support me, and just how lucky I am at the moment not to have to deal with so many problems in life. The gospel really does help us, knowing that the Savior has felt all. And, as we strive to fellow him, the pains and struggles of this life can be taken away by Him who has gone through it all. We face so many trials and adversity, but as we trust in the Lord and hear Him whisper words of comfort to us, we can know that all will be well. After all, who better to trust than the one who has given us all, and who sees into the eternities?