"Love Converts"

There's an amazing video about families on www.thinkfamily.sg that I would recommend watching really moved me and got me to understand that it is "people's imperfections, that make them perfect…." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw0s4C0g5SM)

We've had a pretty busy week, but busy is good, because it normally implies that we are being effective, and are accomplishing a decent amount of things.

Elder Kunioka, Elder Crofts, and Elder Walters headed home last week, which was sad, as always, but they are on to more things now! The Kunioka's came to pick their son up, and, when Sister Kunioka saw Elder Kunioka, she grabbed hold of him and just cried, which teared everyone up. It really gave me a deeper understanding of the sacrifice that missionaries make as they leave home for two years. It is an amazing to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ allows people to make those leaps of faith into the unknown. How grateful I am to be able to serve as a missionary.

One of my good friends sent a cassette tape last week, which absolutely brightened up my entire week!  We went on exchanges, which ended up being really messy, because we had an appointment late Thursday night, then we had to rush to the Stake Center to meet up with the other Elders. Anyhow, Elder Herbst and I made it home in time. Had a normal day at the office… wow... this week's letter seems really boring right now. It just doesn't seem to be flowing at all! Anyhow, we got to meet up with Seoko and Velmurugan Friday night. We're still working with Seoko to help him make his own decision about baptism. If he doesn't make a decision soon, we're going to have to drop him, as sad as that may be. Velmurugan did great as per normal. It was good to have Brother Kumar there again, because it is so much easier for Velmurugan to explain what we are trying to teach him.

Saturday was pretty busy. We had our weekly planning session, with an appointment midway through. When we got back, we had just enough time to finish planning, then we had to head over to a business school for an appointment with a referral that the sisters had given us. It was an amazing appointment because the investigator himself was amazing! Ajay is a man from India studying for his MBA, and is working for HP at the same time. But, the reason why he wanted to meet was because he wanted to find how he can get closer to God. He had a sincere desire and asked such great questions. He understood what we were teaching, and absorbed it well. He's meeting with someone from another Church too, which is great, because it's just good for him to be able to see the differences, and then to choose for himself what he knows is best. He is just one of those people that we search for during our missions, someone who has a sincere desire to learn about truth.

Sunday was ward conference. It was good, had some good speakers, and a ward lunch after Church. We had three appointments scheduled within a couple of hours so we had to go on splits. Had dinner with a member, then Elder Perrett and I headed to Bukit Gombak to go on splits with our Ward Mission Leader and his home teaching companion to visit some families. Elder Stone and Elder Taiamoni went with Han, a member, to teach a golden investigator that Elder Stone had contacted named Steven. Apparently, the appointment was wonderful. We're going to meet with him again tonight so I'm excited! They met up with Velmurugan after that for his baptismal interview, and he passed, so Velmurugan is getting baptized this Saturday, so we're way excited!

We headed to NUS after the office on Monday evening to look for Joe since his phone was off, and he was headed back to Shanghai on Tuesday. When we got to his doem, we found out that we needed a key to get to the right floor. We obviously didn't have that, so we climbed twelve floors to where his room was supposed to be, and found the door locked. When we got back down, we tried to ask the people in the management office if they would take us up, but they wouldn't. So, we said a prayer, then had dinner. Heading back to the elevator lobby, we weren't too hopeful with our chances of meeting someone who actually lived on the twelfth floor itself. So, we stood there for about five minutes asking some people going up to their rooms if they lived on that floor, with no success. Meanwhile, we randomly talked to a German man who seemed to be there both times we had been in the lobby. Anyhow, just as we were about to give up, I asked an approaching guy if he lived on the twelfth floor, which surprised him, because he did! We mentioned that we were looking for Joe, whom he knew, and he kindly took us up, and we found Joe! He had his line canceled, and he had gotten back Sunday afternoon from a trip to Malaysia, so he had not been able to come to Church. It was nice to be able to just talk with him for awhile. It was pretty funny at the same time, because he was sitting in his boxers, and, when Elder Stone asked if he wanted to put his clothes on, he said that it was ok. It was funny! Anyhow, we had a quick meal with him, then did some less-active member finding. Unfortunately, no one was home.

Had a good Zone training by the Zone leaders about being "equally yoked," being able to be diligent at finding, but working with the members also, not just working with them, but working with them equally too. It was good to be able to be reminded about how important members are, how essential members are to missionary work. Had to go on splits again, because we had two appointments at the same time. Ended up taking Elder Carpenter, one half of the office couple with me to go finding, and then an appointment with Seoko. Elder Carpenter didn't do too bad, considering the fact that he served in Scotland awhile back and only door-knocked there. Pheonix, our member, was already there when we arrived, so we dived right into the lesson about King Lamoni's in the Book of Mosiah. What I learned from the story as we read it right there and then was amazing. What I came to realize was, the reason why King Lamoni's father softened was because of the love that he saw that Ammon had for his son, and that is the same way we need to be with our investigators, members, and their non-member family members: that we must truly love the people, and thereby be able to help them change by example, pure example.

"And when he saw that Ammon had no desire to destroy him, and when he also saw the great love he had for his son Lamoni, he was astonished exceedingly, and said: Because this is all that thou hast desired, that I would release thy brethren, and suffer that my son Lamoni should retain his kingdom, behold, I will grant unto you that my son may retain his kingdom from this time and forever; and I will govern him no more-" Alma 20:26

Love converts.

"It Shall Be Given"

It's been nice to have a relatively nice, quiet week. If you remember, last week was really busy, so it was nice to be able to calm down and move a little slower. Well, it was relatively quiet because a few of our appointments canceled, so that definitely wasn't too good.

Our main appointment last week was with Kai Xin. We once again tried to talk to her about Church and her various other commitments. Unfortunately, she still was not able to commit or come to Church on Sunday. On Sunday itself, we went over to a member's home, the Grants, for dinner, along with Kai Xin, so that we could fellowship her. She called us mid-afternoon and said that she wanted to meet us at the MRT (train stop) because she said that she wasn't sure how she was going to get there, so we agreed, and arrived there right around that time. Had to wait for quite awhile with her, which normally wouldn't frustrate me too much. But, she's been late every appointment that we have ever had with her, and I just wish she's be more punctual. It has definitely taught me that I need to be always punctual. It really is a lesson to learn in life! After dinner, we sat down to have a short lesson with her, talking about the blessings that come from taking the steps of faith. We really don't know what to do now, because she still wouldn't commit. I'm really starting to think once again that we need to give her some time. It will be her that makes that change, to call and tell us that she wants to make those changes in her life. Until then, there really is not going to be anything that we can do. The Spirit has to convert her.

We managed to get Seoko back to Church on Sunday, but we're still working on him so that he can make his own decision and not to be influenced by anyone. Germaine had a friend come, and he enjoyed it. Joel said that he would be bringing a friend this Sunday, so we're way excited for that, and thinking of new ways to get members excited about the work.

While Elder Stone and I were headed back one night, he just had enough time to contact a girl from Vietnam, and left her with a name card. The amazing thing was that she texted a message that night asking if he had returned home safely. From that, we were able to get a return appointment with her, and had a good lesson. Joe is her classmate, and so he was a good fellow shipper to have. Unfortunately, he heads home in less than a week!

We've been able to do some finding these past couple of days, and we've been doing good, so we hope to be able to get on that track and get some new investigators from that. We went over to the Grant's last night to help them drill a couple of holes in their ceiling so that they could hang up a couple of lanterns. Elder Maynes was with me, he's on a visa run. Random comment.

Anyhow, to end off, here is a wonderful scripture that I read in personal study today from Alma 26:22, "Yea, he that repenteth and excerisethfaith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance."

I know that the Lord will bless us with these things as we obey Him!

Times and Seasons

This week has been pretty fun and crazy at the same time!

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty normal. We met with Seoko, who is back from Myanmar. Unfortunately, his parents said that he could be baptized, and so he says he can't, even though he's 28. We really do respect that decision, but we really think there's something more behind it, so we're going to have to meet up with him sometime soon again to see what the matter is. We were able to meet up with Joe to teach him a recent convert lesson, and he's doing great. It's going to be sad when he goes back to China in a couple of weeks. We also met up with Ming Hui, who brought his pastor the last time we met with him. This time, it was just him, and the conversation we had was a lot more pleasant. He asked some great questions though somewhat skeptical. Still, great appointment!

Friday was busy, to say the least. We went into the office for studies, then we went on with our plan for me to go with Elder Perrett (one of the Assistants), to Johor Bahru, across the border in Malaysia to deliver some items to the Elders there. The other Assistant has had some visa problems there, so it was easier for me with my Singapore passport. Anyhow, we got on the highway to the checkpoint, and got stuck there for about two hours before we got to Singapore immigration. We were in the mission van, but we weren't sure whether we were supposed to go into the bus or car lane, and Elder Perrett thought that the car lane was a safer bet, so we sat with all those cars, then got into some trouble with the immigration officers for being in the wrong lane. Thankfully, they didn't make us turn back. After we got through the immigration, to took another hour and a half to get across the Causeway to Malaysia. What we did not realize was that people were going over there for a short break as it was Good Friday. Anyhow, we listened to the same CDs and just talked about the mission and all that. When we finally got to the immigration in Malaysia, we found that we only had one immigration card between us, so we thought we'd just get one at the counter that we were going through. When we got there however, the lady didn't have a card, so we had to run around for a few minutes looking for the booth that had the card, and run to a counter to get my chop. Elder Perrett was tapped slightly with a car by an errant driver. Anyhow, when we finally got across, we had already been on the road for more than four hours.

Then it started raining.

When I say raining, it was POURING! We stopped at a gas station to look at a map, then headed to our destination. Unfortunately, the rain was pouring down and we couldn't see the signs and missed the first turn. We ended up by the ocean, so we figured that we just had to turn around and head back up that road. Unfortunately, they don't have too many road signs there, so we had no idea where to turn or where we were going, and missed the next turn, going up on a highway that didn't have any turn-offs! We ended up finally finding one, and that's where all the trouble started. That one wrong turn lead us on a very long drive. We continued on the highway, and kept trying to turn around. There were a couple of times when we just missed the right turn-off, and continued on the highway! When we were getting on one of the ramps, there was a man who was trying to look for his sandal on the side of the road. Unfornautely, the place was flooded, and we completely engulfed him in water. Felt rather bad about that. Anyhow, we continued on until we found ourselves hitting a toll booth to get on a highway to the northern part of Malaysia. That's when we realized we were lost. We missed the u-turn right at the toll booth, so, when we got there, we asked the lady where we could turn back, and she said there was none! Then she told us we could turn off to a town right near there, which we ended up doing. We were so confused by then, so we stopped at a mall we saw there and grabbed a quick bite, which wasn't so quick because we ended up getting the hottest dishes ever that had to cool down. The ticket payment machine was broken, so we had to find another one at another part of the mall. By this time, I was just laughing my head off and Elder Perrett was rather annoyed. We wandered around for a bit, then found the road that could take us back to Johor Bahru. We continued on, then…. Hit traffic, which we had to sit in for more than an hour. When we finally cleared the traffic, we felt so free that we drove on.. and on… and on.. and found ourselves right next to the western part of Johor. So, we turned around and headed back, but, there were no signs, so we drove on.. and ended up in the Eastern part of Johor, where it was rather dark and bushy, and not too many people. We had left the office at eleven, and, by this time, it was already eight at night. We decided to head back to the town. I was looking at the map, and suddenly realized we were right by the road we were supposed to get on, so we stopped at a gas station and got directions! We stopped once more for directions and finally found the Elder's home at 8.30p.m. Then, we had to find their keys, which were under a couple of different buckets. We finally finished up and headed home. Thankfully, we didn't hit too much traffic. When we got to the checkpoint, we decided to go through the bus lane on both sides of the Causeway, and that only took about a half hour! Argh! We took the wrong road in Singapore too while we were headed home and took awhile longer. For some reason, Elder Perrett wouldn't let us stop at a MacDonald's to get some food. We eventually got in the door slightly after ten. Eleven hours! That was longer then my drive from Utah to Arizona!

It was a fun day.

We had General Conference viewing on Saturday and Sunday, which was absolutely amazing. I was particularly moved by President Eyring and Elder Holland's talks. President Eyring talked about overcoming adversity, relating a story about a man and saying that that man had "examined his life to be sure that he had done all he could to be worthy of the Lord's help. It was clear that his need and his faith in Jesus Christ were leading him to be obedient to God's commandments when it is hard to do. He said that he saw that opportunity as he and his wife were reading in Alma where the Lord had prepared a people to find the gospel through adversity." I sure hope that I can work to truly be completely worthy of the Lord's help.

In Priesthood session, he talked about the help that we need to give to our fellow brethren, because of the war that is intensifying between the Lord's forces and the Adversary's forces. He recounted the story of two rangers in Somalia, and their sense of duty that they had, that we too should have. He said, "You will need bravery and you will need boldness because you are enlisted in the Lord's army in the last dispensation. This is not a time of peace. That has been so since Satan arrayed his forces against our Heavenly Father's plan in the premortal existence. We don't know the details of the combat then. But we know one result. Satan and his followers were cast down into the earth. And since the creation of Adam and Eve, the conflict has continued. We have seen it intensify. And the scriptures suggest that the war will become more violent and the spiritual casualties on the Lord's side will mount."

Lastly, I had a wonderful spiritual experience listening to Elder Holland's talk on the Savior lonely road to Calvary.

He said, "one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are… these scenes of Christ's lonely sacrifice, laced with moments of denial and abandonment and, at least once, outright betrayal, must never be reenacted by us. He has walked alone once. Now, may I ask that never again will He have to confront sin without our aid and assistance, that never again will He find only unresponsive onlookers when He sees you and me along His Via Dolorosa in our present day. As we approach this holy week—Passover Thursday with its Paschal Lamb, atoning Friday with its cross, Resurrection Sunday with its empty tomb—may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ "at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death," for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone."

Had a nice meal with the Yee family that night, who are some wonderful stalwart members in the ward. Was able to have a couple of appointments the last two days, but nothing too exciting.

Well, I hope that you all have a wonderful week! Take care and God bless! 

Baptism... #8!

Hello!

Well, we had a pretty wonderful week! I guess any week with a baptism is always good! Joe was baptized on Saturday, and it was a great baptismal service. Elder Palfreyman, Elder Walters, Elder Stone and I got to sing “When I Am Baptized.” The members were really supportive, and Joe bore a simple but powerful testimony.

Came down with mycoplasma earlier in the week, but didn’t realize it, so I had a miserable few days, along with some bad headaches, so I did an MRI scan too. Anyhow, we did quite a bit of finding, and had a couple of member appointments, so that was really nice.
We decided to meet up with Kai Xin again to see how she’s doing. We learned that she actually believes in a religion that basically combines the best of five of the world’s largest religions and philosophies, and she’s really having a hard time trying to really figure what is true, along with the fact that her parents are Buddhist. Unfortunately, we had quite a few cancelled appointments towards the end of last week.

On Monday, we finally finished up with the supply inventory in our office. We found some crazy random items that we didn’t know we had, and got rid of a bunch of old stuff.

We met up with Joe in the evening and had a wonderful hour with him. It was his birthday, so we went to a little Chinese restaurant, shared with him a short message about missionary work, and gave him a birthday present of Church material. He said a great closing prayer, just like a long-time Church member! After the appointment, Elder Stone asked Joe how school was, and whether it was stressing him out. His amazing reply was that he used to be stressed by school, but as he joined the Church and learned about his teachings, he has started to look at life more in an eternal and lasting perspective, and not be completely focused just on school.

This baptism has particular significance for me, because it has been a testimony to me that the Lord does indeed place his prepared children in our path as we diligently seek for them. Joe has been in Singapore for only two and a half months, and he only has a couple of weeks left. But, in this time, he has been able to learn and grow, he has become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, and he is now a holder of Heavenly Father’s priesthood. It is such an amazing thing to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands, to be able to see the path that he guides his children on, so that they each have the opportunity to hear about the gospel. I can’t wait to see what Joe does for the Church in China. He is going to be an amazing member!
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Prayer is something that sometimes we take for granted, I think. But, Elder Stone and I had a wonderful experience with it. We had been contacting for awhile with not much success, then we decided to say a prayer for the remaining time that we had. After we did so, we managed to get four new investigators in about fifteen minutes. Prayer works if we are seeking diligently to do the Lord’s work! We were able to meet up with Velmurugan and continue to help him understand the teachings of the restored gospel, with Brother Kumar as translator. There was so much that he did not understand, and now he is really opening up, which is wonderful, but semi frustrating that he did not earlier.

Anyhow, not a bad week, relatively uneventful, a couple of other appointments. Well, we did meet up with an absolutely crazy guy that Elder Crofts and Elder Pace T. had contacted that was pretty creepy. Missionary work takes you to some strange places sometimes.

We’ll be watching the broadcast of General Conference this Saturday and Sunday, so that is going to be amazing, hearing from the Prophet. Elder Hallstrom, our Area President, is not in the Presidency of the Seventy, so that’s way great! We had the chance to meet him during mission tour earlier this year!

Lastly, read a wonderful article in the Ensign by Elder John A. Widstoe, formerly of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He said this about missionary work:

“This Church is not merely for me and for you who are in the Church. I must begin with myself, undoubtedly. My own salvation comes first; but unless I give of my strength to the winning of other souls for God, my own salvation will be incomplete. That applies to all of us. … We have a calling, not merely to build the Church of Christ and to save ourselves therein but also a commission to save the whole world. We are, as it were, set apart, consecrated for that great purpose. All of Israel must remember, every man or woman who enters the waters of baptism must keep in mind, and every child that comes into the Church must be taught that by the ordinance of baptism we accept the great and divine commission to serve the Lord in building His Church. It will then be easy to keep the commandments of God, to lay aside or meet courageously the temptations that face us. To stand alone, saying selfishly, “I have received the gospel; it is good to be a Latter-day Saint” will not be doing our duty; but when we say, “Now, I have received this great blessing. I shall pass it on to others,” there comes the flowering in the hearts of men of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I hope that we will all remember our commission, and spread the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world, is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

"Knowing My Eternal Self"

This past week has been pretty wonderful. Hard work and following the Spirit really pays off.

First off, Elder Palfreyman was transferred to the Woodlands Ward this weekend, and is now one of our Zone Leaders. Good Elder. My new companion is Elder Stone from Salem, Utah. He’s a really nice guy and I get along wonderfully with him, so I’m pretty sure that this will be a great companionship. The reason why I couldn’t mention this transfer earlier is because the mission has changed transfer policies. The missionaries have been going crazy about them, and the Assistants have been trying to keep them quiet now. It’s working… slighty. People still seem to be finding out though. It’s been a busy few days at the office. We’re preparing for quite a few missionaries to leave, including the office couple, the Palmers, so it’s going be pretty chaotic for awhile, what with a new office Elder and now, a new office couple. Been trying to get everything sorted out in the office. I feel slightly awkward having to tell Elder Stone what to do especially since he’s my Senior Companion, but he’s been very kind through it all. We also received our quarterly order, so we’re going to have a supply inventory in the upcoming couple of days!

Going on to news about the work….

After Preparation Day ended on Wednesday, we decided to look for our investigator Joe. After going to Malacca for the weekend, he stopped answering his phone, and we didn’t hear from him, so it really had been a sad couple of weeks, especially since he had a baptism date set. I mentioned in my last email, the week hadn’t been going too well. We had gone earlier in the week on a wild goose chase to try and find him, but it didn’t really pay off, since we were just running around, not really knowing where to look. This time, as we approached the building where he was supposed to be, we decided to say a prayer, then headed into the building. After about ten to fifteen minutes of searching around. We decided to ask a couple of people if they knew who he was. At the first room that we went to, a girl there said that he worked in that same room, but that he wasn’t there at the moment, so that was wonderful and we decided that we’d drop by in a few days.

On Thursday, we were trying to figure what we could do to after a mediocre appointment with an investigator with alcohol, tobacco, and gambling problems. After the appointment, we weren’t really sure what to do, so we went to the bus stop right where we were and found out that there was a bus that could take us to a good part of our area that we could contact, or we could take another bus to NUS, where Joe is. We decided to take the bus that came first, which ended up being the bus to NUS. Elder Palfreyman wasn’t too sure whether or not to go looking for him for a second night in a row, especially right around the same time that we had gone the night before (which was a really good point), but I didn’t want to get off the bus since we were already on it, and I had the slightest prompting to go on with it, so we went on.

Got to NUS, had another prompting to wander around for a bit, talked to a man while Elder Palfreyman was in the bathroom, then wandered off to the architecture studio. Before we headed into the building, we paused once again to say a prayer. We went back to that same room that he was supposed to be in, where another student told us that there was a student from China in their room, but it wasn’t Joe! We were rather discouraged, and decided that we would walk one round around the floor, then leave. As we walked past a couple of rooms, we saw Joe in one of the rooms through a glass pane. Boy, were Elder Palfreyman and I excited. We knocked on the door, which he opened. When he saw us, it was a mixture of surprise and joy on his face. We went on into the room and found out that he had lost his SIM card while on the trip to Malacca. He asked about his baptism, which surprised and excited us. He still very much wanted to learn, so we went through tithing, fasting, and obeying the law, which he all readily accepted. He committed to coming to Church on Sunday, and to have his baptismal interview, then ended the meeting with a beautiful prayer, ending with saying “I’m so excited! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” It was wonderful. Needless to say, we left the university as very happy missionaries. I truly have a testimony of prayer, of listening to the Lord, but also asking for His guidance. The old adage from the Bible stands true, “As and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

Saturday was relatively normal, weekly planning, a cancelled appointment, then had a wonderful time at the ward farewell party for the Palmers. Unfortunately, I really have not been feeling well at all these past few days, so I definitely didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have. It really annoying always being sick. I really wish that I had a better immune system and stronger body. Gah!

Joe came to Church on Sunday and succeeded in his interview! Gave a talk in Sacrament meeting on member missionary work, along with Elder Palfreyman. I thought it went rather well, and I really felt the Spirit guiding me in what I was supposed to say. Member missionary work is so important! I challenge you all to read Preach My Gospel, the Church’s guide to missionary work. I promise you that you will be blessed for it. Really felt sick after Church, so I skipped lunch (big thing for me!), and slept for a few hours. Headed off to an appointment after that for an appointment with a former investigator from the JB Elders. Unfortunately, the man really is mentally unstable, so we’re not sure whether to continue teaching him. When we went into his apartment, he locked us in, a kept asking us to stay because he was lonely. Creepy. Had a good dinner appointment with Germaine’s family. They are a very nice family and strong in the gospel.

Monday…. Transfers! Huge transfers! I went off to the doctor’s for awhile, not really sure what’s wrong. Just hope I feel better soon. Elder Hoare was in on a visa run, so he stayed with me. Elder Stone and the Elders sent to pick him up from the airport couldn’t find him for awhile, and then his luggage didn’t turn up (which we didn’t know had happened). We had an appointment to go to, so Elder Hoare and I rushed there with all his stuff and a package my Mom had sent me in a cab, that cost right around $20. When we got there and called the man, he said he couldn’t make it! I was so frustrated. I could definitely have been more polite, and feel rather repentant about it now. But, it was frustrating, what with all the craziness going on and being sick. Headed pack to the house, dropped off our stuff then went off for another appointment, someone that another office elder had contacted awhile back. This man Han, is an atheist, so we just tried to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. He really doesn’t think he has the desire, but we see the potential in him, and he’s willing to meet again, and read what we’ve assigned him, so that’s good. Elder Palfreyman has mentioned several times that he understands people believing in other religions, or them even being agnostic, but he can’t understand how someone could be atheist, to be so oblivious to the world around them to really believe that. I really do agree with that. The beauty of the world is enough to convince me that there is a lot more to life than evolution and chance, but rather intelligent creationism.

Had some decent appointments on Tuesday with Joe (he’s ready!), Angelina (we taught and answered her questions about temples), and Velmurugan (we now have Tamil fellow shipper named Brother Kumar who helps us translate, and we’ve found out that he really didn’t understand a lot that we were saying, so it’s good now).

Read a really wonderful article this morning entitled Knowing My Eternal Self from the August 2004 issue of the Ensign. It really gave me a wonderful perspective about how we act and think and behave now, is the way that we were in the pre-mortal life, and that we are continuing to work towards being more like our Heavenly Father, that we are trying to be like the Savior, and do the will of the Father. I was reminded that I am literally a son of a loving Heavenly Father, and that knowledge helps me to understand my infinite potential and divine worth, that the Lord loves me and knows me intimately. How grateful I am for the knowledge that I am loved by both my Earthly and my Heavenly Parents.