Elder Minnich who helped Mike add umph to is hymn playing.
Not sure what to say about this.
If you know Mike you know he loves Carne.
Well hello family, friends, faithful readers. I am running out of witty ways to start off my letters and titles to place in the subject line, so sometimes I just throw something in there, so you will have to bear with me on that one. It was a good week. On Tuesday, we started teaching Juanita. She is a members cousin, and has been exposed to the church off and on since she was a teenager. She is like
in her 40's now. She loves reading in the Book of Mormon, and would be baptized, but she is living with an illegal Mexican (and has been for about fifteen years) and is scared that if she tries to marry him that he will get deported. Anyone have any tips? We taught her about faith in Jesus Christ, and from 1 Nephi 3:7 where it says that The Lord doesn't give us any commandment that we can't fulfill. If The Lord wants Juanita to be married, which she knows that he does, then He will provide a way for her. Maybe it won't be clear from the beginning. Maybe she will have to take a step into the darkness for a little bit, but as we show to The Lord that we are willing to act, He gives us the way. We should pray like it all depends on Him, then go and work like it all depends on us. That was the sentiment of our lesson. We asked how she felt afterwards, and she said she felt hope! That is a start. We are super excited for her progress. We will keep you posted on that!
We had a stake priesthood meeting on Saturday night in Reading. The stake presidency talked all about Christ and about His attributes and how we can apply them in our lives. I was called on at the last second to translate, which I did. I love translating. Ok, if any of you are ever giving a talk that is being translated, PLEASE state your scripture references or give a copy of them to the translator. We only have so many scripture references memorized. In the meeting, they showed several of the Bible videos put out by the church. Those are awesome. We use those in our teaching a lot. Then after a clip was shown, they asked you to speak with the people around you about how Christ showed a certain attribute, among which were Christian Courage, the way He treated women and children, and others. It was super edifying. I didn't get to take notes because I was translating, but what impressed me was how courageous Christ was. He had several chances to get out, to sugar coat things, to seek the honor of men rather than please His Father, but He never did. I'm trying to be more like that.
President Anderson told me in my interview that he wasn't gonna let me go home in August. Haha I love that guy. He is super funny. Gives awesome counsel too. Gave me some super good advice. Love him.
I love playing the piano and organ. I play in sacrament meeting and I played at a minutes notice at a baptism. One of my favorite things is to play prelude. I have gotten way better at doing medleys of hymns and jazzing them up. Elder Minnich taught me that. I saw him at the stake priesthood meeting. Love my boy. Pictures forthcoming. Thanks for making me practice and all that stuff mom. I was a butthead about it sometimes, but I am super grateful for it, and so are the people in Allentown, Norristown, and Bridgeton.
We are excited to see things happening in this branch. Our branch president and I went to someone's house on Wednesday and gave three blessings to a mother and her two daughters. One daughter just had a baby last week and the other had been in the hospital for a week with pneumonia. The mom was developing pneumonia. We gave them all blessings, and the Spirit was so strong you could have cut it with a knife. It was so cool. They are all getting a lot better. They were all at church and brought a friend! They didn't have a car, so they asked one of their neighbors to take them to church, and now the neighbor, after coming to church, is now interested in the gospel. You see how challenges can be made into awesome missionary opportunities and blessings? Look for opportunities to serve! When trials come, that's good! It makes us humble and lets us see The Lord in our lives.
Those are the highlights of my week. Good job in being in the play Marcus. You're a boss. Keep listening to country music and being like me. But more than anything prepare to serve! The time flies like crazy. Love you all. This is the work of The Lord. Heavenly Father wants us to serve Him, and we only deprive ourselves of the blessings when we refrain from doing so. Love ya!
Elder Dial
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