Well, first and foremost: Happy Birthday, Mom and Nana! I can't believe it's your birthdays already! I hope it was really fun! It sounds like you were pretty well taken care of! I want you to know that I prayed for you too extra fervently that day!
Oh, and Mom, thanks again for that little flip-open picture book, it is so cool! Everyone is amazed at your photographic talent!
Well, Josh, I am soooooo sorry that you're sick! Get better fast, okay? That's a command. You have no choice. Lol.
Kristen, is Idaho quiet enough for you? I hope you're having fun up there with Berch! What's the weather like up there? Have fun!!!!!!!!
Dad, I'm sorry you're alone again, but you've got bear, so you should be allright, lol, thanks for your sacrifice! and Alex, you're just awesome, thanks for your letters! I hope you have fun with mom and Josh!
So, this has officially got to have been the hardest week and a half of my life/mission, and also the most rewarding! My companion and I (Elder Constantino, who is totally awesome and now one of my best friends here) are the only full time missionaries over this area for at least a month, so things are pretty tough, but we've seen miracles! The Lord has done so much for us! One day, we had a goal to visit one new or less active member, and I had no clue how we were going to accomplish that goal. But then, as I was contemplating and praying, my phone rang and a brother in the ward asked if we could go with him to teach a new member in the ward that night! We accepted immediately! It was a pure, unadulterated miracle! The Lord does provide! We now have some good footing in the ward and the area, along with some good investigators, and two families! By the way, there's a missionary in my district who's from Vegas and paint-balled and was in the same ward as Brent and Janna and Owen... His name is Elder Tashima. He's white.
So, elder Bednar came to visit and we had a 3 HOUR Q&A session with a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles! Afterwards we got to shake hands with him, his wife, and Elder Watson of the 1st quorum of the 70! It was the most excellent meeting of my life! We talked a lot about asking inspired questions, about teaching doctrines and principles and not so much about how to apply, both to our investigators and to our future children. It was just incredible! He's a really really nice and impressionable man, and deffinately an apostle of Jesus Christ who, along with the prophet and members of the 12, hold the keys of the kingdom on the earth today. We had fun, but weren't light-minded, and I had a lot of questions answered, even though I didn't ask any. That was another lesson of his: we might speak and ask questions, but the Holy Ghost teaches, and all we need to do is get out ego's out of the way. It was so incredible! At the very end he told us that if we wanted to know what the judgment would be like, and what it would be like to stand in the presence of Jesus Christ, just look into the eyes of our mission president, or those of an Apostle of the Lord, because we'd condemn ourselves, or not. So I made a definite effort to look him in the eyes, and though it was quick, it was a powerful experience, and I know that he really is a prophet. I just want to keep going, but my time is almost up, and I have to write to president.
I love you all so very much, and I'm praying for you always! One last thing: One elder asked how to make his prayers better. Elder Bednar answerd that the best way was to pray for what was needed, but have a sincere feeling in my mind and heart: "thy will be done." When we are willing to submit our will to that of the Lord it makes everything different. I love you all so much! Jia You!
Love,
Elder Tyler