July 15, 2013

dad!

ya. i would love in ways to go out and teach like crazy my last few weeks and not worry about my companion and how he wil ldo once i am gone but that is just not right. honestly this is more his area than mine now. everybody everywhere all they can talk about is how i am going home soon. some ask me what they will do when i am gone. it scares me that they dont have as much confidence in my companion as they should. but now they are getting it. they are getting a tast of me not being there and how amazing elder smithson really is. i just hope it sticks. the sick elder is now all healthy and i can go back out to teaching people again!! haha. definatly very exciting. its hard though because i am not sleeping well at night. haha i guess i have other things on my mind... but what can you do right?? 

i am glad your weeks are busy! not busy is boring!! and im impressed you can still lift all the "big logs" into the trailer ahhaha. not going to lie i am really excited to get back to working.. with my hands and my mind instead of just one of the two.. before my mission it was alot with my hands.. on my mission its mostly all mind. and now going home i can apply both and become as the lord excpects me to be.  hahaha you think that blue tractor will still run??? i guess youve got it running every other time. but its pretty rusty now aint it? if you do get it running i can think of a few fun things to do with it. :D haha. i cant believe you let julia drive a truck and trailer her first day!! hahaha was it just around the yard? or like on the big open pony trail....

your talk was great! i loved reading it. it kinda brought out how old you are with all that history of the church in sherwood park stuf haha but it was great. i like how you talked about more spiritual side of it rather than ust manual labor service. brings a new light that many dont think about on a regular basis. and that is really what i will try to do with my talk.  it goes along great with my topic of charity. i know that all people are going to want to here about is my mission and i have provided stories about it. but i am going to talk about what i was asked to talk about... do you think the bishop is going to want me to bare my testimony in my mission language?? what do you think about that. because i feel it is kinda pointless. it is for growth of myself if we read in korinthians... but the spirit of prophesy is for growth of the churhc. i would rather bare my testimony in a language all can understand. but i would like your oppinion on it. haha

i have complete trust in the lord with all concerning my family. it is all i can do. he knows best how and what to do and it is my job to be a tool. thats all. they way of becoming that tool is humility and submissiveness to his will. and that is what i will always try to do. 

YA I GOT A DRAW!!! hahaha thats the first draw i have ever gotten. and i love going mule deer hunting after that big guy i snagged the year before i left. itll be enjoyable. definatly an answer to prayer hahah. and it will be awesome to be able to go with my dad and brothers! and i am glad to hear that at least my dirt bike made it through the 2 years!! less than i can say for my truck... no im not crying. i just have alergies.....

haha so my week was full off!! waiting on a sick man yet again!! hahha but it was enjoyable. i finshished my homecoming talk rough draft and got lots of my book of mormon read and things. got to spend more time with elder naef. i have lived with him ever since he got in coutnry minus 2 months. haha it will be over 10 months by the time i leave. he is a great guy from organ with a big heart. i was in the mtc with his older brother who went to mongolia. they are a great family. my investigators are doing great. they all have fantastic questions and have grown a real love for the teachings. the only problem is getting them to churhc hahaha. malala is always busy with something on sundays and then you ave tovo an niaina who have no real excuse other than they go play soccer... i lothe that sport... haha. but we are trying very hard to help them progress in the right way. our next baptism should be on the 27th. its a 15 year old boy named tsilavina. the only problem is he has been put in a very okward situation. his aunts were the ones who introduced is to him and he started taking the lessons. then his best friend found out. his friend is a jehovah's wittness and ever since then has been trying to convince hom that there church is the one he should start praying there. so he is having a hard time desiding. but i tryed to encourage him to pray and ask god. not his aunts and not his friends, but god which was the right and true church. we will see what his answer was. he did not come to church sunday so i pray he makes the right one. i love you and am so excited to get to see you again. all of you. i am just working hard till iget there.

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates