Thursday, December 9, 2010

White Christmas

Hey y'alll!  Did you get the cd with the pictures?  I hope so.  There's some fun stuff on it. Sounds like you've been having a great time in Mesa.  What's Ethan's mile time?  I bet he'll be faster than me when I get home if he isn't already.  We excercise every day except Sunday, and sometimes we are at the temple on P-day so we don't do it then either.  I do a lot of push ups.  Like, more than I thought was even reasonable before I started doing them every day.  We have weights too, and of course the bikes that we're on all day.  The weather has been better here and a lot of the snow has melted.  We might get more this Friday, not sure though, because Utah weather is unpredictable.  This will be my first Christmas away from home...I hope I don't get too trunkie.  Today is Elder Seivert's birthday!  We went to a breakfast buffet over by the temple this morning.  I don't know if I'll still be here with the same companions on my birthday or if that will change next week.  We'll do something fun though, if not on my Birthday, then on yours.  Wow, so many food events going on at our house.  Make sure to eat lots of cheese and crackers.  That was always one of my favorite things about Christmas.  We had the Mexican version of Sister Udall's sausage wrapped in steak wrapped in bacon last week.  It was really good. 

Miracle Moment:  So, these last few weeks have been a little slow.  Only one baptism at the very beginning of the transfer.  That's unusual for Zion missionaries.  So we pulled ourselves together and started having what the Book of Mormon refers to as "exceeding faith."  The first miracle is that it's gonna be a White Christmas (Baptize on Christmas day!  woot!)  The second is that although we had made some plans to tract a particular apartment complex, we took a detour because we were kind of on autopilot and not thinking so we went to a Part-Member family that we had been working with.  The mom told us that she had a friend who was going through a hard time and could really use the comfort of the gospel right now and could meet with us in half an hour.  Great!  So we came back in half an hour and went across the street with them to meet her friend.  We had already met her twice by ourselves and she had told us both times that she was Catholic and she respects us but No Thanks!  The third time when we went with Sister Juarez, we found out that her husband just left, she needs the help of the  church and its members, and that she was going to be baptized before, but her mother said that she had to choose between the Mormons and her, which is the reason she was so quick to turn us down before.  And thus we see that it is through the members that people will accept the missionaries and be willing to learn.  I promise that as you introduce people to the gospel and to the missionaries, you will see the blessings of the Lord come into your life and into their lives.  Think of someone that needs the gospel.  Now stop thinking of reasons not to share it with them.  The spirit put that name into your mind first because you need to do something about it.  Will you a) invite them to church b) introduce them to the missionaries or c) give them a book of mormon?  Yes.  You will do one of those three things. They may say no, but they will not be offended.
Hoping all is well.

Love,

Elder Fine