The Personal Touch

Atonement

Hello family!

I just realized that Jamison probably has short hair...I wonder what
he looks like.  That's awesome that Willie and Jordan are back
too...Are they both still in our ward?

I'm going fishing today :) we decided to go to black creek, which
empties out into the ocean at that place where we took Christmas card
pictures.

I know the word creek in Arizona usually means something that is
either dry, or has just enough water in it to be able to jump across
or easily wade through without getting too wet.  This one is probably
a good 20-30 feet deep in some places.

Ethan, I know I wasn't on time with your birthday letter like I was
with Diane.  Relax, it's coming.  Maybe I'll catch a fish today and
mail it to you ;)

Mom, I have a terrible confession to make....I actually had no idea
what you studied in school.  I had wondered about it, but I never
really thought I had a good reason to ask and by the time I realized
that I didn't know, I felt silly for not knowing so I kept my mouth
shut.

I've learned a good deal about the atonement this week, which is
always good to understand more deeply.  I've found that the better I
understand something, the more simply I can explain it.

Not much else is new.  Elder Gavarett from the Seventy is coming to
visit in a couple weeks.  The mission is great.  Take care.

Elder Fine

Criminal Nonintent

Good Morning Arizona!

My week was great!  I got the cops called on me for knocking on a
door.  They came and told us to stop.  For some reason they thought it
was necessary to bring 3 cars, all with their lights on, to stop the
mormons from their heinous criminal activity.  Usually, the police
don't really take us that seriously.  They know who we are and they
know we're not going to hurt anyone and they have better things to do
with their time...but apparently these guys didn't have anything
better to do and hadn't gotten their daily "unnecessarily be a jerk to
someone" points yet.  We were very respectful and honest, and gave the
sergeant our ID's and told him where we were staying and everything.
He told me to sit on the front of the police car, which I didn't do
because I thought it was a ridiculous request and it looked like it
had just been waxed.  Instead I just stood there and confidently
listened to him with the knowledge that he could do absolutely nothing
to me and keep his job.  So while they were being tough and lecturing
us about scaring people in residential neighborhoods, all I could
think was "Have I done anything illegal? No? Okay then leave me alone
I have work to do." But I decided to keep my mouth shut.  We started
walking back the other way, talked to a guy that was walking, he
invited us over, and we followed him back to the same street that we
had been stopped on.  It made me feel like I was doing my job right.
We went back the next day and apologized to the lady that we had
apparently scared.  If she had simply been willing to look through the
window at us so that we could have talked to her instead of shouting
through the door that we wanted to give her blessings from Jesus, the
entire episode would have been avoided...Anyway, that's my story for
this week.

I was up in Plantation on Friday on exchanges with the Assistants.
They've cleared the ground for the Fort Lauderdale temple.  It's very
exciting.

Happy Birthday Ethan!  I don't think I have anything quite as cool to
send you that I found on the street...unless you like lost keys that
have been run over and bent a few times?  I'll see what I can do
though.

Please give Seth Barton a vicarious high five for me.  He's a good
man.  Time to ride my bike to publix because we're out of miles on the
truck and it's the end of the month :)

Love,

Elder Fine

The Mormon Moment

Hello :)

Today is Monday, January 23, 2012.  It's 11:00, sunny and 74 degrees

here in beautiful Miami, Florida.  Last week I learned a ton.  You

know when you think you know a lot about the gospel and someone points

something out to you, some simple phrase, and it makes you realize

that you've been approaching it the wrong way for 21 years?  Yeah, it

was kind of like that.  Brother Tracy Watson, former mission president

of the Mesa, Arizona mission and director of proselyting over the

entire world, and Brother Donaldson, former mission president over San

Diego, California while they were filming the Preach My Gospel

training dvds, from the missionary department came here on Friday and

held a leadership training.  I talked to brother watson afterwards and

he told me that former President Evans of the Mountain View stake was

a new mission president.

"really," I said "where?"

"oh that's right he hasn't been announced yet...oops...well keep your

eye on the church news, Elder."

We learned a lot of amazing things, many of which I will be writing

down in "The Book of Brandon"  It's a six page book of personal

scripture found in between Revelation and First Nephi in my

scriptures.  One of the most significant truths that was taught was

this simple statement by Elder Bednar.

"Those outside the church cannot access the atonement."

But wait!  There are plenty of good people outside the church who have

faith and go through changes and feel forgiven.  Are you telling me

they can't access the atonement?

Yes.  And this is why...In order to access the atonement and be

cleansed from and purified of your sins, you must make a covenant

through an ordinance by the priesthood.  Before that, you may feel the

influence of the atonement, you may feel the holy ghost, but you may

never have full access to those powers, and you will not be able to be

completely forgiven of any sin.

The way I see it, to receive forgiveness for a sin you must repent of

it.  Complete forgiveness requires complete repentance.  Without an

ordinance one may feel sorrow, confess, and even forsake a sin.  But

he cannot even attempt to make restitution to God, and that is where

Baptism and Confirmation come in, to sanctify the person and fit them

for the Celestial Kingdom.

The point is, if missionaries understand this, they'll be able to

place the proper importance and motivation for baptism.  Rather than

membership in a club, it becomes the gate to God's kingdom.  And they

are baptized for the remission of sins.

Well, that's all I have time for.  There's a lot of mitt romney fans

here and they often let us in just because they want to know what mitt

romney believes.  It's kind of fun.

Love,

Elder Fine

Using Time Wisely

So, here's some photos...one is a big iguana, the other is me standing in the Jungle...it's very interesting because i'm in the middle of the city but there are certain plots of land that just haven't been touched, and unlike the empty land in Arizona, it is impossible to walk through unless you have a machete or maybe a bulldozer.  We found a little opening that had been cut in this jungle for about 4 feet so I stood in it.

Dear Everyone,

This week was good.  Friday we have a leadership training with Brother Watson.  He was the mission president in Mesa a few years ago and wrote a good portion of Preach My Gospel, especially Chapter 8 "use time wisely" which is one of my favorites, not because I'm any good at it, but because I recognize the importance of it and the weight it bears on every other aspect of basically anything.  That's awesome that Tate and Brooke will be serving missions at the same time.  If he just left and she's putting in her papers now, they should get home around the same time, which will be fun.  I don't have much else to talk about this week.  Have a great week!

Elder Fine

Jeremiah

Email is on Tuesday this week because we have transfers tomorrow.  I'll be staying here with Elder Hatch, but every other companionship in the zone will be changing.  It's gonna be great.  In the last 6 months, weekly baptisms in the mission have doubled, and we're still pushing for 100 in a month.  That's easy for some missions (Salt Lake), but we've never done it.

Diane! Sixteen! Preposterous!  I'm sure Diane will have plenty of dates to go on, and hanging out is pretty great in High School, it's the 20-30-year-olds that President Monson reproved, rebuked, and reprimanded in last April's conference for not dating.

I don't have dreams very often, but this week I had 4, and I was home from my mission in all of them, still wearing the tag though, which was weird...I think the whole 18 months thing is messing with my mind.

How's the Gilbert Temple coming along?  We drive past the Ft. Lauderdale temple construction site every time we go to the mission office/home/chapel and right now it is a field with cows and a few piles of different colored (yellow, brown, dark brown) dirt.  It's great because it is right next to the intersection of two major highways and everyone who lives and moves in South Florida will be able to see it.

I finally finished the book of Jeremiah.  Reading the entire standard works was a good decision, but it has proven to be a lengthy process since there is so much more that I need and want to study and so little time to do it.

I love you,

the Church is True!

Elder Fine

A Cold Front in the Tropics

Coldest day I've seen in Florida.

56 degrees and windy!  Time to break out the sweater.  Eric Evans and Terry Cox got baptized last week and confirmed on Sunday.  Let's see...new years was fun...we stayed up until 10:30 and slept in until 6:25 and had Cheez-its and IBC cream soda.  Yup.  Party.  Haven't caught any fish yet...largely because I haven't really gone fishing...but the family that owns the bait & tackle shop right next to our house is super cool...never would have gotten to know them if I hadn't gotten that fishing pole for Christmas.  They have a couple giant snapper turtles and a fresh water eel that they caught and some enormous alligator skulls.  We found out that South Florida's oldest and largest alligator farm is only a few miles south of us so we'll see if we can go one of these p-days.  I wonder how much the teeth cost...we'll see...I'm not too worried about the drivers' license since I'm not exactly planning on buying alcohol, but it might be nice to have the picture updated though.

Yes, mother, I am familiar with "safety for the soul."  In fact, I carry it around with me and have a significant portion of it memorized.  It's often used and quoted in missionary trainings.

Until next week,

Love,

Brandon