My Dear Family and Friends!! How are you? I hope you know I pray and think of you often. I love the opportunities we get as missionaries to communicate with our loved ones. I love to read your emails and hear of your success! Today has already been amazing! It is our First actual P-Day in which we don't have a Zone Conference or are not traveling. The blessing of having time to clean the house, clean the truck, and do laundry was awesome! I love being super busy and working hard! There is no work greater than being able to serve the Lord as a Missionary.
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and ate lots of Food! Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to reflect on the many blessing, which we have. My personal Study has caused me to truly reflect more on the greatest blessings we have ever received, The Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Personal Study Thoughts: This week I have continued to read through the Book of Mormon. I can not get enough of this great book! I know it's words are the words of a Living Christ whom desires so greatly for us to return home to Him and our Father in Heaven through His Atonement. I know we will draw nearer to God through reading and applying its Heavenly Messages. Don't stop reading it! If you haven't read it in a while, I plead with you to open in it and find the answers you so desperately need. Keep coming to the Savior! He will Be your light.
My favorite chapter from the Book of Mormon this week was Mosiah Chapter 4. This chapter talks about how King Benjermain makes an end of speaking to His people and they come to a knowledge of their wickedness. They obtain strong Faith and Christ and have an experience with the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which touched my heart. Here are the verses!
Mosiah 4:1-3
1 And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by the angel of the Lord, that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen to the earth, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them.
2 And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men.
3 And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them.
I know we can all have this experience with the Atonement. We never have to fear that our Father in Heaven will turn us away. He has provided His Son that we might experience this wonderful joy which comes from repentance and becoming more like Him! How blessed be are! :)
Adventures This Week:
This week has been wonderful! We have worked hard and are continually blessed for our efforts. Let's recap some of the Magic, shall we?! ;)
First one: Despite our travels we have been able to obtain people to teach and have had some awesome success! I know as we give our best we will continue to have success despite the many times we are not able to be in our area. It gets frustrating at times but I am NOT giving up. I love this work and I am giving all I can to be an obedient and faithful disciple of Christ. One person we have been working with is a man named Papa Edwin. I believe I have mentioned him before in an email. I have loved how Papa Edwin has sincerely loved the Book of Mormon. We have had some very powerful moments reading in it, which will stay with me forever. The difficulty now with Papa Edwin is the question about baptism. We really feel he has still not grasped the concept of Priesthood authority. We continue to testify he must pray and come to know for himself. What Papa Edwin needs is to come to church. Every Sunday since we have been teaching him a brand new problem magically appears to keep him from Church. There are so many voices trying to pull him away from the straight and narrow path. I know if he will just come to church the Lord will give him the answer he needs. Please pray for him. I love him and desire so greatly for him to come and partake of the Tree of Life. The fruits of the Gospel truly are the sweetest and will bring us joy, which will never end.
Second Highlight: We have continued to work with Mama Vanessa after her baptism. Honestly, she is a Piece of the Celestial Kingdom! I love her so much! Her understanding is a lot like a child, so we have to teach slow but she truly loves God and wants to be a good mother for her children. I love working with her. We also got a new person we have been teaching to come to church! Whoohoo! No greater feeling then to see the people you love and our teaching come and experience the blessings of church.
Third Highlight: Yesterday was a day, which really opened my eyes to something. We had many appointments set up for after church and both Elder Gunnell and I were super excited and ready to work very hard. Every single appointment that day fell through. It was super hot and we were exhausted. However Elder Gunnell and I were neither sad nor discouraged. We were cracking jokes the entire time, enjoying one another's company, and doing our best to talk with everyone we could. Despite the circumstances there is this amazing and peculiar happiness, which comes from doing the Lord's work and serving others. I really have learned this week if we focus on ourselves we will be miserable. But if we focus on others and the Savior instead we will find great amounts of joy! I love being a missionary! :)
I will continue to pray for you and wish you find great amounts of happiness! This world is full of hard things to bear but we will find comfort and peace through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, The Book of Mormon, and by serving others. To make things even better the Lord gave us Chocolate and Ice Cream:) My Mom always taught me the importance of Ice Cream and Chocolate.
Much Love,
Elder LaMont/ Shark Bait/ Your Alekken Ty/ Island Boy
Health Update For Momma: Momma, doing fantastic health wise! I continue to put on Mosquito repellent, as you have asked. I drink lots of water and I continue to love eating Yogurt. I have changed in many ways but in a lot of the ways I am still the same person and my love for yogurt has never left me. Love you Mom!
That moment when you realize you have not taken a lot of photos this week and you grab a quick selfie for the Momma!
The beautiful landscape of Tatoonie.... Just kidding.. It's our area! :)
A drawing we made to help the people we are teaching understand the God Head! I am glad Elder Gunnell drew it and we did not have to go with my stick figures. Aren't they adorable?
Me with Mama Tebu. I love her! She always helps us with Missionary work and reminds me of my Grandmas! :)
Hope you enjoy this version of Pictures of the Week!
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