October 23, 2012 Email

Hello Family...and anyone else who reads this,

 

This past week has been interesting and a bit uplifting. Okay, so I will start with our investigator friends. We have picked up a new friend, Arianna. She is 23 and somewhat interested. We have had 2 lessons with her this past week and so far she seems open to what we are teaching. All she needs to do now is find out for herself whether or not what we are saying is true. That comes about through earnest studying and prayer. There really is no other way to know the truth. Do what James instructs us to do, if we have a question, ask the guy in charge because he has all the answers. Its pretty straightforward. We have taught a lot more lessons this past week. Gino is progessing slowly, he is in the same boat as Arianna. And we finally have another lesson with Gloria set up for tomorrow. That will be super awesome since we havnt seen her in a while.

 

I was telling father last week about the Spirit and how I need it so much with me as I teach. I have learned this week how truly important it really is. When you are teaching someone about Christ's Gospel, and you dont have the Spirit to guide you, you rely solely on your own knowledge and skills. We had a lesson like that and I really saw how hard it was to teach. I dont have much skill, so it was a confusing lesson, but luckily the spirit helped us out in the end and we left on a pretty dang good note.

 

To answer your question dad, transfers are two weeks from now. Gosh this past week has flone. It feels like yesterday I was writing you guys. It just keeps getting faster and faster, its scary. Sounds like everything back home is going pretty well I guess. I got your invite Britt, and I got your package Aubs, Thank you!! I will try to get letters out soon. Speaking of which, tell peeps to write me, I feel lonely some days. More news, next week pday is on Monday, I will explain why more next week. That is exciting that Molly's bf got baptized, will he serve a mission in a year? Will Molly serve a mission, she is 19 I think. That reminds me, the missionary applications have rissen from 700 to 4000.   !    Crazy stuff! To answer your question Britt, sure the sweatpants are warm you can send those, but not the running pants, and dont forget the jeans.

 

Last Sunday was pretty busy. We went to 3 sacraments and a choir practice and saw some people and it was busy. One of the sacraments though was pretty amazing. It was a special needs program and it was the last one they were doing since they were getting disbanded. They had a few special needs workers talk, but a lot of it was the special needs people singing. The singing wasnt the most talented, but it was pretty dang epic because of WHO was singing. It was a tear jerker, I held my composure, but there were a whole bunch of people in the congregation who could not. Gino was there which was perfect, Gods hand was most certainly in there somewhere.

 

Yesterday I had interviews with President Hiers. I asked him what I could do to get lost in the work. He basically said to love the people, that simple. I guess I knew that before, but it didnt quite hit me that hard until yesterday, the way I get lost is to serve. That is why I am out here, to help people. And I love doing that. President asked me if I had met some interesting people, I said yes. Then he asked if I had met some good people, I said yes. Then he asked if I had met some great people, I said yes. Then he asked if I had met people that I loved, I said yes. I can think of some of the people I have helped and realized how much I care about them and how much I have done for them. That is what I am doing, and that is why I am here.

 

This morning we went to the Brigham City Temple for a session. President Hiers was there which was neato. It was a good session and a beautiful Temple. It is snowing in the mountains right now, winter is getting pretty close. Wierd how when I first got here it was winter time.

 

I care about all of you and thank you for all of your love and support! See you on the other side!

 

Love,

Elder Connell

 

ps, happy birthday mom, you will get a package sometime