Hey Family!

This week was pretty crazy. and by crazy, I mean not much happened. My comp was sick a lot and so I just had a lot more time to read... I finished the missionary library, got through Leviticus (wow...) and am just about done with the NT. I am currently reading the LdM in spanish because I have already read it in English. As well as Our Legacy... Spanish is so much prettier! Also I have found that reading the Gospel Principles book and other church published articles helps a lot. I am also fasting more and that has really worked miracles for the language. I love fasting. Especially before the Sacrament meeting because it adds a more physical necessity to taking the Sacrament. It helps me to realize that we not only depend on Christ for our spiritual and emotional well beings, but also our physical. He truly is the Bread of Life and is the Fountain of Living Waters.

I had to give a talk this week about the Temple sealing, and families, which was hard because maybe one family and another young couple (who are inactive) are sealed as a family in our branch. So that was like... really difficult. And I had to lengthen it quite a bit because our third speaker forgot his talk. He really is a stud and so I can´t say anything about that. Plus I have forgotten to write like three talks back in the Fair Oaks haha... anyway... We have these really strong, and dusty windstorms called zondas and they pretty much get everything dirty and some people say they have heart problems because of them... but I don´t know about that. It just gives me way fun allergies haha.... but it pretty much covers our entire pensión with a thick layer of dust.... because our doors are kinda similar to swiss cheese haha... Speaking of doors, we got a call last night from our neighbor at like 11 and they said our front door was just...open (we go to Tupungato for p-days) and i guess Elder Fackrell forgot to shut it/lock it? haha.... its okay. I would only be mad if someone stole my scriptures. luckily nobody took anything soo... Tender mercy!

The work is going well. we have three really solid investigators right now who want to get baptized, but one (Brian) can´t read and that makes it hard for him to learn a lot of stuff... so we teach him how to read from the pamphlets and he is slowly absorbing the material. Another is lock stock and barrel into the gospel, but he won´t accept a baptismal date and that is so hard because we can´t figure out his concern... he just needs to exercise his faith. He has already accepted all the commandments and has heard all the lessons. He actually asks us for reading assignments in the Book of Mormon now haha.... He will come around. The other is a young girl who´s biggest impediment is her mother who isn´t a fan of the church. But she let her other daughter get baptized so I don´t really know what the deal is. We are working on it though. We have lots of new investigators who seem really good and prepared for this message though. I am stoked for them.

Anyway, I love the scriptures. My new favorite is Romans 8:18... It says something along the lines of ´´I reckon that all our trials aren´t worthy to be compared to the reward.´´ I really love that. Paul was a STUD. I have also been thinking that those people that we read about in the scriptures aren´t supposed to intimidate us, or make us feel small or inadequate. They are just testimonies of righteous living. We may not all have experiences like Saul on the road to Damascus, or Alma, and we may not see visions of grandeur or experience a physical meeting with the Lord, but we can live up to the Gospel and to what is expected of us. Those people are awesome, but I feel as if it could be said that if all men were like unto Randy Daybell, or Isa Abutaa or Jeffrey R. Holland, the gates of Hell would be shaken forever. I feel strongly that any number of my new extremely humble friends could be described as the salt of the earth and they have plenty of savor. I personally want to be known as Joseph of Egypt was known; ´´whatever they did there, he was the doer of it.´´

I love that. I love all of you and I hope that your week was good. The church is true! Stay sweet :)

Elder Daybell