Be careful about turning the Lord's annoited away.

Bom Dia! Meu Familia! (e meus amigos tam bem)

Announcements: I am glad the package was recieved home. Mom, the reason I sent the belt home was because braded belts aren't allowed in this mission. Thank you for your e-mail and your letter this week. I was glad to hear about Mitch's homecoming talk and the lessons on miracles from sister Williams. I am also grateful to be expecting a package. I love you. Thank you Dad for your e-mail and your letter as well. You also mentioned the homecoming talk. Don't worry I will not sing at my homecoming. I hope you enjoy your semi-useful-semi-something-of-a-semi-calling. One of the things I am learning on my mission is that inspiration really is recieved, even if it is in weird ways. In fact I have a story about that a little later. Elizabeth, thank you for the many e-mails of Olivia and the short messages you shared. Those are truly beautiful videos. I still think you need to name your first boy Moroni, Alma, or... Zeniff? I learned a lot about Zeniff this week! Speaking of which I have a question! Who wrote the record of Zeniff's people after Zeniff passed away? I was researching that in personal study today and couldn't find it. I think that part begins in Mosiah.... 12, if anyone wants to look it up. My guess is its Mormon. And it cant be Alma because when it talks about Alma its still in narration form. Anyway, random. Erik, I loved your e-mail today!!!! I am sorry about your itchiness..... :). I was so excited to hear the update about your new classes and stuff, I had no idea you thought of CES. I loved hearing that you are going to TRC!!! Those were some of my favorite parts about the MTC. I want to go after my mission. Please go with me!!!! Thank you for giving me your real address by the way, I was thinking about that after I sent it. Sometimes I am just dumb with letter writing, I did that to Elizabeth too. Sorry about that.

I recieved a letter from Jeffrey Jeffries this week. That was cool. He's a great kid. I also got a letter from Elder Smethurst. That was fun! Sounds like the Vegas mission is doing well. It will always be in good hands with Elder Smethurst there.

Ok, funny story this week. Kind of. Well not funny for the guy it happened to. So we went to Rob's house. (the one that we challenged to be baptized who accepted who fell of date and has been hard to get in contact with ever since) and his son answered and yelled "My dad is finally here!" (the past couple of times we went, Rob has not been home. Or else they have been less than truthful about telling us if he is home.) So the wife answers the door and says she will go see if he is available. Turns out he doesnt want to talk with us. So we leave and pull around the corner to go to another appointment. So we pray in preparation for the next appointment and I just felt like asking Heavenly Father for something to happen to Rob that would make him need us in his life. LESS than ten minutes later he is backing out of his driveway when a car smashes into his back bumper crushing his trunk. (No worries he is totally fine). If he had just had a lesson with us, his car would not have been damaged.

That same day a lady walked into church, and then seeming frightened started walking back out. We quickly got her attention and spoke with her. She was looking for a church and had just moved into the area. She gave us her information, so we are going to go baptize her.

Well unfortunately, the time on this computer is running low. I love you all I hope you enjoyed hearing from me as much as I loved hearing from all of you. I love you all!

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not

September 17

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for the e-mails from Mom (plus last weeks that I didnt get until today!), Dad, Elizabeth and James, and Erik! Dad mentioned letters. I have not seen them and I am sorry to anyone else if you sent me a letter and I do not mention that I recieved it! ELIZABETH! YOU'RE HAVING THE FAMILY'S FIRST NEPHEW/GRANDSON!!!! YAY! Moroni is my vote for a name, or Alma. Or... William. Those ones are best. But then again whatever you choose is best. Esspecially if its one of those three. :) I also recieved a letter from Dallin Neilsen and Elder Alan Cox. Dallin is now in college in Texas A&M. Elder Cox was junior companion last transfer, but is now suddenly Senior/District Leader/Trainer. He mentioned that the Lord has a lot for him to Learn. (I'll include part of that in my spiritual thought today.)

We got a new counselor in the mission presidency this week. His name is President Akers. Apparently he has worked with many mission presidents and worked closely with the Quorum of the 12 apostles. That is pretty exciting for us. This last week, our mission put 100 people on date for baptism as challenged by president Larkin. Although Elder Fukuyasu did not add to that number, we were pretty excited because we worked really hard. Our ward mission aspect is getting better. The bishop is VERY supportive. I said to him yesterday in a meeting with him. "Our goal is to connect the dots the right way. We want Members to set up appointments for us, and to be excited and involved, rather than the dots being the opposite way where we are the ones calling, or even the ward mission leader." The bishop said "I know, that sounds like every missionary's dream! Have members doing missionary work." He always stands firmly behind us. He bends over backwards for us and it is wonderful. We have a fantastic ward.

I am going to speak at a baptism this weekend! Elder Fukuyasu and I are just as excited for this baptism as if it were a convert baptism. We've been visiting this inactive family for the last two transfers! The father had gradually become inactive, and therefore his wife and kids had too. The oldest child is quickly approaching the age of baptism. We worked with the father, taught lessons and built his faith. Finally, without any pressure from us, he went into the bishops office and asked for a recommend for the temple and permission to baptize his son! Bishop was so impressed that this man the ward had been working with so much, finally was committed to being active again. He has been to church dilligently since. And the son asked Elder Fukuyasu and I to speak at his baptism! I get to speak on baptism and Elder Fukuyasu gets to speak on the Holy Ghost. You can bet we'll have as many investigators there as possible! Hazzah!

Thats probably the most exciting thing that comes to mind this week. But I will keep picking my brain for anything else as I write.

Spiritual thought of the week:

As I was pondering a few days ago, I almost laughed to myself at some of the memories I had. Coming into the Seattle mission ready to really work. REALLY work, for what seemed to be the first time on my mission. Then we were hit with a bad infestation of bed bugs and were confined to the house. How frustrated I was. It was a very discouraging day in particular when I recieved a letter from Elder Cox in Brazil. I read his letter and quickly wrote back the frustration of everything that was going on (and many other good things). It was just last week that I recieved a response to that letter. He said "I know how you feel (or hopefully felt), my companion had kidney stones for the last three weeks of our last transfer which made it so that, unless we had two members (one to watch him and the other to go out with me), working was impossible." The next sentence kind of jumped out of the page at me: "It was a time of Reflection and Learning." There was nothing else mentioned but good things from that point on.

That phrase was still burned in my mind the next day during personal study, but rather forgotten as we left the appartment to go contact former investigators and tract. Door after door was slammed in my face, and it all culminated with one man, who at first seemed interested in hearing us out, but I quickly learned his desire was to simply argue. He told us there was no reason to call us "Elders," because we were not without reproof. He then asked me why I was there. "Are you here to redeem my soul from hell?" "No." I said, "We are here to share a message that will allow you to act and bring an added measure of happiness in your life." He looked taken back. "Really?" He asked. "Do you know what the difference between joy and happiness is?" He continued. "Joy is forever, Happiness is fleeting. What you have said sounds very fleeting. I don't feel like you are concerned with my soul at all. You only want me to be happy for a moment." I stood silent for a moment wondering "Who says that?" I got a little annoyed as he continued talking "You two should not be Elders. By the way, Im probably voting for Romney, you have a great day." I said to him as he stood up to walk away "You know. Next time missionaries knock on your door, there is really no need to argue. You can simply say 'I am not interested.' We prefer honesty." He then responded simply "I am not arguing." My companion jumped in before more could go wrong and said "Sir, you are right. We are bringing joy. We intend to make people's lives happier for much longer than just a moment. Thank you for sharing that with us, we will improve on our initial approach to people." The man simply responded to that with more criticisms about us, our positions, and the Book of Mormon. My companion and I left and sat in the car. I was so annoyed. "He's right," said my companion, "we will work on that." I was so impressed. Elder Fukuyasu sincerely learned to take something he learned from trials, even from someone who wanted nothing more than to argue. The phrase "It was a time of Reflection and Learning" rang in my mind again.

While I thought about that during lunch, I realized, first hand, why the Lord sends missionaries where they are. Its not just to simply and easily "flock them to the font" as Jeffrey Holland says, but also for us to grow spiritually. Sometimes we really diserve ourselves. We notice disapointments and harmful actions that come from others and savor the day when "all our loses will be made up if we are faithful." (Joseph Smith Movie) And we don't realize that the Lord intends to teach us in this state of probation. Trials happen for a reason. "And ye are to be taught from on high. Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power, that ye may give even as I have spoken." - D&C 43:16. Sometimes our most important times of teaching from our Heavenly Father are those trying times. Times where we are required to stretch and grow. Instead of leaning to the habit of recieving compensation or restitution, we can look at the blessing of gratitude and instruction. Rejoicing in our trials probably helps the Lord know that we are ready to be "taught from on high."

I'm sure some people wondered what good came from Joseph Smith being in prison during the D&C 121-122 chapters. But it is important to note the blessings Joseph realized. Not only did we recieve two D&C chapters that, in my opinion, are two of the best chapters for dealing positively with trials, but here is what Joseph Smith said about that horrific experience. "Our suffering had not been in vain. Our hearts were made more tender." Wow. I love that. Learning is like fath. In fact probably an act of faith. Like faith, learning is a choice. We can choose to wait for the day that we will have no problems, or we can work through our problems and recieve the strength that everything can truly be made up. I am grateful for that blessing, and I leave that with you all in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen,

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

Sept 4, week of miracles

Meu familia amada,

To start off, thank you for the e-mails sent this past week! They were wonderful! Elizabeth and james! Thank you for the beautiful pictures of olivia and chloe! Mom and Dad, thank you for your loving e-mails! They are fatastic. I love you all.

This week yeilded a plethura of miracles. Three weeks ago had been rough, little success, yet being as obedient as we could. To get into the miracles from this week, let me tell you about an experience three weeks ago. We were really discouraged, no one had been answering their doors. We're getting miracle texts and blasts from all over the mission, and we were sending as many miracles as our prideful eyes could see, but them seemed a far cry from those we were listening to from the rest of the mission. We decided to check on a former. A man who we felt would never change, he never kept commitments, he never did anything we asked him to. But he truely understood the need for repentence and that his life was not in harmony with Jesus Christ. But we went back none the less. So we knocked on his door, his neice answered and said she would get him, but never came back. We left. Walked down the street a little ways and saw a samoan lady. We spoke to her. She showed little interest but agreed to let us come over if we weren't too preachy. Well fast forward three weeks. Here we are - fearing that we would exceed our allotted mileage we parked our car and went about on foot. We decided to drop the samoan lady's house. She was home, she answered, she let us in! We taught the restoration! Cleared up a bunch of misunderstanding! And being a somoan family we recieved 8 new investigators from that. They were ASKING for a somoan Book of Mormon at the end. Beautiful! Of course we can get those to them!

Next, we walk again to another appointment that falls through, We start walking back home for lunch and see this woman sitting on her front porch, we greet her and she says "I already have my own church!" So we share a message anyway. She listens for a little then her husband comes out. We say a prayer to start a lesson off with them. We explain the restoration and they are totally loving it. When we finish the lady who had formally said "We already have a church," stated "do you have an extra copy of that book?" Hmmmm... I think we can manage to get you one. The husband wanted one too. He believed we were a sign sent to him because he was looking for a faith. They committed to read and pray together, and the lady prayed right there with us! Yay! We're coming back this week!

Oh but thats not all! A member brought an investigator to church! We're teaching her! She almost backed out before the first lesson because she read a book that said Mormonism is a cult and it scared her, but we resolved her concerns and made sure to explain that Joseph Smith did not find the plates through being a gold digger. She committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if its true.

Oh but it doesnt end there. We are in a meeting with bishop last Sunday and as we are talking we get a knock on the door. This girl from American Samoa enters and starts speaking to bishop. She explains she moved here with her brother for schooling. Her brother is inactive. She does not want to fall into that as well. She gives bishop her address and requests her records from American Samoa. As bishop is writing her information down we begin asking her questions. We find out, her brother is married. His wife is a nonmember but EXTREMELY interested in the church. We will meet with her this week! Yay!

Oh but it doesnt end there! I felt the spirit super strong at the most random time the other day! It was a good reminder after some trialsome weeks that God loves me. That was a wonderful miracle to feel the spirit that strong. I felt president Faust when he explains "I've felt the fleeting feeling of being foresaken, and the sweet agony in my present calling, but I have been reinforced one hundred fold in the arms of my savior. I feel like I have struggled up a spiritual mount Siani and been transformed at its peak." (That is not exactly quoted, but you can watch Special Witnesses of Christ and hear what he has to say.)

Dearest Family, I love you. You are in my prayers and I feel yours for me. I love you all!

Love,

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not

August 28

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING LOVELL FAMILY!.... And guest. (ha)

If you were wondering why it took so long to get an email out today, its because Elder Lovell was attending the temple! Our zone's day to attend was today, and yesterday's P-day was switched to today because of that. Other than that, some announcements are: Thanks to mom, dad, and elizabeth for e-mails, as well as my trainer, Elder Sparks, Who sent a little note to remind me this is his last transfer. Thanks to mom and dad for the mail I recieved yesterday! Those were truely wonderful, and I loved hearing from all of you. I also recieved a card from the Wylie family! That was pretty cool! Loved hearing from them!

Well, I'm guessing next monday will be another weird P-day because its transfer day. I do not know if I am getting transfered, although I have petitioned the Lord and President Larkin several times to stay here for my whole mission. I have a gut feeling I will get transfered though. We will see what happens.

This week, we put a man named Rob on date for baptism. Unfortunately he hasn't answered the door since. But we have faith he will come along. About three doors down from him, A grandmother answered who's husband had been in the church before he died, and she was very against the church and didn't want anything to do with the Book of Mormon... but she did appreciate us inviting her grandson to young men's night and consented. So we brought the Young Men's president over two days ago and taught a lesson to him and he is probably coming to Young Men's tommorrow evening.

I also taught Gospel Essentials with some pretty short notice. Hopefully I did okay. There was some pretty good discussion. It was about the fall of Adam and Eve and a great discussion stirred to talk about the difference between transgression and sin. It helped me understand some things I have never thought of before.

Ok, Gospel matter for today: That self same grandmother mentioned earlier told me that Joseph Smith denied everything he had done a couple years before he died, but then picked everything back up again. For this I am grateful that my e-mails are posted and available online to the world. I would like to take some time and bear my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. As I sat in the temple today, I asked for an added witness of Joseph Smith's divine calling as prophet of the restoration. As mentioned before my companion and I have faced several criticisms this week about the Prophet Joseph Smith. Persecutions raise more here in Seattle than anywhere else I have been. After my prayer in the temple, I looked around for a book of mormon, however, there was only a Bible available. I simply let the book fall open on my lap, and my eyes jumped to the verse in Matthew "Blessed are they that are persecuted for my name's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I testify of my ever quiet witness today, my pondering awe, and admiration to such a faithful servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ. A Prophetic witness of the Lord has ever been identified by the claim to priesthood power, service to other, wonderful fruits of labor, and, possibly most noticeable, persecution. I testify that Joseph Smith served his Master, Jesus Christ. I testify that he translated the Book of Mormon. I love the words of Elder Holland "He was, and still is faithful." I love my Savior. I am in awe at how he qualifies his otherwise weak servants for mighty tasks. I hope to be as his servants, both ancient and moderen, whose focus was and is on their Savior, who "when [their] body begs for rest, they remember this rallying cry: 'Remember Him!'" (President Eyring) I know Jesus Christ is my Savior. I am with sure with the most assurety I can muster in my soul that this is his restored Gospel, and these things I write in His name, even Jesus Christ, Amen.

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

August 20

Dear Family,

To start off, I would like to say that this week was pretty crazy so I will try to remember who sent me mail this week and I'll also mention the emails that were sent! Mom, I did get the three packages over the last few weeks. Thank you. They have been exterhemeleay helpful. Dad, thank you also for the medicine and the note inside as well as one from Mom. Thank you Dad, Mom, and Erik, for shooting me some emails today. And thank you to Jonathan DeGraff and the Winwards for sending some post this past week. If I missed someone, let me know.

Oh boy. This week was so destroyed. We had all of our investigators, except two, fall off date. But we didn't get discouraged. We just knew summer was in and they left for vacation. We then redoubled our efforts to find, and ran into the most anti people throughout the week. Then Elder Fukuyasu got sick, then to be funny, he coughed on me, which I didn't think was funny because then I got sick, but I got better faster because I took some allergy medication the moment I could feel the symptoms coming on. He is still kind of sick. Ha. We still got more and more obedient and more obedient, and more obedient, and.... nothing happened. In fact, we found out why one of our investigators didn't want to learn anymore! Its because a less active from our ward was giving him dirty things, and encouraging him to look at pornographic magazines! We were so... Frustrated at that less active because we had just been in his house not even a week before, and he expressed desires to meet with the bishop. But this wasn't all for nothing... We had a bad week... But then! Our testimonies skyrocketed this morning. We had a great companionship study. My goodness it was wonderful. We had answers to our questions from our prayers and felt the Holy Ghost.

I have grown to love my ward so much. Wow. They are the best. Our bishop, I dont know if I told all of you this or not, served in Porto Alegre, Sul. Yes, the same exact mission that I was called to! I bronght him a can of Guanana and he loved it. It was the exact kind they have in Brazil. Bishop Dickson is so missionary minded. He is brand new, but he is learning, and he is excellent. He has a goal with the youth to get them outside more, holding more outdoor activities, and getting them involved with us in missionary work. Here in this climate, the sky is cloudy a lot. So often times, very few people are out on the streets. But the bishop sees that there are many things to do besides being inside and playing video games all the time. In fact, in Seattle, (as well as everywhere in the world, but in Seattle in particular) there are so many kids with addictions to video games. Ogh. How I have learned, and even been rebuked by the spirit in the amount of video games I played when I was at home. gross. As a missionary who hopes to speak to anyone, but members in particular today who may have an addiction to video, or computer games, television watching, or any other form of addictive media, let me talk about how this affects you in a spiritual way that is often not touched on.

The Sacrament, is indeed the reason we attend church. It is in essence an ordinance that is "laced throughout our lives" to help us come closer to the Savior and find something to change within the week. The Sacrament is probably one of, if not the most, significant ways we can endure to the end. You have heard it said by prophets both modern and ancient, that enduring to the end is not simply waiting around until the day you lose your testimony, but a way to "step strive, and never yeild." The repentance process, the perfecting process, is never complete in three hours on one day. Instead, it is very much a weekly process. How is it, that someone addicted to flashing lights of virtual muzzles and flying cuttlas can ever be as focused as they need to be to repent fully of their sins during the week.

How I wish that I had listened to my parents on this matter. I pray today that all people, young and old, male and female, who have become addicted to to what seems to be "harmless" media, will heed the counsel of a loving parent and not see it as prideful animadversion. But come to see these distractions as the viperous vainglory they really are. Realize how much time you waste on them. ESSPECIALLY, if you are preparing for a mission. I bear you my witness that the spirit will be more full in your life. You will have more answers to your prayers and direction that will help you. You will come to realize that "the best things in life are not things." And ultimately, the absence of video games, replaced with a fultime preparation for a fultime mission, will bring you closer to your Savior.

I leave that with all of you who read this, and hope it will reach someone that needs to understand this. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

August 13

Mom told me that Jeremy had sent some letters. I have not recieved them yet, I am sorry for not recognizing you Jeremy, but THANK YOU FOR SENDING THEM AND HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Expect something in the mail this week. Thank you also to Ryan, Rachel, Mom, and Dad, who also sent letters! I thank you all also for the gifts that came in the packaging this past week. Also thank you this morning from the pictures and video from Elizabeth, Thanks for the emails from mom and dad. You are all the best!

Unfortunately, Jacobs baptism did not go through. His mom felt he needed a little more time. Oh well, no one can argue with that. The parents do recieve more revelation for their kids that we do.

But we did find yet another miracle this week. We had plans to visit a Former Investigator. We came to the door of this apparentment complex and knocked. A girl in her early 20's answered. "Oh..." We said, "is Joseph here?" She explained nobody by that name lived there anymore. She further explained that she was Catholic. (Those types of situations tend to make us want to hang our heads.) But we just began explaining about the Book of Mormon. We showed her the pictures in the front, spoke about Joseph Smith, how the Gospel path and preisthood are now restored, and she listened intently and answered our questions. She expkained to us that she was pregnant and had moved out of her parents house and is now living with her boyfriend. We talked with her a little more about that, and then showed her the promise in the front of the Book of Mormon and asked if she would say a standing prayer with us, to know if it was true. SHE DID! Wow, it was beautiful! In the prayer she said "Thank you for answering my prayers in knowing what route I should take in religion by sending these two men here today." Then we set her on date for September 15, and she is scheduled to meet us for a church tour this week! Woo hoo!

Plus there is a family really close to where we live who speak spanish. At first we just taught the daughter, now we are teaching the mom, the dad would have nothing to do with it until we brought our friend Danillo who spoke fluent spanish, and now the dad is the most-likely to be baptized in the whole home! That was exciting! Plus their friend also comes to meet with us. And now the Dad is trying to get that friend to come with him to church.

 

All my love,

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

August 6

Dear Family,

This week was a tough one. My companion and I fasted. He is still somewhat discouraged because of some things that happened a couple weeks ago, and to make a long story short, I am just stressed. But what can you do. Thats life. We all have our spiritual mount Si's to climb and so here we are climbing it together. All of our on dates fell off dates except for 2, and that also kind of made us scratch our heads in frustration.

This passed thursday we fasted for a miracle who could be baptized. We came accross our new found friend Jacob. He is an unbaptized child of record. His parents had divorced and made him live by a contract that he could not go to, or investigate, the religion of another parent while at that parents house. The contact lifted when he turned thirteen. As faith, guidance, and hope would have it, he turned thirteen about a month ago. We contacted him out, taught him a lesson, and he wanted to be baptized. He is getting baptized this weekend. Fortunately as well, it brought his less active mother back to church.

Then, right after that, we went accross the street to a couple of men sitting at their porch. We spoke to one who told us "Im a hard man to convert. Dont waste your time." We spoke to him for about an hour, answering question, after question he had. He asked us how we knew Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. :I said "The bible gives a great suggestion. It tells you to look at the results of their labors or 'by their fruits ye shall know them.'" He sat there for a moment. "okay" he said "I'll look into your prophet, and do some research." We smiled. "We have a book for you. It will answer every question you have about us." We gave it to him, gladly. As he walked away he said "Im going to read this. And Im going to ask questions. You better be prepared." "bring it on." I said.

So that was fun. Other than that, we were doubting, but felt promted to visit a former investigator. We went to his home, knocked, and no answer came. but later we found another lady who said we could come back and teach her. We then felt we needed to go see a member. We doubted again. We thought maybe we just wanted to go so we could hang out. But it turned out that that member had four referals for us. That was awesome. I guess I just need to trust in promptings more.

Well I love you. Sorry some of you had to hear about a lot of the negative stuff this week. I love all of you.

Thank you for the gifts everyone! I got them today! That was awesome! New shirt, belt, gift card, tie (FROM ITALY!) Tie pins, lots of awesome socks... did I miss anything? Hope not.

I love all of you. Have a great and blessed week!

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

July 30, 2012

Dear family and friends,

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Thank you for the e-mails from Mom and Dad, the mail from Dad, and the e-mails (pictures and note) from Elizabeth. Thank you for taking the time out of being at the ranch to write me! Chloe is a little girl now! No longer a baby! And Olivia is growing so fast! Precious pictures! Thanks!

Whew, to be honest, I hardly remember this week. There was so much that went on. I cannot wait to get this three week planning program under control so that my mind can wrap around it and remember everything that has gone on. Journal writing has been difficult in this area as there is so much time spent on planning. But today I found the slot that I can make possible by writing in the mornings.

We had a great baptism yesterday evening with Kym! Wow it was beautiful. The handoff to the ward was perfect! Her new home teacher was there, she was baptized by the new young men's president who is really close to her son, the bishop conferred the holy ghost, and it was so very pretty. This woman has had so much trial in her life it is ridiculous. Obviously she will be a great woman in the church because Satan tried everything to keep her from being baptized. It has been really tough for her. But now, she will be recieving new member lessons and we will recommence teaching her son.

Unfortunately we had to drop an investigator this last week. He just was not keeping commitments even after we challenged him three times to pray, he would not. We just aren't completely sure where to go with people that refuse to pray. He is waiting for faith to force him to do something about his drinking and other problems, and that just will not happen. We were pretty foceful with him, and he simply refused to change. So now we just have to find those that are choosing to follow the promptings of the spirit and preparing themselves to be taught by missionaries.

We finally got in contact with an investigator that just seemed to have climbed right out of the teaching pool. Kathleen so wants to get baptized, her mother wants her to as well, but the father is pretty antimormon. It has been sad working to get them baptized, but the Lord defiitely has the power to deliver them. That seems to be the most common problem now days. Oppressive parents. It is kind of a testimony to me that these young children who are coming into the world are truely the noble and great ones. They understand the Gospel and latch on to it, but their parents for some reason have a fear of what they are getting into. We have three people in our teaching pool who fit this category.

I have a question for you all. There is a great promise in the missionary handbook that reads: "Refined, dignified language will CLEARLY identify you as a servant of the Lord." Now, those of you who know me, know my Euphemisms. I use a lot of slang and am really trying overcome that. The white handbook reads futher: "Avoid slang and inappropriately casual language, even in your appartment with your companion or in letters to your family." How I would love to overcome this so that my language could be "that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." (Ephesians 4:29) Will all of you help me to conquer this habbit? I could use all the advice I could get in this area. I feel like the next two things I must sacrifice in my life are these: cracking my joints, and using slang. I will need help and will thank you for it.

I have thought a lot this week about member missionary work. It seems like many members in the wards I have been to have taken a very popular strategy: waiting. "Well, I don't know my neighbors, we'll have to wait and see if something happens," "No I haven't spoken with John at work yet, I'm just waiting for the right moment." and my own personal favorite "We don't know our neighbors." How sad is that? It is truely the epitomy of pitiful to see a member so focused inward that they do not have the time of day to minister to their neighbor. Isn't that a commandment? "Love thy neighbor as thyself?" Do we simply think that the only way to keep that commandment is to passively smile to passersby? This is Christ's true church, and these are the last days of the fulness of times. You may lose friends, and hopefully you do. "Blessed are they who are persecuted for my names sake..." The gospel is not a popular subject in a day of tide-turning politics and ear-shattering news. Of course this work isn't easy. I'm glad it isn't. For those friends I have lost trying to share the gospel with, I am proud. Do I miss them? Yes! Am I sad they are not my friends, yes! But I can stand tall knowing that I planted a seed and that I was not their only chance! I love those with who I shared the gospel, whether they accepted or not. I did my part. I know I can stand tall, even if they aren't my friends, because I stand tall with my best friend of all, my Savior Jesus Christ. I love Him, I adore Him. How I hope I never spend a day any other way than becoming more like Him. I leave that excerpt in the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior and friend, Amen

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

Bishop change

Dear Family and Friends,

Some announcements for ya'll! Recieved all the letters that had piled up because they were still getting sent to the Zone Leaders house and the zone leaders kept forgetting to deliver them to me, (which I didn't know they were getting sent there and apparently my MSF card was sent there and since I didn't know, I called the office and they cancelled the card so now I have to wait ANOTHER week for MSF. Goodness.) So thank you mom and dad plus two for those letters, the awesomely patriotic package, thank you Ryan for your letter, and thank you Dallin for yours (Thanks Levi for your E-mail, hope you read this so you know I cannot respond to you except through Post Mail.)

We had a change of bishop in our ward this week... He moved out of the ward! It was pretty crazy. The new one is Brother Dixon. He is pretty awesome. We probably didn't help the stress at all because the first thing we addressed him with was that our investigator Kymberli was being evicted and needed some financial assistance because she IS working in Deseret Industries and has already surpassed requirements for financial aid. Poor lady. She is awesome. She is so trusting in God, but it is still extremely extremely tough for her.

We are teaching a fantastic family! The Halleys. Sister Halley is a long time convert who served a mission, but has become less active. Brother Halley works for world vision and they don't really like the church and so he has adjusted his view a little bit to coincide with theirs. Sister Halley was so excited to see us and has started attending church again with her beautiful and intelligent daughter, Kathleen. Oh I already told you about that family! well we taught them again this week! They are awesome! Kathleen is fantastic and she understood all of the First half of the plan of salvation that we taught her. She is super intelligent.

Aside from that we met a kid named mitch while we were tracting and he was looking for truth. He was studying science, went to church, and a bunch of other facets to find the truth. But he opened the door to us and heard us out and took the book of mormon very gratefully and promised he would read and pray about it and if he got an answer of its truthfulness, he would call us and ask us more questions and likely recieve baptism.

Well here is something I have thought about for this week. Elder Holland is a genious in understanding the atonement and the personality and commandments of the Savior. He adresses the concerns and several mission presidents and Missionaries world wide who he says will have many occasion to ask: "Why is it so hard?" "It is true..." he said "we believe in angels... the holy spirit... why aren't people simply flocking to the font?" He had a personal opinion to offer. He said it was not doctrine per se. But his thought of the troubles one faces on a mission is because "Salvation is not a cheap experience!" It was paid by the best blood of the world and it wasn't easier for its donner. With the words of president Holland, perhaps this will work as an admonition to aspiring missionaries. "Mark my words," says Holland, "for those who promise to take upon the name of Christ, it means you will have to walk something of the path he walked, to experience something of the journey he experienced, to shed some of the tears he shed. To pay a token, only a token, of what he paid. I am not saying we will suffer anything close to what He suffered, that would be presumtuous and frankly sacriligious... Why would we wonder, why would we think, that it would be easy? Someone much earlier... someone much better, asked the same thing." I testify, that these words are true. Missionaries in the feild and returned from it can probably testify of it too. I hope and pray that all those who desire to someday embark in the service of God, will do all they can to prepare themselves for the challenges they will face. Read the Book of Mormon every day. And I say that in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

July 24, No transfer

BREAKING NEWS! Welcome to the first transfer in which Elder Lovell has NOT been transferred! Hazzah! He lives another day in Dash Point with his Beloved Companion: Elder Fukuyasu! (For your information, Transfer days are on mondays. So every 6 weeks, P-days will be held on Tuesdays.) In other news: Shout out of thanks to the following: Momma and Pappa for their letters and e-mails this week! Some of their questions may be answered in this e-mail. Elizabeth and James Valentine for their many pictures of the ever-growing Olivia, to Elder Thomas Samuel Sparks for reaching out from his new mission as AP in Reno, and to Elder Porter Clark Hanna, his family, and the Nevada, Las Vegas Mission for making sure his letter of about 5 months ago, from Brazil, arrived here in Seattle this week.

And now for news in the Area. (Some names may be changed to protect the righteous) Our investigator, Kim, was supposed to be baptized this week. Unfortunately, the day before she was admitted to the hospital for a severe asthma attack. Her son also did many things to cause adverse situations in her life. Ya gotta love him. Unfortunately her baptism has been postponed until this next weekend. In some ways that is good because perhaps her son could recieve the baptism ordinance that day too. Tonight we are going to go clean up some misunderstandings between the church and herself, and are excited to have that over with. She is still really awesome though. In fact, the day that she had the asthma attack, we took a whole bunch of sticky notes and posted a whole bunch of inside jokes all over her door. We recieved a text from her son that she was laughing and crying about those simultationsly when she recieved them.

We have recommenced teaching former investigator John. Wonderful 18 year old man, who is extremely smart and observant. He is extremely kind and listens intently. Unfortunately only thinks the law of chastity is simply a guideline and that no one will ever come close to being perfect at it because it is just too hard..... We will visit him tommorrow.

Other investigators and questions I may have for some of you may have to remain in more personal situations other than on the blog.

We met with much success this last week in our area, and also much trial. At the peak of our week, we had nine people on date for baptism. Five of those, have remained on date!!! Still great success!!! It has been revealed by revelation from our mission president that at least three people can be baptized in our area by the end of the month! (We think so too!) The Mission President is fantastic, and so far, everything he has ever promised me, either personally or to a missionary as a group, has ALWAYS happened.

I am so happy to hear that the family is enjoying themselves at the ranch. I enjoy all of your e-mails and your letters. There are some things I would like to send back home that I dont need anymore. I have a couple study scriptures in Portuguese that I am not so sure I will need anymore (considering I have more that one of the same book) they are just getting bulky to have. Also that fake Armani Belt that Elizabeth gave me and rachel fixed for me broke in the Provo, MTC. I have missed it grately. I found the belt buckle once again. Would it be worth me sending that home and asking that it be repaired? Or is there simply a similar belt that I could find that has the same characteristics? I have looked. No other belt that I have seen clicks like that. I dont want the belt that has holes in it to adjust its tightness. I would much more prefer the ratchet clicky thingy. Hope that makes sense. it does to me. What I could really really use for my birthday is a couple more long sleeve shirts. I used to only have 2. Now I have close to zero. The first one died when I leaned up against a wall of wet paint while talking to an investigator at her door. The second is almost dead and tearing just below the right armpit. I like the Vanhusen shirts that are long sleeve with the white stripes. Those are nice. WHAT I COULD ABSOLUTELY USE: AN SD Card connector for the computer. OR simply just a USB cable for my camera. I always love stamps, both international and nation-wide. It might be useful to get some envelopes with my adress already printed on them, or something. Ties are always nice. I like Geoffrey Bean. Yellow or blue or gray. A DICTIONARY! That would be awesome! Nothing big, please. Just a pocket, or Electric dictionary! Brown Socks? (I really like those subtle argyle style socks... haha?) If there's anything that comes to mind that is of great importance I will send it through the mail.

So this week, I have been studying in 2 Nephi! The ISAIAH Chapters! Ever since that meeting with Brother Fatheringham, Isaiah has simply opened up to me and I am excited to demystify more! Cool promise in the bible dictionary about Isaiah: If one reads the Book of Mormon, they will better understand the teachings of Isaiah, if they better understand that, they will understand the mission of the Savior.; Cool promise! Look it up in the BD last paragraph under Isaiah. Did you know that there are about 433 verses in Isaiah and about half of them are in the book of mormon? Only 200 of those are quoted with exactness? That means that there is so much more direct translation in the Book of Mormon of Isaiah! Woo! (Find that info in the footnotes under 2 Nephi Chapter 12.)

I also came across something in preach my gospel today that almost winded me. On page ONE, of preach my gospel. This chapter talks a lot about our purpose as a missionary. Our purpose is... yes, I know this already I have it memorized: "To Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them to recieve the restored Gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End." However, the last paragraph on page two kind of made me a little wide-eyed. "Your calling as a missionary is to represent Jesus Christ in helping them become clean." WOAH. What? Yes, thats totally what that purpose I recieted said, but wow, that last sentence is just BLUNT. I never thought of it that way. I think sometimes I just imagine myself declaring repentance to no avail, not realizing that I have to take a walk with my investigator and introduce him to Christ on that walk. Maybe I already knew that. But it just seemed that I now have more of an understanding of why I am here....

I am such an hungered right now. Wow,

Well that was the week in the life of Elder Lovell. I hope every single one of you who read this know of how much I love you. How grateful I am to all of you for the support and prayers you render to me. You are all so wonderful. My hope is that some little strand of testimony can help each of you in my letters, or even, a friend or someone who has never met me before. I want you all to know of my love for Jesus Christ. I stand proudly next to Him, and I declare His gospel. May I assure you that the time I have taken to be away from you all, the money that you have sacrifice for me, and the prayers you offer in my behalf are all be spent in the best ways that I know how. I am not perfect. When I make mistakes, or am lazy, I repent. I am here because of all of you and I am here for my Savior. I love you all, I pray for you all. I know Christ lives. His is my friend. He is my teacher, my master, and my captain. I account this in His name, even Jesus Christ, amen.

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

July 16, Beautiful P Day

Dear Family and Friends,

Announcements: Today is a beautiful preparation day in the Washington, Seattle Mission. The sun is out following a rather cold, cloudy, bone-chilling day (I like those too though, they are different.) I recieved three e-mails from mom! I got dad's letter this week, and his note in e-mail!, I got the several pictures of Olivia from Elizabeth (Olivia is getting quite the personality in that cute little face!) I also recieved the Guanana!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHA! YES! Oh man, that brings tears to my eyes! Thanks for the "Brazilian Soda" Mom and Dad, Thanks for everyone's support and love throughout this week!

This week was zone conference! That was a blast! It changed my mission forever! The mission is now going to use 21-day rollout planning. My companion and I are still trying to get a hang on it. Elder Nelson (The apostle) came to this mission a couple months ago and introduced this type of planning. He said that if, in our nightly planning, we planned for planned for the next week (I.E. if you are planning for the next day, being a tuesday, you plan for the following tuesday as well) Baptisms WILL increase. He then said, if you plan for three weeks out, BAPTISMS WILL DOUBLE!!! So this is the new vision in the Washington Seattle Mission, How excitied I am!

There was a huge focus on Humility at this last conference. If anyone needs to be more humble, it is me. I loved it. it helped me so much. President Larkin made us all turn to the hymn, "Be Thou Humble." What an interesting first verse. "Be thou humble in thy WEAKNESS, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee, shall lead the by the hand and give thee answer to thy prayers." Be thou humble in thy weakness? I thought God "[gave] man weaknesses that they may be humble." (Well ya gotta read the rest of the scripture) "...And my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me that I may make weak things become strong unto them." It is my new desire and goal to be humble in my MANY weaknesses, that I may recieve answers to my prayers and be lead by the Hand of the Lord. I can see the reason for humility in weakness. I have noticed in my life, that sometimes I have felt like I am not doing enough to overcome my weakness. What a dumb thought... I will never overcome my weakness. God will. My job is to be humble so he can SHOW me how to do it. I wonder how many more times I am going to need to learn that lesson.

This leads me to talk about the witness I have recieved this week of the power of humility. This week we put 3 more people on date for baptism. Giving us a total of 7 people on date for baptism! We have 8 total investigators, 5 of them coming to church! Hazzah for Israel! I testify that God is a God of miracles. This week was impossible to do that, but God did it. Somehow, we will meet our district goal for this month of 9 total baptisms and rejoice in the Arm of God.

Unfortunately... President Larkin reached his 2 year mark last week. Which means, my departing interview will not be with him. I love him, perhaps the only man that could give him a run for his charity is my own Dad. (I sincerely mean that dad.) I will definitely miss him. He seems like someone that actually weeps and rejoices with his missionaries and he is so deeply involved with all of our personal missions. I hope I don't judge my next mission president to too high of a standard.

As I close this letter, I would like to add to my testimony of last week. There was a very important part I forgot to add of what president Holland said. I believe it may even be paramount. As he mentioned "The token that has to be paid" He also talked about how each missionary is standing "Shoulder to shoulder with the Savior." As we stand with the savior, he said we have "every reason to stand tall." The Savior is our captain. Fortunately He went forefront into the battle. I love my Savior. I love him with all my heart. I hope something of what I say will help others love him more as well. There are many people on this earth whom I love so dear. To them I am determined to prove faithful. I write this things, in the name of my Savior, my captian, my light and life, even Jesus Christ, Amen.

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

July 15, week in review

Mom told me that Jeremy had sent some letters. I have not recieved them yet, I am sorry for not recognizing you Jeremy, but THANK YOU FOR SENDING THEM AND HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Expect something in the mail this week. Thank you also to Ryan, Rachel, Mom, and Dad, who also sent letters! I thank you all also for the gifts that came in the packaging this past week. Also thank you this morning from the pictures and video from Elizabeth, Thanks for the emails from mom and dad. You are all the best!

Unfortunately, Jacobs baptism did not go through. His mom felt he needed a little more time. Oh well, no one can argue with that. The parents do recieve more revelation for their kids that we do.

But we did find yet another miracle this week. We had plans to visit a Former Investigator. We came to the door of this apparentment complex and knocked. A girl in her early 20's answered. "Oh..." We said, "is Joseph here?" She explained nobody by that name lived there anymore. She further explained that she was Catholic. (Those types of situations tend to make us want to hang our heads.) But we just began explaining about the Book of Mormon. We showed her the pictures in the front, spoke about Joseph Smith, how the Gospel path and preisthood are now restored, and she listened intently and answered our questions. She expkained to us that she was pregnant and had moved out of her parents house and is now living with her boyfriend. We talked with her a little more about that, and then showed her the promise in the front of the Book of Mormon and asked if she would say a standing prayer with us, to know if it was true. SHE DID! Wow, it was beautiful! In the prayer she said "Thank you for answering my prayers in knowing what route I should take in religion by sending these two men here today." Then we set her on date for September 15, and she is scheduled to meet us for a church tour this week! Woo hoo!

Plus there is a family really close to where we live who speak spanish. At first we just taught the daughter, now we are teaching the mom, the dad would have nothing to do with it until we brought our friend Danillo who spoke fluent spanish, and now the dad is the most-likely to be baptized in the whole home! That was exciting! Plus their friend also comes to meet with us. And now the Dad is trying to get that friend to come with him to church.

Anyway, I have to get going to an appointment with the psychiatrist in Seattle! Will talk to you all next week!

All my love,

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

July 8, 2012

Dear Family,

Gotta make this quick, I have about 20 minutes before I need to write president. Gotta get my awesome typing skills in gear!!!!

Annoucnements! Shout out to Mom, Dad, Elizabeth, and Erik for the Awesome e-mails! (P.S. I did not get any mail yet. I seem to remember someone telling me they sent me some stuff. But I dont think that gets here for a total of at least 6 days because the office takes a while to forward the mail to the home the missionary is living in.)

Ok, well this week was pretty tough. Oh my goodness. Bed bugs? Are you kidding me? Satan was just laughing as we had to interrupt a whole days work to effectively clean out our room and call in an exterminator. My goodness. Not fun. Although, it did cause me to organize my mail that I have recieved into a nice neat binder where everything is hole punched. How I enjoyed reading that mail this week.

My companion and I witnessed many a miracle this week! We're teaching a lady, kymberli, and her son Paris. Kymberli is a coffee addict, and has been set on date for baptism on July 21st. That means no coffee or anything close for three weeks!!! So we gave her a priesthood blessing, and she allowed us to take all of her coffee packets and throwthem into the TRASH! Oh gosh! That felt so good. Unfortunately she couldnt make it to church last week because she had a bad athsma attack and went to the hospital. But we are still praying for her!

We also had a part member family open their door to us for the first time!!!! They are the Haleys. All of them except their ten year old daughter, Kathleen (KK for short) are members. And this is because the Husband is a less-active that is worried about loosing his job from a company that hates the church. I think that has made him a little Anti, or just scared of loosing his job. Anyway, we started teaching the ten year old daughter with the mother (Who is so AWESOME and wants so much for her daughter to be baptized.) The Kimberly is so so SO smart and has the best testimony of ANY little girl! She knows the church is true. So we set her on date for july 21st! Her dad didn't like that, so when the mom and Kathleen told him about it, he got really upset and made them cancel our appointments with us and started telling Kathleen why she shouldn't be baptized. But Kathleen simply bore her testimony and confounded her father!!! I loved hearing that. So we'll see what happens with that. I think God put Kathleen in that family so she could reactivate everyone.

Today I finally felt like I started learning to loose myself in the work. That has been something I have struggled with. But finally as I studied this morning, I really felt like I thought about how I could really, truly fit the lesson into the investigator's life and really help them to feel the spirit and know they are loved. I guess stressful weeks really do yeild blessings in the long run! I hope it just keeps on growing. If anyone can offer suggestions as how to loose myself more in this work, send me an e-mail or letter! I love you all!

Your Missionary,

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

June 28 and first baptism

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD Morning Lovell family, friends, neighbors, and pets! Give ear oh earth and hear the announcements for this week!

First off! Thanks to mom and dad for their awesome e-mails! I will hopefully answer all of your questions! Whew! Well, to start off, I am no longer with Elder Aiken and Elder Lindeman. I had to take the spot of another companionship in the same zone when a companion in a different zone had to be emergency transfered. So here I am in the Dash Point Area. Still in the Federal Way zone. We set a soul every day here in Federal Way, with the promise of President Larkin that if we are obedient, we will find one person every month who will be baptized. So far this is holding true. We have three set for this month. By the way, my companion, Elder Fukuyasu, (From Japan) and I have only been in this area collectively about 12 days, so its pretty well white washed and we are starting from scratch. But With this happeneing, I remember the thoughts of my trainer Elder Sparks "Good missionaries are gonna work no matter what. Great missionaries are gonna MAKE things work." So it was just a time to put on our boot straps and go to work!

(By the way, Hyrum, I got your e-mail. Although I do love ya, this mission wont let us e-mail friends. So anything you'll send to me will either have to be through another family member or through the mail. And by the way, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LETTERS! Seriously. Letters are the greatest. Send me a letter will you? Great. I take that as a yes. Thanks for thinking about me!)

I had my first baptism last week! I had to submerge the kid three times! He had the longest name in the world! He didnt even know his own full name! No kidding! Unfortunately the picture of us both is on Elder Aiken's camera and he didn't bring the connecting cable for his camera so I'm going to have to e-mail it to you next week!

My goodness... I think there has only been one companionship my whole mission where I wasn't with a leader. I started in the MTC with Elder Hanna who was District leader, came back home, with the Zone Leaders in NLVM, then the one companionship that wasnt in leadership was Elder Smethurst, then I was with Elder Monsalvo - District leader, then I was here with two Zone Leaders, now Im with Elder Fukuyasu, District Leader. My goodness. The day I can go to a meeting without having to worry about being chosen to say the resetation or some other thing will be a miracle!

Goodness. This week has been a blur. In this mission - we are obedient even unto the sacrificing of our strength. I do not boast in myself or in my mission but I do boast in my God. My goodness, we run from 5-7 pm doing street contacts and tracting. We run home to be on time for planning and sleeping, and then we get up and strive to be exactly obedient to the Morning Schedule. Gosh. I think this all sounds really stuffy. But seriously, I am enjoying being obedient! Sometimes Elder Fukuyasu doesn't like being obedient because he just doesn't think some of the rules make sense, but I am absolutely loving getting better every day!

By the way, I need my driving record transfered from the Nevada, Las Vegas mission to this mission. I'm going to e-mail president Nieder about that today, but could someone back home also try and give him a call just in case. Since I'm with Elder Fukuyasu, I really need driving permission so that he can go on exchanges in other areas and what not. By the way, my companion is awesome, He is the funniest guy, and he is extremely humble. I'd say that is his greatest quality. He is so kind. We live with members and they are awesome. Elder Fukuyasu, however, has flees in his bed that are biting him and he is really chewed up. Thats pretty worrisome sometimes. I haven't gotten bit at all yet. (Im on the top bunk.) All though, when I was getting into the shower yesterday, a huge spider crawled off my leg... I was suprised at how much I didn't react. I just moaned a little and jumped back. I laughed at how tiredly I reacted. It was funny. Speaking of all these bugs. we were working at a member's house yesterday and there was this huge slug... GROSS! Biggest slug I have ever seen (Besides harry potter and the chamber of secrets movie) and she stepped on it! Yea, and I beheld that much water and grossness came forth insomuch that I was astonished BEYOND ALL MEASURE. (Thought you'd like that mom.)

Well, I need more time to write in my journal but thats about the only thing I am regretting right now, I feel like this is where I need to be. The Lord's going to reveal the reason one day at a time! Well I gotta go! I have 18 minutes to put in my key indicators and write president! I love you all! bye!

--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004

1st Epistle from Washington

Dear Family and Friends,

The first E-Epistle of Elder Lovell, taken from an account of his service among the people of Seattle:

1 And Behold I say unto the remnants of Nevada, Las Vegas, that I percieve that much confusion has come about concerning the way in which you should write me letters.

2 Behold, my heart does rejoice, because there is a way, and the way is plain, nevertheless to find the address to my mission does take dilligence, yea even a mustard seed of dilligence.

3 yea, and you must search the blogs which have been created, yea even by the hand of my brother, Erik Lovell, and find the recorded and unabridged account of my service.

4. And when you have come to this point, even unto the obtaining of my address, behold I say unto you, this is not all. Yea ye must fold the paper which you enscribed thereon and envelope it, even with an envelope. And then after ye have accomplished this thing, I would ask, rather your country, yea even the United States of America would ask, that you stamp it and enscribe the address you obtained by the reading of the blogs, or the account of my mission by the hand of my brother.

5. Therefore after ye have accomplished this thing and even sent the letter into the mail box, ye will find that I shall recieve it, and great shall be my joy and I shall write back to you, that mine and your joy may be one.

Wow... that took a while, I'm not doing that again I dont think.

This mission is awesome! whew! Beautiful area! Wonderful people! I walked into three baptisms set up for this week! I already love my companions. They are wonderful. Elder Aiken? and Elder Lindeman..? I believe that is their names. Anyway, they are magnificient. This mission is really obedient. I can already tell. They only are allowed to listen to hymns that are playable in a church meeting. They love the Lord, Sometimes I feel like some missionaries are a little over the top and just need to calm down about how awesomely obedient they are, but thats just me and I probably need to humble myself too. But yeah, I went to the mission home for lunch, we had a dinner and talked about all the baptisms everyone is having this weekend. Its apparently a regular occurance in this mission! This is the sixth baptism my companions have had this transfer! I just hope I dont ever get stuffy headed from how obedient people here strive to be. That would be awkward and annoying.

I love my president, He is great. He is a very sarcastic man, which is awesome. He is fantastic. His son plays saxophone. My goodness. That is exciting. His marching band marched in the Rose Bowl parade! So thats pretty exciting! I hope I get to play his saxophone a couple of times when I am in the area.

The mission is extremely small. We only have one ward per companionship which is great. My companions talk to EVERYONE about the gospel. Mind you, I have only been with them for 2 hours and I am like wide-eyed at how much work they are doing. It is wonderful. They are also sincere, I think, which is a plus. So, I am extremely glad to be here.

Well... I think the address I sent is right. Could someone try to look it up to make sure? I think some of the spelling might be wrong. But I am pretty certain it is correct. Anyway, I dont have long! I love you all! I only get an hour on these library computers so I will make sure I have this email send and end right now! You are the best! Write me! I cant wait to tell you all how my first week goes!
--

Elder William Lloyd Lovell

Washington, Seattle Mission

10675 North East Street

Bellevue, Washington 89004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

New Address

Here is William's new address in Washington.

Elder William Lloyd Lovell

Washington, Seattle Mission

10675 North East Street

Bellevue, Washington 89004

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

June 11

Dear family, (President Degne and Sister Degne included!)

Announcements and apologies first:

Rachel, I am dearly sorry for not seeing your letter! However the good news is that I found it in the package!!!!! AHHH! It was awesome and I am sorry I did not see it. But I read it! You should be getting a letter back! As well as elizabeth and james. I am sorry for announcing the surprising news! I have a letter nearly finished for you in my binder all about that. Thank you Rachel for writing me, and sorry for not seeing your letter. Thank you Elizabeth for writing me and sorry I told everyone about the surprise. Elizabeth, another thanks for the pictures of Oliva. How cute! AND A VIDEO! YAY! Dad thank you for the two letters last week! Mom thank you for the letter as well as the package! Loved it! I now have two new photos showing proudly on my desk! Oliva and Chloe! Yay! Dad, mom, erik, and elizabeth thank you for your e-mails. As well as Uncle Mike from last week! I did read your email last week and plan to reply today. Last week was so crazy. I was getting tossed around like a rag doll.

HA! I love my new area! What are people saying? No idea! But I love it! Biking is sweet! My companion is awesome! Elder Monsolvo is awesome, obedient, and a little bit trunky, but he works through it! Woo! I am already really enjoying this new companionship a lot. The first three days were a little discouraging, (So Elizabeth and James sorry if your letter is a little bit of a downer.) But I have definitely enjoyed it so far. I must admit, I dont enjoy spanish. What I do enjoy is giving blessings and serving people. I have had to give three blessings (in english) here already. PLUS! There is ONE portuguese speaking woman in the ward who is trying to understand spanish. I have special permission from the district leader (My companion) to leave the area to teach her because I am the only portuguese speaker around! Woooooo hoooo! I stil can speak it! We had a great conversation at church on sunday. What a nice lady. (For the record, I dislike the keyboard I am typing on right now.)

Well this week has been a blur for me (If I hit the caps lock button one more time, I may destroy this keyboard) We sent off Elder Monsolvo's companion to Mexico this morning. (His visa finally came.) Before I was serving with Elder Monsolvo, I was filling a gap with Elder Liedecker, who was waiting for his trainee from the MTC. Oh man, Elder Liedecker and I had an amazing time. He was given a car to drive for the first time in his mission. Boy oh boy, he drove like a Las Vegan. He fit right in. I was pretty sad when I had to leave him. He was awesome. He was so kind and he is so pumped about missionary work. He seems to be really obedient and looks for a blessing in everything and therefore, he was blessed more. The area seemed to be growing before our eyes just in one day while I was there. He got a call from the bishop giving him a referal, and then the lady accross the street from the appartment called him and told him she thought the missionaries were so kind, she wanted to have lessons. So he has a potential investigator, RIGHT NEXT STORE! IT WAS AWESOME! Plus, we recieved a referal that was spanish speaking, so we sent it to Elder Monsolvo, and now I am serving with him. I sent myself a referal! How often does that happen! (Wow, I am a dork.)

This area, is going great, from what I can understand. I esspecially like Miguel and Maria. They are flakey, but they feel the spirit when we come. They understand they need to come to church, its all about just taking that next step. The ward is AWESOME though. I get to study my scriptures a lot because if I dont, I will fall asleep because I dont understand a thing! Yeah! But seriously, The ward is so humble. They love us, and they are extremely sincere. Its actually kind of fun to talk with them. They sincerely try to understand my portuguese as I really try to understand their spanish. Some of our investigators however, pretend to understand my portuguese. I never realized how obvious it was until people started doing it to me. So I try not to pretend anymore. I just ask them to repeat, slower, and slower or to reexplain until we understand each other. It has been a blast though! Wow.

(Interlude: William's medical case has just been reviewed and sent to the 12 to see what happens. Hopefully we'll know soon!)

Hope I filled you in well! I love you all! Hope I recognized everyone that wrote me letters and sent e-mails and packages. I LOVE YOU ALL! Couldn't be out here without you! Its pretty humbling.

Love, your missionary,

-- 

Elder William Lloyd Lovell

Nevada, Las Vegas Mission

9270 S. Maryland Pkwy. 

Las Vegas, NV 89123 

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

June 4th

Dear Family,

I am loosing my mind! Gah! My companion got a call last night and was told he was going to train in his next area. So I know I am definitely leaving this area. However, I get to the Library and find out that I dont have a transfer assignment... hold on the Zone Leaders are taking me outside to call president.... Ok Got a call now. I'm going to Paradise. My new companion is Elder Mansalva. No idea who that is. My Trainer says he is awesome though and speaks very little english and a lot of spanish. Whew. That was nerve wracking. Thats going to be awesome though. Whew...

My Trainer, Elder Sparks is being sent to the area that is a stepping stone to be Assistant to the President. So in two transfers my father will be AP. He is pretty stoked. He'll be really really good.

Man, bittersweetness to the max. We had a great week this week. We set Samantha for baptism at the end of the month and also recieved 4 new investigators and one attended church. 3 of the 4 committed to read the book of mormon introduction and we have a 5th investigator upcoming. Elder Smethurst's trainee is going to have a blast in his first area. But I am ready to go. Oh man. Had a good time, but I am so so so ready to go. My goodness.

Couple of announcements to start off after the grande um. Thank you for the e-mails. Elizabeth your pictures are awesome. But, Elizabeth, you better hold on and read all the way to the end of this letter because you are in so much trouble! Ogh! And mom, I am sad you got released from being a seminary teacher. Don't know if you are. I am sure you will enjoy the sleep. But it seemed like you always loved teaching those kids and it is very clear that you will be so missed by everyone there. Thank you Erik for your large e-mail. That was awesome. I read down to the part in quotes but had to stop because I needed to make sure I get this letter into the family. But again thank you very much and know that I love your letters and e-mails, even if I am doing horrible right now at getting mine out to you.

Woah... my mind is just on... i dont even know mode. I am ready to jump for joy that I am getting transfered and am yet really kinda sad because I have no idea where I am going and I will miss my trainer and Elder Gott, a lot. I am also extremely thirsty at the moment. Not so much hungry. Uhm actually food sounds pretty gross at the moment.

Let's see.......... ELIZABETH! WHAT THE HECK! YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU WERE EXPECTING WHAT THE HECK! Oh well. Maybe I just didnt see. But I got the letter from mom! CONGRATULATIONS! Keep me up to date constantly!

Hold on, I have an idea, I am going to sum up this transfer in a couple of pictures and a video. One second. Well that doesnt work. Ugh. Can you all send me a cord to plug my camera into the computer? I forgot one and I really would like one to send home all my pictures! Thanks!

Whew, ok well. I have been having some great personal studies these last few days. Inspired from the pages of Preach my Gospel esspecially the content in chapter two, one can find a plethura of cocophnious ways to enhance personal study. Implimenting new ways to look at chapters, such as summarizing, specific marking. and effective pondering will unlock revelation very personal and unique to the individual. (I'm try to find a place to include the word Venacular in here somewhere because I've been implimenting that one into my vocabulary with the help of one of our recent converts. and again I am totally being funny.) Anyway, take 2 Nephi Chapter 31 for example... 2 Nephi 31. The Second book of Nephi 31st chapter. Chapter 31 of the Second book of Nephi, otherwise known as 2 Nephi.

Nephi begins to state, I believe in verse three (I dont have my scriptures) that he delights in plainness, for after this manner does the Lord work among the Children of Men and speaks to the unique understanding of each individual. How fantastic is that? My goodness, I can only survive on plainness. I am so glad the Lord works that way. Nephi begins to then make a list of things God's children must do in order to enter into the kingdom of God (This should be found on the second page of 2 Nephi 31 on the right hand column). How simple the list is. Have Faith, Repent, and be baptized. Then when you enter in the gate, you are NOT done. There's still some things to do. Continue with a steadfastness in Christ. How do you do that? Well Nephi gives a list on how to do that. I cannot rightly remember everything that is in the list but it is cool.

Nephi then finishes: THIS IS THE WAY. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.

In the past I have reguarded this as almost a little bit of sternness. But last time I read that, I read it with a sense of releif. I imagined Nephi, in modern terms, saying "This is the way... and thank goodness there is no other way. This is all you have to worry about in your test. You can just keep practicing this over and over and over and thank goodness that is all we have to do because I delight in plainness and my brain can't really handle much more."

It is my testimony that the Lord works in plainness. For "in plainness no man can err." - 2 Nephi (cant remember chapter but it is a footnote to plainness in chapter 31.) Thank goodness the Lord does that. Because I know I can make things much more complicated.

Family, I love you I hope everything is going well, keep on the way! I love you all so much.

Love,

-- 

Elder William Lloyd Lovell

Nevada, Las Vegas Mission

9270 S. Maryland Pkwy. 

Las Vegas, NV 89123 

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

May 21

Dear Family,

Some items to take care of. First is a thanks to mom and dad for bringing me some goodies along with my bike last night! Thank you very much! Did Elder Marble also mention anything about a DMV printout? I need one of those to submit along with my papers for obtaining permission to drive in this mission. So any news/help/update on that would be much appreciated. Elizabeth sent me several pictures, as well as a rebuke for not writing her a letter today. :) That was fantastic and much deserved. Please expect letters in the mailboxes, I have been trying at least, in fact I did by my first batch of U.S. Stamps this week. As an announcement to mom and dad, I did call brother Hedger and left a message on his phone to meet with president Jones on where the future of my mission lies. Thank you for the reminder. I love you all for your love and support and letters to me. Thank you very much.

And now for an update on the area. Here's whats happening in our neck of the woods. This past week was pretty good. The gears are still grinding and we're trying to oil them, but the work and foundations of new programs seem to be underway. Elder Smethurst and I found two formers, one of them is a part member family, and the other is a man who never converted but was married to a mormon woman. He was very cordial, but had been taking missionary lessons for about 40 years. So both of those seem pretty satisfied with where they are at in their lives and actually both of them have had missionaries on and off throughout their whole lives. But Elder Smethurst and I will get them. Just a lot of role playing. That will do the trick.

Aside from that, we are getting a family history project underweigh for one section of our area, and then we'll spread it out. We are pretty excited. We have some "in's" with a couple of HOA's and so we're trying to get service projects there to set an ensample for the inhabitants thereof. Something that I brought up with Elder Smethurst that we are trying to figure out how to do is to help our youth get more involved in the missionary work. They always seem pretty excited to help out. So we are starting to seek advice from the youth quorum leaders. In fact we visited the Deacons quorum president of seven hills last night. We explained to him his awesome power as a president of his quorum. He is already doing a rescue effort for their only inactive deacon who has an oppresive father who will not let him attend. So the deacons, under the direction of their zealous president, have sought freindship from this lost member. We are scheduled to meet with the Teacher's quorum president in anthem this week.

Baptismal plans are underwiegh for two formally excommunicated members of the seven hills wards. Brother Gary was supposed to attend church this last week to talk with Bishop Messina about getting baptized since he almost lost his life from lack of oxygen to the brain. However, he did not attend. The other excommunicated member, however, is extremely excited to have the missionaries over. We have been teaching him, and quite successfully. We have a good relationship with his children, expecially one of his sons to whom we gave a blessing for the sick and afflicted. Tonight we are discussing patriarchal blessings per request of one of the younger daughters who seeks to obtain such in a later time. (Yes that last sentence was purposefully stuffy, I am just being ridiculous.)

News about Brazil -

I heard from two of my friends from Brazil. Elder Cox, my companion from Provo, and Elder Green, an Elder from my district in Brazil CTM. Oh Elder Cox's letter was extremely touching. I loved hearing from him. Elder Green told me that another Elder from our district in Brazil was sent home. Elder Moat became really really ill and is actually released from missionary service. That leaves only 5 of us from our Brazil district still Brazil, and only 7 of those still in working condition. We are under fire. Man. 

This brings me to my lesson learned this week.

I absolutely love President Brigham Young. His was a fantastic president and arduous apostle. He is frequently compared (by missionaries) to Elder Holland of Latter-days. He stood up against the most ravening rebellious apostles of Joseph Smith and put their sorry speeches to shame. The doubter of God or one of his servants could only doubt himself when Young was through with him.

One of my favorite accounts of Brigham Young after the journey from Zion's Camp. We know that the Zion militia actually never saw any real battle but that the hand of the Lord protected them. However, those who had spent countless hours in the humid grilling sun marching with a musket and completing a rigorous journey plus military training, began to murmer. Many had felt they had gone and returned in vain. In fact, upon returning home, a well to do man, dressed in his fancy apparel, looked up at Elder Young sitting upon his horse drenched in sweat and wearing merely tattered work clothes, and said, snidely "Well, Brigham what did you gain from this little trek?" Elder Young looked down and smiled and said "All that we came for. I wouldn't trade what I learned from the prophet for the wealth of this whole county."

As I heard the news about Elder Moat, I was a little discouraged. I thought to myself "What is the purpose of the missionaries encountering such unbearable trials while in the Lord's service? What do they get out of that? It's not fair." I got on my knees and prayed, read my patriarchal blessing and then pondered for a moment. As I pondered, the account above came into my mind. My answer to "What do they get out of that?" is simply - "All that [they] came for." I am sure they will not trade the relationship they gain with the Savior for the wealth of the world.

It is my prayer that when delay, or dissapointment comes, we will remember what we came to this earth for and realize, we are definitely getting what we came for.

I love you all. Thank you for your support, letters, and love.

Sincerely,

-- 

Elder William Lloyd Lovell

Nevada, Las Vegas Mission

9270 S. Maryland Pkwy. 

Las Vegas, NV 89123 

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

7 May

You can tell William is getting into his missionary work because his emails are getting shorter :)

Dearest family,

 

Happy mother's day! Mommy, I hope you enjoyed the e-mail I sent you! I believe I will be able to skype this weekend! Long time no see right? Send me your skype addresses. If I dont skype I am sure I can call.

 

Man, this week was a blur. We have visited member after member, after member, and less-active after less active, but we still only have pretty much 1 solid investigator in our teaching pool. If you can count her as solid. That one is samantha who is having all the problems with smoking and being pretty much held hostage by her roomates. (Refer to last weeks email for more information on that breaking news.)

 

However, we stopped by one of our ward missionaries houses, brother Ericho, two nights ago. We brought up an idea of maybe doing service for the HOA's around here, just as Ammon did of old. Hopefully we can cut off some arms too. That'd be fun! But we also thought of organizing missionary parties within the gated communities as well. So we're excited for that new approach. I'll make sure I remember to keep you informed on every step of progress on thaty front. We are also thinking of signing up as "clergy" for the St. Rose hospital. (it says we can do those things in our planners so, dont think Im apostatizing.)

 

The only other thing of huge significance this week was the baptism of Richard Lopez. He is absolutely fantastic. Our last meeting with him will be this week as we hand him over to the ward members to be taught the member lessons. So that will be pretty exciting.

 

grr... aside from that, nothing too exciting. we're just kind of waiting up for this P-day to be over so we can implement our new goals.... yeah.

 

 

Wow... pretty uneventful week I am really struggling to know what to say.... hmmm... Oh I know, my companion is pretty much stricken with the plague. First he had really really bad diareah and was close to barfing throughout the day so we kind of had to come home early about 4/7 times this week. After he got over that he got some really bad bug bites or hives or something and they itched so much he had to come home again. So I gave him itch cream, told him to take a bath, wash his sheets, yadayadayada. He couldn't even do nightly planning he was so eaten alive.

 

How is the family going? What are ya'll doing for mothers day??? Make mommy breakfast please! Mom, hope you have a great week! I love you so much!

 

Thats pretty much the news this week. Hopefully have more next time. I'll try and send you all some more personal emails with the time I have left.

 

Love you all! 

April 23 - April 30

Dear Family,

Well well well. I am not getting transfered to Reno. I am staying in the greenvalley zone. I am getting transfered to the Anthem area. I have the inspirada, summerville?, and somethin or other ward. There's three of them though. But I know inspirada well because I went to a meeting with them and they have an excellent Ward Mission plan. They are serious about working with the missionaries and understand the need for members doing the finding and NOT missionaries. The fact that that area is pretty much a bunch of gated communities makes it pretty much essential that the members work with the missionaries.

Elder Sparks is still my zone leader... and OPE! HE just got his girlfriends ring size in an e-mail. They are probably going to get married in December... on the 19th. Yes he has that ridiculously planned out. I cannot even include a hundredth part.

Elder Adjei is getting transfered and he is training. My grandfather is dying this transfer. Thats gonna be sad. But hey, I still have the birthwright! That was in jeopardy if I went to Reno because I'd be considered dead. But I still have it! Woot! Ok, Elder Lovell, calm down, you're a little intense with these things.

Well we cleaned out our teaching pool mostly. Had a baptism about 2 weeks ago. Her name is Chelsea. She is solid. She even came to the fun run this last weekend and I think ran a 5K. Yeah, she's going to be "twinkled." Kathy... she needs to be rebuked. I wish I was going to stay just so I could do the rebuking. She is putting the secular things of the world above Eternal Life. What the! But she is still really really nice. She just needs to really put in some sincere honest effort to get an answer. And its not like she doesnt know how for heavens sake! She almost a Ph.D. Sure she's working on a dissertation for college... but thats besides the point. If she got baptized she would get the spirit and therefore have more inspiration to do it correctly.

Hmmmm.... what else is happening in this zone of note. The ward mission work is going great! Wow, the Legacy ward just has this awesome ward mission leader! He is getting things done! In fact he and the full-time missionaries are going to teach a lesson this week on the importance of members inviting people into their houses to recieve the missionaries. I would like to maybe take a few minutes and encourage members of the Lovell family (and others if they read this) to take on this new inspired approach. Basically the missionaries no longer want to tract out your referals. Member homes are a stake for the spirit. They are the most basic conduit of where the love of the Lord can be most palpable. I encourage members of our family spread throughout the world to invite people into their homes to feel the spirit. You do not have to make them recieve the missionaries on the first visit. Just maybe have them start coming over for dinner a couple of nights a month. Then tell them later "We had the missionaries over a while back for dinner and man they shared some great things with us that made us feel great and gave us strength throughout our week, do you mind if they show up to the next dinner appointment we have together? They are really nice people and I think we'd have a great time!" So Lovell family, will you try that over the next 4 months? Pray for someone you can invite in your homes to feel of the spirit and eventually recieve the missionaries? We'll do a follow up later - in four months.

-------------------------------------------

Finally, for my short little discourse of the week. In the 10th chapter of Preach My Gospel - "Teaching Skills" there is a section about Listening. Oh! Wonderful section. I wish people would do it more in this mission. Its something many struggle with. But I dont wish to touch on that section as a whole today, rather, focus on a question that Elder Holland asks us as missionaries to ask our investigators. "What do you Cherish?" "what do you hold dear?"

Be careful what you say. Seriously. It has taken me a long time to realize this. For the short time I have been on my mission I have learned this key lesson in a rather trialsome way. When we as members, of our faith or even others, are asked what we cherish, perhaps our first response will be: Prophets, modern day revelation, the spirit, the scriptures - Book of Mormon or Bible. These are all extremely important. Some of which, if they were taken away, the very structure of the church would collapse and even be useless.

Those who know me well, have heard of my trials with dyslexia. They were tough. As I look back and see how I was able to help others with those experiences, I realized how central the scriptures, esspecially the Book of Mormon was, in helping me get through that process. In my testimony, I often said "it was the power of the Book of Mormon that healed me." And I spoke of its truth and divinity. Now before you think I am going down a radically rebellious path, I would like to make something very clear. I do not discredit or lessen the power that comes from drinking from the pages of the Book of Mormon. In fact I testify to everyone, member or not, that if you read and pray about the Book of Mormon, you will feel the power of it effect your life tremendously and YOU WILL GET AN ANSWER THAT IT IS TRUE. However, the purpose of this discourse is to cite where the power of the Book of Mormon comes from. Perhaps all too often, we mistake the keystone of our religion for the keystone of our salvation, as I did. My testimony should not have been that "The Book of Mormon healed me." Because frankly, it did not. It was a conduit for healing. A catalyst for faith and works. But my healer came from my master, Jesus Christ. I testify that he is the keystone of our SALVATION. He is our Master, King, SAVIOR, and Teacher. My mission is not to bring you or anyone else to the LDS church. My mission is to represent Him and bring people to Him.

All my life, I have searched for that one thing that I could do to obtain happiness in this life and Eternal Life in the life to come. Surely the Book of Mormon is an excellent source for that nutrition, as it says almost those exact same words in its introduction. However, the Central, Core, Heart, Life, of everything we do. The way we obtain peace in this life and Eternal Life in the life to come, is through our Master. He's not secondary, He does not make up the difference, He is the difference, He is the church, He is the law. He is the way, the light, and the life, and whosoever believeth in Him shall never perish, but shall have everlasting life. I testify of His divine existance, and that He suffered for you and me. I testify that because I have seen the effects of it as surely as I can see the sunshine and feel the heat from its rays. How I ove and cherish Him. That we all may put Him in the center of our every belief, thought, motive, and action (D&C 6:36) is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

April 30

Dearest Family,

Well, Mom, Elizabeth, Chloe, and Olivia pretty much have the most recent and accurate portion of summary of which I will recount to the rest of you. But first let us start with some items of bussiness.

I would like to congratulate Elizabeth on the numerous e-mailed pictures of the two finest nieces in the world. Also Erik, for two really excellent e-mails. And dad for the letter I recieved this morning via mom. I understand there is another letter that I have recieved along with dad's but was pretty much wrenched out of the door to write e-mails this morning and still have not had a chance to read the entirety of Dad's letter, nor even look at the sender of the phantom letter. However, those will be taken care of, pronto. (The way english people use "pronto" is stupid by the way. They have no idea what that means. Dumb. (Yes I just used it the dumb way.))

This week has been fantastic. Let me pull out my planner to give you a clear account on the record of this my people. Hold on... one sec... Ok now  I just have to unbotton the planner, hold on... Lets see.... week 1... and... tuesday.... wait no... wednesday... aha! Apparently we didnt do anything that morning. But thats a little understandable because I had language study so there isnt much to do from then until lunch, so I think we took lunch and then went out and started at 12:00. Ok, we stopped at Sister Holden's house, but she wasnt awake, her maid or someone answered the door and said she was lying down. We then visited kim Melville. She is French! Wonderful woman. She has some different ideas about health. She believes that if you drink H202 (in other words adding an oxygen supplement to your water :p), then you will never get cancer and apparently it cured her arthritis. She thinks the pharmesutical (sp?) companies dont want to tell you the truth about medications and self-cure solutions because then they would go out of bussiness if you permanently cured yourself!!! Other than than that she is very spiritual. But less active I think.

Lets see, asiude from her it was pretty uneventful until dinner and then we met with the owens.... I have to wrack my brains here and remember who they are... OH YES! Brother owens is the assistant district attorney. He put OJ away. He is a pretty serious individual but says some really sarcastic things and sometimes its hard to tell if he is really joking or not. Nice family, we challenged them to think of people they could invite into their homes to feel of the spirit there. Apparently brother owens has been trying... in fact, tracting people in his area because he knows missionaries cant tract in the gated communities and he says people there are just too stiff necked. So we challenged them to pray about someone they could invite and also promised them that someone would come to mind.

Lets see... what were some cool highlights of this week. OH yeah! I inherited a baptism in this area. We will be holding a baptismal service this week for Brother Richard Lopez. Great, fantastically faithful man! Wow. He has cancer and could die so he is getting the baptism done as fast as he can. He comes to church and asks so many questions and the thing is, he can remember enough about what he has learned that we can delve deeper into more of the culture of Mormonism. Tell him how the mission is set up, talk to him more specifically on how prophets recieve inspiration and he understands and ACCEPTS it all! Oh man, wonderful wonderful person. Hopefully, we find out that the cancer is treatable and that he wont pass. But if he does, he KNOWS exactly what he is doing. Its going to be a wonderful service.

In the Sevenhills ward, we have a wonderful ward mission leader named Brother Lee. Hilarious person. At first I saw him when I was with the Zone Leaders at the stake mission meeting, and I didnt think that highly of him. He seemed really bored with his assignment and not wanting to talk too much. But then, now that I am in his ward, he is fantastic. We are setting up a great plan with him to have a missionary cook-off type thing every month to create that opportunity for members to always have something they can invite a friend to. That way its never too awkward for them to bring someone to church or what have you. He is fantastic. It seems like our personalities kind of clicked and we are just so sarcastic and are usually just cracking up all the time. This brings me to a favor to ask. Sister Lee says she has an inactive sister from her family in OUR stake as in YOUR stake, mom and dad. She lives in the Paradise Hills ward. She was wondering if maybe you could visit her or find someone we know from the ward to visit her and her family. Her name is Susy Barlow, her husband is Jim Barlow and they have a son named Connor. They live on 198 Ridge Crossing. Sister Lee's family was converted when she was younger but only she and her mom remained active. Her sister, Susy always calls Brother Lee when she needs a blessing and knows the gospel is true but just "doesnt have time for church." So if you could visit them or have someone else visit them, that would be fantastic!

Two days ago, Saturday, was my favorite day of this week! We went to Brother Mooseman's (an excommunicated member) house to help him paint the roof so that he wouldn't get fined by the HOA, but found out he was in the hospital because he wasnt getting oxygen to his lungs. We still helped his wife paint the roof, but then made plans to see him in the hospital sunday. After that service gig, we went to Brother Lee's house again to help him with his pool (dont worry we didnt not jump or fall in. BUT HE DID HA!) That took a couple of hours and then they gave us lunch. After them we went and visited some members and then went down to our dinner appointment. We were a little early for the appointment so we parked the car and walked around the neighborhood searching for people to street contact. We saw some hispanic people working outside of a person's home and asked them if they needed help. They agreed. So in our shirt and ties we began shovelin' rock and dirt! It was fantastic! The workers said they had seen missionaries before but never had a chance to talk because they had such busy work schedules. So before we left for our dinner appointment we left them with our number and told us to call them again and agreed to teach a lesson next time while we helped them shovel rock. FANTASTIC!

One fun fact as I border my spiritual moment... Sister Hepburn (Who I will tell you more about in this next upcoming paragraph) Has a son named Riecher. Yes, as in William T. Riecher. So when he answered the door and told me his name, I said "do you know who you are named after? A famous spaceship captian!" and sister Hepburn (his mom) said "YES! I am so glad you said that! We are trying to tell him that! He hates it though, its so disapointing. When he gets into late high school, and early college he'll realize how cool that is." (true that!) She said also that she asked her husband to give him a baby blessing to "bodly go where no man has gone before" HAHAHA! Oh loved it. Thought you would too. No? Ok.

So now, for the spiritual finalle. We're teaching a girl named samantha. Probably in her mid-twenties. She is in a bad lot in life. Her parents didnt raise her very well. She was allowed to do whatever she wanted with no consequences and frankly they just didnt really care about her. So we have been working with her a lot just to plant that seed of faith. She feels like God is dissapointed with her and also she doesnt know if she trusts God. She wonders why God didnt keep her brother from commiting suicide. Why didnt He give him the strength. She has been suicidal too and has been feeling like whenever she tries something, she fails miserably no matter how much work she puts behind it. And she does try. She REALLY tries. But since she has shown the faith in continually meeting with us, her countenance has begun to change. She is happier and she also has a job! She started her own bussiness of dog grooming! Fantastic. And she has a direction to go. Anywho, while we were talking with her we discussed more of her concerns about God not wanting to help her because she doesnt think she has sufficient faith. She thinks she cant have any doubts if she wants an answer. (Boy I have fallen into that trap a lot.) So Sister Hepburn (mentioned above) was with us and pretty much recited Alma 32. Faith being like a little seed. If planted it will grow. Fantastic! The were able to talk girl - to - girl for a little bit. Then I told her about how worthy men carry the priesthood and if she'd like a blessing for faith and comfort, we could give it to her. She seemed willling but kind of sarcastically said "Well what would that blessing entail?" and I said "Well, lets put it this way, if Jesus Christ were here right now, what would you ask Him for?" She said.... "Well... thats a hard and really good question............... I would ask that I could be reborn. Not just your form of spiritual rebirth, but physical re-comming out of the womb. Because if I were to be reborn your way, I'd still have my felonies, all the bad things people will think about me etc." For a moment there was silence. Then I said "It seems like you want physical proof of your 'rebirth' and maybe things being right between you and God isn't just quite enough. Is that what you're saying?" and she said yes. And so I promised her as a representative of Jesus Christ that if she did what we told her and continued to meet with us, she would see those changes and her faith would grow. It was sweet! I felt scared. I couldnt believe I felt confident enough to say it. But I did. Then we gave her a blessing. And Elder Smethurst promised her those exact things in the blessing. It made me cry. Gosh dang it. But she was funny she said "God kind of intimidates me."

So that was a great experience. Aside from that all. I miss Elder Sparks and Elder Adjei, but this new companionship is going pretty well. Anyway sister Neider just called so we might have to leave here a little early. I love you all so much! Remember to make your family mission plans.

With much love,