Looking Forward To Conference!

I'm so glad that the race went well. I'm a bit jealous that you went to moab. I'm really starting to miss the scenery in Utah with the red rocks and beautiful scenery, but I'm still happy with the weather so I guess that will have to make up for it for now. :) How are you doing now with all the babysitting and other things that seem to always keep you two busy? I'm sure the office is done by now right dad? How's that working out? And how's Elder Pinder? Whenever we have a Spanish family come I'm so excited because they are so receptive to the gospel and then I think about Elder Pinder getting to teach people like them and it makes me so happy!

I am very excited for conference it is such a blessing to be able to listen to men who have received revelation from god on what his children need to hear. We get to go to the temple the week before so that we can be spiritually prepared and that is such a blessing too. Its amazing when you start looking at all the blessings in life. Even the trials are blessings in disguise, but its all how we look at things. That's something Ive been studying and working on. Our attitude really is what makes a day good or bad. If we choose to be upset about something then our day is going to be ruined and nothing will be gained. But if we look at the good and think about why we have been given that certain trial we can learn and grow and our day will be more happy. After all, "Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy." 2N2:25. But its like I said last time true happiness doesn't come from material things. A lot of people think it does but when you look around the world who are the happiest people? They don't have television shows about poor people ( they don't have enough drama, which is saying something) they don't fight and compete with others they are more interested in caring for their family, for the most part. They care about the things that matter. On the other hand there are many entertainers and television shows about wealthy people, who aren't happy, they have so much drama in their life because they cant seem to fill their unhappiness with material things. I have met a lot of people who have many trials but what makes the difference between those who are happy and those who aren't is purpose. What is the purpose for being on the earth? Its been the same since Adam, to multiply and replenish the earth and follow god, for he is the only way back home. I really wish that I could just share my understanding with others because I know that if everyone felt and knew what I know, god wouldn't have to worry so much about his children. They would know how important it is to follow god, and how much he loves his children. Sometimes it just makes me so sad that people decide that Following Christ is too hard and isn't worth the end blessing. But man, if people would just put in the work so that they could understand, so that they could know for themselves if this church is true, I know and the lord promises they will be blessed. Alma 32:27 "but behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to and experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."

Well I kind of ran away with my thoughts but it's nice to share it sometimes.

Today was kind of hard for me. We had to say good bye to two of the senior couples I have grown to love. Its a good thing they live in Salt Lake and I will be able to see them again but, it's annoying that I have to wait for a long time. :) That's one really hard thing about a mission, we develop these relationships with all these wonderful sisters and senior couples and then we have to watch them all leave! Some of them I will most likely never see again I had never thought about that before. I'm grateful I live in Utah where a lot of people come to visit, for things such as conference. :)

And Whitney thank you for your letters they are always so uplifting, keep up all the great missionary work!

Love you all!!!

Tsunami

Never a dull moment on a mission! We were coming home from a appointment the other night when one of my past members recognized us and pulled over he said " did you hear there was a huge earthquake in Japan and now there's a tsunami headed toward Hawaii." We hurried home to call Elder Eubank, my companion was pretty worried as you can imagine and we were a bit nervous because, well we're in the beach house ha ha. But after some investigation the earth quake didn't affect any of the Japanese sisters families, too much. Which was a relief for all of us. That evening we were told the Tsunami would hit about 3 am and we needed to move to higher ground. It was pretty interesting because we just moved up to the other sisters pads. Guess where everyone evacuated to? The mountain, the mountain which the temple is on, I found that very beautiful and there are so many scriptures that that can be related to. But as we were collecting all of our stuff and realizing that we could have a house full of water when we returned I was thinking what do I need what should I take with me? Everything I looked at didn't matter I didn't care if I lost my clothes or shoes or suitcases or anything really. All I wanted was my scriptures and my journals. It reminded me of the scripture in 3 Nephi 13 verses 19-20 and 33. It says to seek ye first the kingdom of god, everything else will be taken by natural things. Nothing here really matters, no material things will brings us lasting happiness. Our families and memories are what matter. This life is a time to be happy and prepare to meet god. We were prepared for that tsunami, we had emergency kits but we were also prepared as missionaries spiritually. As of right now I'm prepared for that day ,whenever it comes, to stand before god and say I followed thee father and I did my best. But I am so grateful for the time I still have to continue preparing in this life. I hope that others will see this disaster and think more about how they can be physically prepared for disasters. 72 hour kits are no joke and it is so important to be prepared for any situation. But we also need to be preparing spiritually. If you were to meet god today would you feel comfortable? If we are seeking the lord and are doing what we know is right, spending time with those that matter we have no reason to fear. Things like work wont matter in a crisis, possessions wont matter. It's the things that will last that will matter. It was a good reminder.

The night went by with sirens going off every other hour (I was out and didn't hear a thing though :)) We slept on the couches in another pad and were safe and sound. It was quite the experience, no water in our home no damage to our side of the island. Other docks however were affected but it was nothing compared to Japan. Elder Eubank did show us the devastation and it was awful to see. The people here though are amazing and are already asking how can we help these people these other relief society sisters. They have a lot of good ideas and it makes me so happy to see relief society working how it should.

Well there truly is never enough time to tell you everything but I love you all and hope that you will continue to prepare for the coming of the lord because the day is at hand. :)

Ill try just sending two pictures. The one holding the octopus is the one who helped with the huge spider. The other sister is my comp. for a couple more weeks. :)

HUGE Spider!!!!!

Things here are going better, our ward is really good it's just hard because their are only a handful of less actives and they have told us that they need a break ha ha. So our family ward is only member and a couple less actives, with a few potentials that we are feeling out. I'm glad the ward is active but its hard on those days we have a lot of time and no one has time for us. We did have a miracle the other day though. We were going to see one of the non members in the ward but she wasn't home. Another woman opened the door and was very friendly she is visiting from Taiwan so we asked if she would like to learn more about the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. She said that she is exploring religions right now and wouldn't mind learning more about ours. It was my first productive tracting experience and I was so grateful for it. We couldn't share the message there due to the fact that she couldn't let us in because is wasn't her home so we set up an appointment this week and left her with a restoration pamphlet. It will be amazing to see what happens because she lives with two other non members and hopefully will help them feel better about meeting with us too.

My companion is good I like her a lot. The language thing is still kind of difficult though but what can you do. We had a HUGE spider in our house the other day. It was literally the size of my hand, I'm pretty sure it would have made Jamie pass out. :) the four of us were scared to go down the stairs because we didn't want it to jump on us. ha ha. we finally got a garbage can and were going to trap it. We all crept down the stairs and just as we were going to put the can over it, it ran! We all screamed so loud (it was about 7 am) we finally trapped it but it scurried out again causing another scream. Our neighbor came over and asked if we were OK. She could see the spider from outside and wouldn't come in ha ha. we sprayed it and it ran into a gym bag, our brave sister Brown zipped him in and put him out side. ha-ha the woman told it it was a Cain spider, they used to live in the sugar can. Elder Eubank told us they aren't poisonous and they eat roaches. After we debated keeping one but decided roaches were better than spiders because you couldn't see them. :) any way you should look up Cain spiders and see what kind of pets we have here. :)

Thank you for all you help and support, I have to go so I'll write again next week. Love you all!