Feb 4--Dear Elder

Here are letters for Matt.  Mine is mostly a repeat of previous posts.  Sorry.

Dear Elder,
Hi.  How are you?  How are things in La Paz?  Is the weather still in the 80’s?  How has your week gone?  How is the work going?  I get the impression that things are going a bit slow right now.  I hope you are hanging in there and that your troubles are swallowed up in the joy of Christ.

It’s been quite a week.  I’ve been really sick, but I’m better now.  Saturday we tore out the kitchen so that we don’t have a place to eat, really.  We set it up so that we can pretty much eat breakfasts and make lunches and snacks, but without a stove, any real cooking is out of the question.  Tomorrow (Monday) the flooring guys will be here to install the tile.  It will take them 4 to 5 days.  Next week (hopefully early next week) the cabinets will be here and will get installed.

Monday I worked.  Monday night we had family home evening and made thank you notes for Vic and for Grandpa and Grandma Haws.  Tuesday, thankfully, I didn’t have to work.  I was feeling pretty sick.
Wednesday was a hard day because I was sick and had to work a half day, but it was good in some ways.  For one thing, Cassandra called me and asked me if I wanted to Skype.  She and Lily and I Skyped for an hour.  Jon also Skyped a bit and so did Miriam and Katrina when they got home from school.  Thomas was at play practice.  We had such a fun time Skyping.  Lily interacts with us more and more when we Skype.

Later, at dinnertime I was very sick.  I ate an apple, and just around five, my stomach started hurting so bad, I couldn't get off my chair to move to the couch and lay down.  I sat on the chair and told the kids what to do, and they cooked.  When Dad got home, he helped me to the couch.  I was hurting really bad.  Once dinner was made, though, my stomach stopped hurting.  I know, I know.  How convenient.  But it's true!!  I was able to walk to the table and be with the family.  Afterward, I got up to get the dishwasher going, but by then my fever was high, and Dad put me to bed.

Thursday, I didn't even try to make dinner.  I just laid on the couch all day.  Friday I was up and at 'em again.  Dad hasn’t gotten sick yet which is good.

After tearing out the kitchen all day on Saturday, we went to Divine Comedy as a family.  Dad went to Wash Hut ahead of time while the rest of us got ready.  At Wash Hut he discovered a gas leak and ended up staying at Wash Hut instead of going to the show with us, poor guy.  Today he has been at Wash Hut most of the day, too, except for church, working to get the furnaces up and running again.  He just walked in the door.  It’s 7:25 pm.  Poor Dad.

Matt, this morning I studied the talk that President Monson gave in the priesthood session of conference.  I am trying to change how I see people because of what he said.  Here are some quotes from it and my impressions.  I’m sharing it with you because it is about missionary work, and I think it’s really important.

Parts of President Monson’s talk:
"We must develop the capacity to see men not as they are at present but as they may become when they receive testimonies of the gospel of Christ."
Later in the talk, "We should develop the capacity to see men not as they are but as they can become when they are members of the Church, when they have a testimony of the gospel, and when their lives are in harmony with its teachings."

Then he tells a story illustrating the concept.  "In one particular meeting, N. Eldon Tanner, who was then an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve, had just returned from his initial experience of presiding over the missions in Great Britain and western Europe. He told of a missionary who had been the most successful missionary whom he had met in all of the interviews he had conducted. He said that as he interviewed that missionary, he said to him, 'I suppose that all of the people whom you baptized came into the Church by way of referrals.'
The young man answered, 'No, we found them all by tracting.'
Brother Tanner asked him what was different about his approach—why he had such phenomenal success when others didn’t. The young man said that he attempted to baptize every person whom he met. He said that if he knocked on the door and saw a man smoking a cigar and dressed in old clothes and seemingly uninterested in anything—particularly religion—the missionary would picture in his own mind what that man would look like under a different set of circumstances. In his mind he would look at him as clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt and white trousers. And the missionary could see himself leading that man into the waters of baptism. He said, 'When I look at someone that way, I have the capacity to bear my testimony to him in a way that can touch his heart.'

We have the responsibility to look at our friends, our associates, our neighbors this way. Again, we have the responsibility to see individuals not as they are but rather as they can become. I would plead with you to think of them in this way."

Wow, Matt, first President Monson admonished us to see others as they can become.  Then he admonished again.  Then he illustrated.  Then he admonished again and yet again.  Lastly, he pled. You know how when a prophet repeats himself, it is time to sit up and pay special heed?  So what about when he repeats himself five times?  It’s got to be really important, right Matt?  I am trying to change the way I see people the way he counseled.  I love you, Matt.  Hang in there.  Heavenly Father loves you so much and so do we.  You are doing a great job.  Keep it up!

Love,
Mom

Matt,
I’m sorry that I didn’t get a chance to write to you last week! I wasn’t feeling very well, so I slept a lot haha. Today we are watching the super bowl. It’s kind of boring. The commercials aren’t even funny! How are things going for you? Is it hot in Mexico? I’m very jealous right now! It continues to be cold here even though we got a heat wave of like thirty degrees. Does your companion still wear his sweater all the time? Have a good week!
Miriam

Dear Elder,
Yes, we went to competition together.  We didn’t get first because we kind of sucked.  I didn’t perform any scenes for UTA.  I’m watching the Super Bowl right now.  I’ve been pretty sick this week.  I missed some school. I hope that I can get my grades up.  We’ve been redoing our kitchen and everything’s a mess.  You’re not going to recognize the place when you get back.  I saw the new Les Mis movie on Friday.  It was so good!  You’ll have to see it when you get back.  On Saturday we saw Divine Comdey’s Les Mis.  It was really funny.  So, have you baptized all of Mexico yet? All of La Paz, maybe? Just kidding.  I hope you’re doing well.
Love,
Katrina

Dear Matt,
So this is super bowl week, and we are watching the super bowl, the power went out in the super stadium and so we are watching AFV and its really boring, I wish the super bowl would come back on/but enough about the super bowl, I am getting better at the play and now and I get to go on a tour at the frtio lay plant, I Think that it will be fun cus we get free chips afterwards. And when I fell asleep on the stage at school they just made me get off they didn’t get mad or anything which was surprising.
Thomas

Dear Matt,
What a crazy and wild weekend! And not in a good way, well,  Saturday just before I was going to go with the fam to a comedy show, I stopped by the laundry and smelled gas coming out of the basement, so I shut off the gas and called the gas company and they found all sorts of things wrong, To make a long and boring story short, I spent the rest of the evening and most of today fixing things. Yeech.  Before all of that I ripped out the kitchen cabinets, we are supposed to get tile tomorrow, I  guess we will see.

 I feel like I have been really struggling as a teacher lately.  It is just a matter not focusing enough on doing a quality job in the classroom.   I have really felt the lord in my life these days, I just feel like some life changing things have been happening to me.

Well, enough about me, I can’t wait to hear about what you have been up to, I hope that things are going well for you.  Lets see, when I had been out as long as you had, I was in my second area and just got a new companion that was one of the most difficult experiences of my life, I was his 14th companion and he had been out 15 months, and he was the senior,  I certainly hope that you are having a better time than I was, but sometimes, the fires of adversity are what turn us into gold.  I know that the lord will bless you and will be there for you even in your deepest and darkest trials.
Love,
Dad