July 1--Letter From Matt

Here, it's a picture, take it, enjoy it.

that's Hermano Sanchez, my old companion, and me, that devilishly handsome young man in the center

This is the same brother, but the Elder on the right is currently my companion.

Hey Mom, well, ok if you can't study PMG it's ok, but really it is usefull, you just have to use it right that's all...
anyway, Yes, I'm going to be in the Culiacán Mission, no worries with that, it sounds like you are having a blast with lilly, keep on sending pictures!

Yeah, shipping is very expensive and the cheapest I could possibly get would be $82
more or less, and that's for about 22 lbs. so, what do you think of that? I have to go shopping again, I didn't find a big plate for you, they were selling clay sinks but I don't think that you would want one of those. I bought a vase and a few other things, I bought something for Miriam and I bought something for Katrina and Thomas. so let's see if I can buy something for Jon. maybe a knife. or something like that.

Try to get lilly to write me or something like that. I'm sure that she is very cute!

The week started out good, I felt the Spirit quite a bit during sacrament and started to prepare myself for the challenges that we would have that week. Monday, my companion left wayyyy early in the morning for the bus station to go to the airport and Elder Guzman and I had a normal Monday.

On Monday, we talked with a few people but the person that really stood out was Javier, Javier was a reference from his own daughter, we looked for him and found him in a run down house full of 1 liter bottles of beer. That wasn't a good sign. He started to argue with us and didn't let us talk. He was just looking for contention, we tried to teach something, and there were times in the lesson when it looked like he might actually listen to us, but he never did, so we left. Tuesday, we had to go to the air port to pick up the sister missionaries and then..... I'm so sorry, just looking at how hard it's going to be to write everything that happened this week.... I'll just sum it down, I feel a greater ability to love to people. I know that comes from the Lord. D&C 121: 34 until the end of the section, is hard to follow, but we'll see if I can do it.

We taught many lessons, the Lord blessed us with His Spirit many times, We are helping a member to start to believe that Jesus Christ is his Savior and Redeemer. It's hard. Ines and her daughters are progressing, but they didn't want to accept a baptismal date, we met Obed and Catalina, they are very good people, but are living together w/o being married, they want to read the Book of Mormon. I feel like I am able to do what the Lord wants me to do, I feel so much more happy, and like there is more hope.

I'm trying to be better and I'm trying to be charitable with everyone, something that PMG says is that Charity, like faith, leads to action. I think that's why charity will remain, it becomes the driving force behind our faith and hope, it leads us to be willing to give of ourselves for the well being of others, I now have no doubt as to why it is called the pure love of Christ, that was the love that enabled Jesus to be able to withstand the suffering of the atonement and to not fail. A supreme love for His Father and for us was necessary. When we really let that type of love govern our thoughts and actions, we will see a radical change in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Moroni taught us how to obtain this type of love when he wrote:

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God;"

I don't believe that Charity is the first step though, I think that it is only possible to have charity when we have a firm hope and a pure faith in the Lord. So, I'd like to invite you all to find faith, hope and then, charity. I have seen in my own life that everything is so much brighter hand happier when I am filled with just a small portion of this great love.
Matt