Saturday, September 28, 2013

Sept 23--Email From Matt

Matt wrote this on the subject line for this email:

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Hi Mom, I'm going to answer your questions in the order that you asked me them in your letter:
   I'm doing good,
   It's been a good week! I learned a lot of things, don't worry I'm going to write more about it after answering your questions.
   Yes, I did get a package and it was great and I'm so glad that you sent it to me! I did share it with a few people including my companion.
   My companion is very good, even better because he got good news from his family today. I told him that you said "hi."

And that seems to be the end of the questions from this week. Ok, comments on your letter!

   About asking if there are people that we can serve to the members: Thanks for the Idea, I'm sure that it'll work out! especially because of the things that have been happening here lately (What things you might ask?!?! Well I'll tell you a little later!)

   About being able to serve other people, we actually have been able to help a few people! (I'll tell you how a little later in this letter)

  I'm so glad that your job is going well! I'm pretty sure that you are going to be just fine mom! You do have the ability to work and do well. 

  Thanks for telling me about Katrina and her teachers! It's nice to hear that she is such an awesome person! haha, It's also cool to hear about her scene.

  Also you wrote a paragraph about Thomas, I loved hearing about him and that he's deciding to be true to the commitments that he makes! 

  Then you wrote about Miriam! Wow, Thanks mom, that's so nice of you to tell me about everyone and how they are doing a little bit. I really love hearing those types of things!

  Ok, skipping a few paragraphs, I've noticed that with my companio we both sometimes take different sides.  I've noticed that I can help our companionship by doing exactly what you said. it's hard, because my immediate reaction is to defend myself, but  I like proverbs 15:1
"A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger." 
and 3rd Nephi 11:30 
"Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away." 
These both help me realize exactly what you said: "if I avoid contending, and pray instead,... the subject isn't an issue after all"

This part of the letter is more for all of the family

ok anyway what happened this week?!?! I dont' think that you have been checking the weather forecasts around here, because a hurricane hit us. 

































(Blog Note:  Yes, at this point I was beginning to freak out.  I scrolled down in a desperate hope for more info, ha ha.  What if I hadn't?  What if you don't, Dear Reader?  Then I guess you will miss what follows.  Oh, that Matthew.... sometimes I don't know what I'm going to do with that boy.)

You have no idea how tempting it was to not send anything else! haha!
we are ok, it was a class 1 hurricane, so nothing too bad happened to us. the area where we live wasn't very affected, we had no flooding, just a lot of rain, and a little wind, a tree fell over and that's about it. But, in other parts of the city, the water got up to around 4 1/2 feet and higher, luckily, the majority of the people got out safely. Sadly, as far as we know, 2 people died in the city. It started raining Wednesday in the night and it didn't stop until Thursday night. we stayed in the house and the power went off and on, but nothing really happened at all. There are a few places in our area that got flooded, and there are a ton of houses that are full of mud, dirty house hold items and ruined furniture and cars. I have to explain something first, here, the houses are made out of concrete, so, there weren't any collapsed houses and there was no dry wall that got ruined.

Friday and Saturday, we went out and proselyted like nothing had happened. Saturday night, we called Cristina to put an appointment for Sunday, after finding out that nothing bad had happened to their house, she said that her family wasn't going to be able to see us because they were going to go help some family members clean out their houses and then they were going to help wash all the dirty cloths and cushions for the people by her house that got flooded. She then asked me: "I don't know what you guys are going to be doing tomorrow, maybe you could come and help. Aren't you on a mission to help people?" Her words hit me right in the heart: "Aren't you on a mission to help people?"

How had I forgotten about all of the people that needed help?! How was that possible? We had even ridden a bus through one of the areas to get to another place, and I had seen the damage with my own eyes. Why didn't I notice?!?! 

Thankfully we weren't sitting down doing nothing Friday and Saturday, we were preaching the gospel, and the gospel is ultimately what everyone needs, but sometimes, it's better to preach to gospel through actions rather than words! How could we ignore so completely all of the people that needed help?!?! We are Representatives of Christ, with a sacred calling "to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light... to mourn with those that mourn... and comfort those that stand in need of comfort." and we had done nothing, or almost nothing to help.  All of those thoughts were coursing through my mind when I heard those words: "Aren't you on a Mission to Help?" I could barely manage to mumble out a brief goodbye and say that we would call again during the week.

Sunday, we organized a group to go help people clean out their houses, but when we got to the affected area, almost all of the work was done. We just walked around from house to house, asking if someone needed help and hearing the answer "no." I felt pretty dang bad.

The Lord was looking out for us and for a certain family that day, because we walked up one street and asked a certain family if we could help them, and they just said, "Sure, whatever you can do would be great"

We spent like 4 hours cleaning and helping them move everything out of the house. We washed off almost all of the mud in the rooms and in the living room. 
I feel so bad that we weren't able to help out more people! But we are going to keep on looking this week!

Thanks for everything you guys! I love hearing from all of you! I love you all and I pray for you always!

-Matt

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