Feb 17--Emails From Matt

Re: A Valentine for You

Wow, That was really nice! Thanks! I printed it off and I'm going to save it! :)

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Hey, Thanks for your letter! I really enjoyed both of them. Hmmmmmm...... I didn't write too much last week because we had a meeting on Monday and it took away all of our p-day so when we did get to write it was a very short letter. I'm so glad that you were able to have a happy Valentine's day. I actually got a package last week, so I'm going to count it as my Valentine's package from you guys! (It was from Grandma and Grandpa, and I'm also very much counting it as theirs too :]) that along with your email has made this a very good Valentine's this year. Thank you so much.
I never really got to thank you too much for your email that you sent a week ago. It was absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much mom.

Our Zone

As for this week:

A few sad things happened:
Guillermo disappeared, we are 99.9% sure that he's back into using drugs.
We found out that Lizeth isn't married, which is not good but at the same time it's good because we found out what she really needed to hear which is awesomely great!
Elder Jara had to go home (He is a missionary in our zone) because of medical reasons and Elder Juarez went to his area to be companions with the missionary that Elder Jara left behind. Elder Jara has only been in the mission for about 3 months and so it's sad to see him go. The good news is that he does have a 6 month period of time to fix his medical problems and get back into the field which is good.
My companion is doing good which is a pretty sad thing, because normally he is unbelievably awesome. (That's a joke, Elder Sullivan wanted me to add that in there)
And that's about it for this week.

Good things:
We started testifying of the Atonement and not of the truthfulness of the church. Why, you may ask, did we do that? Because the Atonement of Jesus Christ is the only thing that brings salvation unto the children of God,"Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise." 2 Nephi 2:8

Because we have started doing that, I feel like we are really learning more about the Atonement and the Sacrament. Both are vital things that very member needs to understand. I'm very thankful that the Lord is hastening His work.

Speaking of which: HELP THE MISSIONARIES! YOU CAN DO SOMETHING!!!!! YOU COULD HELP SOMEONE! SOMEONE OUT THERE NEEDS YOU! :) We love you, we trust in you. Help the Lord in His work, and He will give you your recompense.

We had the opportunity to talk to an atheist man yesterday named Fransisco. We talked for a solid 3 hours with him about the existence of God and what happens after we leave this life. My companion, after our discussion, made an interesting connection: Almost all of Fransisco's doubts of the existence of God where based on a miss-conception of free agency and what it does to help us in our lives. It is important to have a firm understanding of the basic principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We weren't able to help Fransisco (mostly because he didn't want our help) but we were helped quite a bit. We were able to define our beliefs in our minds and solidify our testimonies. We also found out a very important fact: Not all atheists are unpleasant people. Fransisco is one of the nicest people I've met recently. It is very important to be polite no matter what we or other people believe. I say that because we believe that the first two greatest commandments are these: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. and: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. couple that with 3 nephi 11:29-30 and.......... yeah. Let's be nicer. I need to work on that a lot still! :)


In my scripture study: Well I was reading Alma 11 and I was wondering how Amulek became converted so much to be able to testify as much and as powerfully as he did. I looked at the specifics of the chapter and I decided on a few major things that he did. I don't have them here with me, nor is my study going to seem very life changing for anyone else, but I really liked it! :)


Because there are only 2 missionaries in La Cruz and not 4, we are now teaching a family that previously the other Elders were teaching. The Dad's name is Benjamin and he has 4 kids: Erik Daniel Linda and Jimena. They are a wonderful family, all of them listen to us except for Benjamin's wife. It's vital for the progression of this family the Benjamin's wife starts listening to us so that is going to be one of our goals this week. I'm sure that this week is going to be hard, stressful and fun.


I love you all and I hope that you are all having a wonderful week!

-Matt