Dear Elder,
Hi! Thanks for the hand-written letter! It was fun to get it, and, yes, your hand writing has improved! I appreciate you thinking ahead like that and taking the time to write. Thank you, also, for telling me about your investigators. I’m so glad that you could get a birth certificate for Rocio. That is a wonderful service you for her! I’m also glad to hear that you and your companion are working so well together. I liked your bowling video. Too bad the camera wasn’t rolling when you got your strikes, ha ha!
You asked me about Mosiah 15:1-4. Doctrine and Covenants 93:4 further clarifies the concept of Christ being the father and the son: “And that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one—The Father because he gave me of his fulness, and the Son because I was in the world and made flesh my tabernacle, and dwelt among the sons of men. “ Also Mosiah 5:7 explains another way Christ is the father as well as the son. “And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.” We are all children of God the Father, but those who take upon themselves the name of Christ, also become His sons and daughters.
As far as God the Father and Jesus Christ being “one god,” these words from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism help clarify their “one-ness”
“The unity prayed for in John 17 provides a model for the LDS understanding of the unity of the Godhead-one that is achieved among distinct individuals by unity of purpose, through faith, and by divine will and action. Joseph Smith taught that the Godhead was united by an "everlasting covenant [that] was made between [these] three personages before the organization of this earth" relevant to their administration to its inhabitants (TPJS, p. 190). The prime purpose of the Godhead and of all those united with them is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39; Hinckley, p. 49-51).”
I hope this helps, Matt. Let me know what else you are thinking, and we can think about it together.
We are doing well. In fact, Dad, Katrina, Thomas, and I are traveling to see Grandpa and Grandma. It is our spring break, so we thought we’d take advantage of the time off and visit them. General conference was this weekend, so we waited till it was over and then took off. We are staying over night at the half way point, so the drive won’t be so bad. I decided to read an abridged version of Les Mis to the family as we drive, but it’s very badly abridged, so I’m ending up looking things up in the unabridged and reading to them from that. Good thing I had them both on my Kindle! The funny thing is that the unabridged version was free, but this stinkin’ abridged version cost me five bucks, ha ha.
Did you get to see Conference, Matt? I hope so. Wasn’t it wonderful? I loved the talks, and many of the speakers said things that seemed to be just for me. I can’t wait to re-read them! I hope I’ll have time to study at Grandma and Grandpa’s, but we’ll see. I also thought that the talks were very good for the kids, and I know Dad enjoyed it, too. I especially loved the talks about Joseph Smith, and I thought there were a lot of them. Matt, I love the gospel of Jesus Christ so much, and I love The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His church! I appreciated all the counsel we received, and I want to reread the chapter in “Preach My Gospel” about inviting others to come unto Christ and following up on invitations.
We didn’t do much on Saturday besides watch conference except that while Dad and Thomas were at the priesthood session, Miriam, Katrina, and I went out for a treat and to do a little shopping. It was fun to be together.
Friday night, Dad and I saw Les Miserables…again! It was so fun. We left right after work, so we thought we had tons of time to kill. We bought me some shirts and walked around and had lots of fun together. When we got to the theater, however, we found out that our tickets were for 4:00, and we’d missed the showing! We were both in shock. They sent us to a different window where they said they’d just gotten a cancellation, and that they could seat us. We were so relieved!
We went in and sat down, and all these men in suits and their wives and dates sat all around us. All of them were holding little white boxes with bows on them, and then the governor came in and sat down, too. They were all big wigs who had come to see the play. The man in a suit next to me gave us his little white box because he and his wife had gotten extra. The box had three meringue cookies in it—one red, one white, and one blue, like the French (and American, ha ha) flag. It also had coupons for free drinks. It was really nice of him to give it to us, and he told us a bit about why they were there which was basically to see about funding for a new theater.
The play has two casts, and we were able to see the other cast that we hadn’t seen yet. They did a wonderful job. Dad was smart enough to grab some tissues in the bathroom, so we were able to cry to our heart’s content as we watched. Afterward, we were able to greet and thank the staff. We never did shake the governor’s hand because there were so many people who wanted to. That’s okay.
Let’s see, other than that, this week I finished sewing the parachute for Thomas’s Eagle Scout project. I also did my finances, and went on a couple of walks with Dad. Pretty exciting, huh? Katrina got home at 3 am Tuesday morning, and Tuesday night we had family home evening. Thomas gave a lesson on preparing for conference, and then we all drew pictures for Great Grandma to hang on her wall to cheer her up. It was a good family home evening.
Lily is potty training this week, and I got to talk to her and Cassandra quite a bit. Lily’s doing pretty good with it, I think. I sent her a package with a princess shirt and some new unders. It also had a little toy chicken in it that lays candy eggs. I also talked to Jon this morning. He’s doing good, and it was fun to visit. Miriam isn’t going with us on this trip, btw. She couldn’t get the time off. I hope she isn’t too lonely without us!
Well, we are at our hotel, now, and I really need to get to bed. Good night, Matt. I love you very much. Thanks for remembering us in your prayers, we are praying for you, too.
Love,
Mom
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