Letter from November 9, 2010

November 9, 2010


haha well this week was a little tough, but it ended up pretty good. Preguntas

1. haha sorry mom, i have been so busy lately that i havent even had time to think about christmas. I dont even have time to think about the next day. But i promise you that i will get to it this week, hopefully.

2.My plans for thanksgiving. Well since there isnt a spanish ward in the stake, i will explain things to you. Everyone in the Bonita 3rd ward is a convert, so everyone loves having the missionaries over. This translates to my situation of having 6 dinner appts on thanskgiving day. One with an investigator, one with the Munoz family (the coolest guy ever), one with the rosas family (they already are counting down the days till i can come back off my mission and stay with them) one with our bishop, one with a counselor in the bishopric, and one with our EQP (he is a stud..dad, if you knew him, you would wish all EQPs were like him). So thats what i will be doing on thanksgiving.

3.The baptisms did not happen. They just werent ready. we had appts with them and yeah, we could ahve pushed them and forced to be baptized. But there is a big difference in "dragging" someone to be baptized and "drawing" someone to be baptized. But they will go down this month for sure.

The marine is doing great. He knows everything is true, he knows what he needs to do, he is just a little nervous about what his family thinks. I explained to him that it is really importnat to have input from you family and told him that i never made a desicion without asking my family. But, when it comes down to it, no one can make the desicion for you. Only you can make it. But, because our Heavenly Father loves us and is rooting for us, he can help guide to the right path. He talked a little more about he doesnt want to disappoint me or his parents so he isnt sure. Right then i knew i hadnt taught him clearly enough. I explained to him that he needs to do this for himself. Not for me or his parents. So he said he would pray and he knew that God would guide him and help make the desicion. While teaching him, the thought came to me, but i didnt say it because i think it was the Lord teaching me. But the thought came to me that this marine needs to choose which parents he is going to disappoint. His earthly parents, or his Heavenly parents. It changed my teaching alittle bit while i was teaching him and i think he really understood at the end. But...

THIS WEEK AT THE MCRD:
I found a new investigator. But I have to explain something before. At marine boot camp, the marines are given the last 10 minutes of the day to meet together and pray with peole in the barracks. There are 3 "pray circiles". There is a catholic, a protestant, and a newly established mormon pray cirlce. Each pray circle has a prayer leader that gives a little spiritual thought and then they pray. So this week, i added a new investigaotr there. he went to church up north in his 2nd phase there, and he was interested. We were talking about prayer and idk why but i asked if there was a mormon prayer circle in his barracks. he said yeah and that his best friend invited him to pray in the circle. Turns out that this kid is a protestant prayer leader but left his circle to pray with the LDS. he said it just felt right and was something he had to do. BOOM! The spirit works on everyone..thats all i have to say.

I started reading this book about letting Christ help inour lives. In the book it said that the best way to overcome feelings of inadequacy and guilt or anything is to serve. I realized, A lot of times in the church, we loook at a calling as a "have to" not a "get to". That is how i had been looking at my mission the past couple weeks. I "had to" get up and go work. i "had to" do this. But after while i was praying, i asked for forgiveness for my bad attitude and spiritually slapped myself in the face, and asked for help to change my attitude. The next day i went about serving. i made my comps bed, i cleaned up the apartment a little, i served investigators and i helped members. It just felt good. That was what was missing, that Spirit of Service. Now i feel better and everything is going great. we had a great lesson with an investigator and she is progressing big time now. We have a baptism coming up on sunday and i have that "fire" agian.

THANKS FOR ALL OF YOU PRAYERS FOR ME AND FOR THOSE WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE BAPTIZED. YEAH, THEY DIDNT GET BAPTIZED, BUT THEY WILL SOON. THE LORD HAS A PLAN FOR THEM AND IT JUST WANST THE RIGHT TIME. THEY NEED TO SOMETHING MORE AND WE WILL FIND OUT WHAT IT IS, TEACH IT AND THEN BAPTIZE THE SIN OUT THEM. hahahah

I LOVE YALL
ross