I Love to See the Temple!

Dear Mom, The temple was an awesome experience. It's located on a hill but with a road and shops and the mall before it and to the sides. You can't see it until you're pretty close. It was great though. I saw the film that I saw when I was endowed. That was a surprise, but it was good to see it again. I did not mention that I am Elder Pearson's cousin. I had the thought that I might be related, but didn't mention anything to him, bummer! He is an awesome leader. M has read and we need to do another follow up. She did say she read at the beginning about Nephi, though she didn't get far. We'll probably read with her next time we see her. As for T we are trying to get in contact. We've stopped by the house a couple of times and have called, but to no avail. We aren't giving up on him though. He was so happy when we were teaching and when he was learning. We'll get him though. And as for that couple watering their lawn, we've stopped by twice and didn't catch them home. We'll try again this week and hopefully will catch them. I do have the pictures and would be delighted to send them, but the computer is not allowing them, they are failing at attaching, so I'm not sure if I can by the end of my emailing time, but here's a hoping. This past week wasn't the best of weeks, but at the same time, there was a lot of things we were able to accomplish. We wrote up a list of all the members in our ward on a windows excel sheet so that we could make sure that out of the three companionships in our ward, all the members would know one of them. Plus that way we can write down and mark those we've extended invitations to, and then we can make sure that we are giving all the members the opportunity. We also met the husband of a member, who's name is S. He's wanting to find out the truth, so we will be working with him. We also hope to help the relationship so that he's going to see the change when the family is coming closer to Christ. Also we saw a less active family that weren't being met with by missionaries. They want to come to church and that was good and we also invited them to read the Book of Mormon as a family.  We've been learning as a zone about the importance of the Book of Mormon, and I am coming closer to seeing how truly important it is, and the witness of Christ that is found therein. Right now as a mission we are marking every verse that talks about Christ or contains His words. It's been going great so far and I am amazed at how many times his name and words and teachings are mentioned. It's truly a witness of Him. So that's one thing you could do. I'd do that with a cheap blue one, and not your standard one since there's a lot of marking. Also, from zone conference, we talked about distractions and how those can make it harder to focus and to get out of reading the Book of Mormon what you were wanting. Also, imagine that you were the person it was talking about, being it Nephi of his conversion to the Lord, yet his sadness and frustration at his brethren missing out on such an opportunity, or you can put yourself in the shoes of the prophet writing about the wickedness of the people, and what he is feeling as he sees the destruction of a people who have forgotten the truths and have forsaken their God. I am working on improving my studies as well. So I'd do all I could to put myself in their shoes, then their writing seems to have more depth and feeling into it. Plus you then remember the scriptures in a more personal way. If I can get the pictures to send I will send them on a different email. Love you so much, Mom, and it's great getting your emails. Continue to study the words of life and I pray you grow in understanding and desire with that which you are to do. Love, Elder Justin Cederlof