Trust in the Atonement

Email received 3/17/14

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Rasmusson is doing good!!!!!!!!!!! He´s been telling me a lot about farming and stuff (Oh also, he´s a farmer) I don´t know if Max is still into farming but for reals if he is that kid could make a ton of money!!!!!!!!!!!! There´s a big business side to farming that I never knew!!!!!!! It´s pretty cool!!!!!!!!!!! But yeah he´s doing good. We had stake conference this weekend so we weren´t able to have the baptism...But hopefully this week!!!!!!!!!! But like i said things here are going GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

This week I´ve never been so happy to be from the good old ¨Bubble.¨ Everyone ALWAYS says that living in Provo is dumb and boring and the majority of the people that I went to high school with ALWAYS said that as soon as they graduated they were going to move away from Utah because they hate it. This week has made me a strong advocate of bubble living. So the area I'm in is a pretty rough. Every night we hear gun shots and see people dealing drugs and there´s at least 1 person per week that gets murdered here. And this week was pretty bad. We saw a lot of crazy stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never thought so much about Utah in my whole life!!!!!!!!!! In Provo I never once saw someone get shot, someone dealing drugs, someone get stabbed, etc...Here, these are everyday occurances and it gets me thinking of all the little kids that live here and have lived here their whole lives and to them it´s natural to hear gun shots all night long. It´s pretty sad that that´s the norm here. I feel SUPER blessed that I was able to grow up in Utah or the bubble!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It´s something that I think I took for granted. 

It´s also SUPER COOL to see because yeah, even though it's rough here, there are still TONS of SUPER GOOD people here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It´s AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I meet tons of people everyday that have lived here their whole lives and they are AMAZING people!!!!!!!!!! Always willing to help and have a good time. It´s pretty amazing!!!!!!!!!! I´ve always had the belief that happiness is a choice and if you really want to be happy and have a good time you can do it in whatever circumstance you find yourself in. Yes sometimes it´s harder than other times but you can do it. All you need to do is trust in the Atonement and we can be happy whenever we want. It was a good testimony builder for me.

But yeah, I´m SUPER GLAD that you all are doing good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That´s SUPER COOL that the house is going to be different and we´re going to get central air and everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´m excited to see it but not for 3 more months :) Anyway, thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

P.S. It turned out that Phil had a mom who was WAY bigger than Phil. So we chased them both out and they haven´t come back so we are officially opossum free!!!!!!!!!!! 

We`re Pretty Excited

Email received 3/10/14

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things here are going pretty good!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Caranvales are over so that`s good!!!!!!!!!!! It`s prettty good to go out and work normally without too many crazy people. But yeah, things are going pretty good here. We were going to have a baptism this weekend but it got postponed until the next week but yeah we`re getting pretty excited about that. We`re also looking at hopefully having 2 more this month so we`re pretty excited.

We had a conference about family history this week which was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It really put into perspective how missionary work and family history are related. The people in the spirit world that didn`t receive the gospel here on the earth need the help from us to do their temple work. So really we`re missionaries helping those people get baptized and get their ordinances done in the temple. It was REALLY COOL!!!!!!!!!!!

But yeah, like I said things are going pretty good here. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened this week. I`m SUPER GLAD that you guys are all doing good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell everyone I said hi!!!!!!!!!

We´re Pretty Stoked About the Success We´re Having Here!!!!!!!!!!!

Email received 3/3/14

Hey!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, this is now my 4th change as a DL. Being a DL has been pretty cool!!!!!! I´ve got to meet a lot of really cool people who were getting baptized and I´ve got to visit a lot of different areas during divisions so it´s been a pretty cool experience. We didn´t have any baptisms this last week but we are going to have 1 on the 15th for sure and we´re hoping for 2 more next month also. So we´re pretty stoked about the success that we´re having here!!!!!!!!!!!

That´s SUPER COOL that Caleb´s going on his mission!!!!!!!!! As far as tradition goes in our family every single person that has ever gone on a mission has gone out of the states so I´m guessing that Caleb is going to Guatemala. Also tell Jordan congratulations! I´m 86% sure I have a friend from SUU in that mission. Her name is Brooke Stringham. .

Anyway, Carnavales started this week and Carnavales here is WAY CRAZIER than everywhere else!!!!!!!!!!! Right in front of my house some people dug a really big hole and filled it with water and were grabbing random people and throwing them into it. And people have been throwing rotten eggs and water balloons filled with urine at everyone. It´s pretty ridiculous!!!!!!!!!! We had to stay in the house most of the day yesterday. Today´s not too bad but apparently tommorrow is the worst day so we´ll see what happens. 

This last week Elder Amado came for a mission conference. It was SUPER GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He talked a lot about being happy all the time. He also talked a lot about the scriptures and how we need to study them like crazy!!!!!!!! So yeah, the scriptures are pretty important in our lives!!!!!!!!

That´s SUPER COOL to see Max growing in the church and living up to his calling as a preisthood holder. That kid´s going to be a GREAT missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Anyway, thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. Yeah the Opossum was pretty NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, it´s still in the house. He just lives there now, his name is phil. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We Can Be Happy All the Time.

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things here are going pretty good!!!!!!!!!!!! Arnulfo got baptized on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! He showed up early and everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He`s a really cool guy!!!!!!!!!!! Arnulfo, for reals, is someone who truly wants to change and follow the example of Christ. He`s a really cool guy!!!!!!!!!!!

But yeah this week was a pretty good week. A little crazy but good. My comp and I went all over the place because I needed to do a lot of baptismal interviews for people. Yep that`s right, good old San Miguelito is baptizing like it`s nobody`s business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! San Mig usually only has 5 or 6 baptisms per month and as of right now we have 21 for the month and we should have at least 2 more this week in the zone!!!!!!!!!! So yeah it`s pretty SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week we didn`t run into too many crazy people. Just the usually ones. It`s kind of funny sometimes because people think that 2 gringos walking down the street in Don Bosco is weird and they always think we`re lost or something. And then when we tell them that we live here and we`re missionaries they think it`s SUPER COOL and buy us some watermelon.  But yeah it`s pretty sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did find an opossum in our house which was pretty nuts!!!!!!

But yeah, like I said this week was SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday in Priesthood, our Elder`s Quorum president gave a talk about forgetting the past and moving on in life. There`s also a guy here running for President and his slogan is ¨Vamos Pa´ lante no hay Pa´ tras¨ Which means "let's move forward because there`s no going back". So I`ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Jesus suffered for his sins so we could be clean again and move on with out life without the heaviness of sin weighing us down. That`s a SUPER COOL thing that we need to take advantage of!!!!!!!! Because if we just forget about the Atonement, we`ll have to live with that sin and live unhappily. That`s not what God wants. We learn in the Book of Mormon that Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy. So we need to be happy and how we can be happy is when we understand the Atonement and apply it in our lives. I know that when we apply the Atonment to our lives we can be happy all the time.

But yeah like I said things are going pretty good here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m loving it!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!