Hi Family!
It’s pretty crazy that school has already started. It seems just barely that they started the '09-'10 school year when I was still there. It’s even crazier that Ammon’s a senior this year. It’s so weird to think that. And Asa is in 9th grade. They can both play for Dixie this year. That will be way cool. Things back home sound like they're going pretty good.
On Friday last week we had a mini zone conference thing. We were introduced to a new thing the church is doing with missionaries now. They are kind of coming out with a new way to train missionaries and a new way to teach and stuff. It’s a ton of new things and there are going to be a lot of workshops and things we'll be doing to get used to it all. I'm way excited for it though it sounds really good. I'm also glad I've been here for a bit already so I still know the old style so I can take both and use the good stuff from that as well. It was pretty cool though in this presentation from the church they said Preach My Gospel contains everything a missionary should know, but now these are just new ways to apply it all. So I apparently need to be studying preach my gospel a bit more ha. It was pretty interesting though.
So this past week was a big patience week. I've been learning a lot. We spent a lot of time doing doors and finding. It was a good week with lots of learning experiences. As we were walking across the market place in front of the rathaus...town hall? I saw a group of kind of punk kids that we see quite often walking around. This time one started walking over to us. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, he'd said stuff to us before but just little comments as we were passing by. So he came up to us and sarcastically said "Have you guys thought about God already today?" And that started our conversation ha. It was really interesting just seeing his perspective on life and God. He doesn't believe at all and was explaining to us why. I honestly felt bad for him and wanted to help him but he wouldn't take it. He was telling us how we only believe and are here because our parents threw us right into the faith as soon as they could and he thought that was a bad thing. He kept saying "Look if you didn't have your parents to show you that way and introduce you to the faith and you were all alone, would you have found it yourself? Would have believed as willingly and followed it?" I thought about it and told him I honestly don't know and that that was a scary thought. I tried to explain how grateful I am that I was able to have the gospel in my life and my family but he would confuse it for some sort of brainwashed answer or something. It really does pain me to meet people like him who are so deceived in life. He believes he is more free and happy then we are and that because we live after the gospel that we are missing out on the joys of life. I believe that is completely opposite from the truth. The gospel, commandments, teachings of Christ, and the plan of God set us free. I was trying to see how he could think he is more happy than us but I couldn't figure it out. I basically let him do most of the talking which was mostly him venting and telling us how it makes no sense to believe on God. As he spoke I just wished I could like throw the Book of Mormon at him or something ha. Not literally but just have him read it and seriously take it all in. The changes that that Book could bring in to his life would be so amazing. The changes that book can bring in to OUR lives are amazing. We have to give it the chance though. Please don't take the Book of Mormon for granted. The gospel isn't some ridiculous brainwashing scheme or some big barrier holding us back from things in life. It is honestly the only way to have REAL happiness. A joy and peace that will never fade. I know with all of my heart that God is there, that he is our Heavenly Father and that he really does love us. He has an amazing plan for us and Jesus Christ has made it all possible. And now we have a living Prophet to whom we can look for guidance in these confusing times. And if we use the Book of Mormon and the other tools we have we will never be led astray and we will always have real peace. Because we will have a knowledge of these things. It is not blind obedience in which we follow the gospel. It is in faithful obedience. Through all these things we will be blessed and our faith will be strengthened.
I can't tell you how grateful I am for the gospel in our family. For those who didn't have that, they can still develop the faith and be blessed as much as any of us. Gods love and plan is for everyone. I hope everybody has a good week. I love you all!!
Elder Puriri
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