Happy Birthday Demarie Cook, btw. And thanks for the VDay package, Mom. I got it last Wednesday and I ate a lot of chocolate all at once. Loved the scriptures! And the valentines. Are they on my wall above my desk? Yes. Yes they are. Also love the fact that Hermana Simicich wrote you, Dad! How cool!
But yes, I will be staying here with Elder Callao for at least another 6 weeks! I think I´ll be here in the sector until May or June, but I´ll probably have another companion or 2. A review of change 3 for Elder Moffat: 1 baptism. 8 lessons with members present, 42 other lessons with investigators, 26 new investigators (Most of them we never got back in their house to teach, though....) 69 lessons to members (inactive, less active, fully active), that´s 119 lessons total, and 257 contacts. The numbers don´t look too bad. But is there room to improve? Always. Always room to improve. Always things to work on and make better. This Change I think I´m going to focus specifically on a few things. I want to pray better and even more often with even more meaning. According to one of the initiatives for the mission this month, I´m going to work on developing the Christlike attributes of Charity and Love. How do you develop patience? love. humility? love. faith? starts with love. Just about everything starts with love. So, I´m going to work on that. Because the more I am on the mission, the more I realize my lack of love. Definitely going to work on it. Help me with it, pray for me if you could :)
The other initiative this month comes from Elder D. Todd Christofferson´s conference talk: El Divino Don del Arrepentimiento--The Divine gift of Repentance. I really really love this talk, and am glad it´s our initiative. We all need to repent. We all need to, and it is possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And I really like the points that Elder Christofferson makes. Especially, "For our turning to the Lord to be complete, it must include nothing less than a covenant of obedience to Him. We often speak of this covenant as the baptismal covenant..." And as missionaries, It is our purpose to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel through Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The Reception of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. I love that talk.
Divisions with Elder Monsen this week, one of the Zone Leaders. Divisions are always insightful. We invited someone to baptism in his sector, too! and we literally saw the countenance of someone change when we told him about their potential as the Father of his family. Woah. Neat stuff! Elder Monsen is such a great missionary. He´s about to start his last change! and He´s sure not going to just die on the mission. He´s working super hard, and will right up to the end. That´s what I want to do.
I also started this thing after reading Landon´s letter to read the Libro de Mormón out loud. I was already reading out loud sometimes, but I would read a few verses, then mark what I wanted to, then read a few more, and there wasn´t a whole lot of reading out loud. But now I read silently and mark what I want to during personal study, and then during language study I read out loud without stopping. And I can read like 5,6,7+ pages in like 15 minutes! It´s great. I think I´ll be able to finish the Libro de Mormón en voz alta in a month or two at this rate. Yay!
I love the Book of Mormon. Honestly, I am just kicking myself for not reading it and studying it and really getting to know it as much as I should have in High School. OHHH it´s just so amazing. I had to give a talk on Sunday (with 16 hours´notice), and I chose to talk about chapter 1 of 1 Nephi. All the things that are just in the first chapter. Prayer. Testimonies of BoM, God, and Christ. Afflictions... enduring...blessings. Prophets. Revelation. Role of the Holy Ghost. All in one chapter. Well guess what? There are 239 chapters in the Book of Mormon! I love that book, and I know it´s inspired. I know it contains the words of God as given through His prophets, and also the words of Christ Himself. I know that, as Joseph Smith said, we can come closer to God by following its teachings that those of any other book. I love the Book of Mormon. Keep reading it daily!!!
I love you all.
Elder Cole Moffat
