Happy New Year

Feliz ano nuevo!

So great to see you all last week! Easily the best Christmas present (not counting all the other ones ;)) We spent the rest of the day playing basketball with 4 other elders, bro Amero and his son Tom. We ate with some members, and then came back to play some more basketball. Haha we really wanted to take advantage of our free day. It was fun, I am still sore though! We didnt end up moving, they just came today to furnish our brand new duplex! The address is 

 

7750 E Spouse Dr. Apt. 1 Prescott Valley 86314-5221 

 

and we have no idea if it has a mailbox yet! We have a lot to do today so we will probably spend New Years day getting rid of all the bed bugs and moving in, if we are given permission. :P So we have no idea what we are doing for new years eve/day, it may be similar to Christmas but we haven't been told yet.

Well this week we had 14 lessons, despite having basically 2 days of proselyting off! Most of those were member/Less active lessons, but honestly I am loving it. It is rough not having many investigators, but we set a new goal to visit and teach in every Less Active/Part member families home in the ward by the end of January! I am realizing that we don't have to be teaching a nonmember in order to fulfill our purpose of "inviting others to come unto Christ". And it is sweet to go into members homes and feel the Spirit with them, and help them get excited  about missionary work. Most people won't know/want to do something unless they are invited to. Invite, Invite! Morning, noon, and night! Elder Cardwell hates it when I sing that song. Haha :))

 

One of the LA members we are teaching hasn't been to church in years and wasn't even on the ward directory, so it was a miracle the previous elders even found him. His name is M. He is about 30 and has a super active family. He grew up going to seminary and everything, and just told us straight up he doesn't believe any of it because it cant be proven by science. So that has been interesting. We talked about the Holy Ghost, and he said it is just your own conscience, not a Spirit. So we invited him to listen to his "conscience" as he reads the Book of Mormon and prays. Haha he is a cool dude though, bought us Little Caesars and everything!

 

Another cool lesson we had was Christmas Eve. We went to a members house for dinner...and there were like 30 other people there, all non-members! Probably a third of them were special needs children. It was one of the loudest craziest houses, I swear the kids just kept coming out! E Cardwell and I were about to bust it out of there after eating, but something kept us. We talked to Sister B. who's home we were at, and she told everyone to gather around in the living room. We put on a little Christmas video on one of our tiny little iPads, and by the end of it the house was just dead silent. We then bore our testimonies about Jesus Christ, and the Spirit was so strong! I shudder thinking what would have happened had we just left, ignoring the Spirit and the great opportunity to teach. Some of the people there that night came to church yesterday too! We will be praying that we will be able to teach some of those people. :)

Well, I will send a picture of the last day in the Estrella Spanish Branch. It was pretty sad for some of the people, and some pretty much told us they flat out dont want to come to Glassford Hill Ward. So we are working and praying that the split will not cost us the activity of any members. 

Something I have been studying lately is the latter chapters in Alma, in the Book of Mormon, where Captain Moroni raises the title of Liberty, and begins strengthening the Nephite cities. Because of growing contentions with the opposing force, the Lamanites, 2000 young men step up to defend their country at a critical time. 

"Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them...

[and] there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds.

And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power"

(Alma 57:21, 25-26)

I know that if we steadfastly exercise our faith unto Obedience to the commandments of the Lord, he will preserve us through our daily battles. He has promised it! He has given us the course, He has led the path for us to return to Him, and His words will bring us back! It is interesting to note that every single warrior returned with some sort of injury. No one ever said the path would be easy, but we always knew it would be worth it. I also know that if we strive to "fortify" and strengthen ourselves in our weakest parts, just as wise Captain Moroni did to the weakest Nephite cities, we will be protected from the threatening influences of the adversary. Our obedience and diligence will bring us the Happiness that the Lord wants more than anything for his children.

I love you all and wish you a Happy New Year! 

Love,

Elder Collin Arave Christensen