Thanks so much for the letters and pictures you sent to the birthday people. Clever - compliments on the fan! Way cool! Bryan spoke in church today. He was asked to speak on anything in the For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet. He chose to speak instead on missionary work, and ended by saying that everything in the FSoY helps prepare you for a mission. He described the picture of your nametag in the ground in front of the temple, and read what you wrote on it. "The two things you strive for as a young man in the church: 1) serve a mission 2) go to the temple." For his talk, he would mention memorizing scripture masteries, then he read what you had to say about it. Then he'd mention the other things you wrote about, and shared what you had to say. He did a good job. Thanks for your help with his talk! You were amazing! And he was profoundly touched! I think that was my best thing this week.
That´s a pretty awesome story about the bike thief! That would be kind of fun! :) Don´t worry I don´t have a bike to have stolen and fight over! ;) I´ll try to do my best on all of those small annoying rules! Really I like to try to keep all the rules as much as I can! I even got up every day and actually worked out/stretched. That´s probably the most broken rule in every mission. I just don´t want to come home heavy! :P
Bingham's sister and brother-in-law (the Bennetts) spoke today. He told about his very favorite mission comp. He was a Brazilian, and was 25 years old, a fairly recent convert who didn't speak English very well. He told some of the crazy things this elder would do, like throw his brand new suit coat into the washer and dryer and literally chase down a bike thief, and roll down the hill tussling with him - he did get his bike back. And a few other crazy things. Derrick said that in spite of all the crazy things he did, he came to love this companion more than any other. The thing that struck him the very most, and made the biggest difference in the balance of his mission went like this: the comp said, "You are strong, you are fast, and you are a good missionary. But why aren't you obedient to the little things President asks of us?" He said he was obedient, just not to the little things that really didn't matter - the annoying rules. The Brazilian told him that if he would be obedient to every rule, he would have a much greater mission. That changed his heart. And he said - through tears - that he will never ever forget that missionary, because of the lesson he taught him about obedience. (Not a "lecture", but a timely truth we heard spoken at church today.)
Sister Lindley is awesome! I´ll miss having her around! she is blunt but funny and has a good sense of humor! She´s a funny girl.
Pictures... go ahead and delete any of the temple pictures. Leave the others and I´ll go through them... And delete the one´s from before my mission. You did find the videos on there right? Thanks for taking care of my iPod!!!!!!! Requests... all of 1856. all of MoTab that we have. My music theory song "I Don´t Know". more classical stuff. There are a few that Elder Going says I should get, but you would have to buy all of them, so don´t worry about it too much if you don´t want to. Moonlight Sonata. Dimitri Shostakovich´s "Piano Concerto #2" and "Symphony #5". Stavinsky´s (I think) Firebird. Pretty much the rules are anything that invites the spirit. Make a list of songs if you´re not sure and I´ll just respond yes or no to all of them. Recent talks would be nice! And actually yes put some in spanish! I just hope the translators are easy to understand. I think that´ll do! Thanks!!!!!! :) I'm open to recommendations from any of you!
Kike only speaks spanish and he has to learn french in the MTC but he will be learning in an english class! maybe I mixed stuff up last time. He won´t have an idea in he world what´s going on!
We haven´t been able to get with our peruvian friend again yet. It´s so hard with people´s schedules around here.
The language seems to have been stagnant lately. Not many lessons in spanish and so not much chance to use it! But I´m understanding a lot! Things will start picking up soon I think! I give the talk this sunday!
Some good things to read and study... PMG pg.195 - Extend Commitments (Just what´s one the bottom of that page. D&C 20:37... your commitment to the Lord is to continue studying the scriptures and striving to follow the commandments. Other things to study in PMG are Chapters 3,4,5,6. Just read a section and look up the scriptures that go with it. This is just to gain knowledge of the scriptures and the Gospel. It wasn´t till I just relaxed and allowed myself to be forgiven that i became truly happy! That exceeding joy that is descirbed in the scriptures for the repentant is unmistakeable... at least it was for me! I was overwhelmed with joy! I was told about a thing called obsessive thouhts. This isn´t getting a song stuck in your head. This is when you have gone and confessed a sin and you go through the repentance process and get things cleaned up, and then you have the thought... well, I didn´t exactly explain what happened perfectly to bishop or to the Lord in prayer, I need to go back and repent again/fully. These are thoughts from Satan and we just need to ignore these thoughts. Don´t try to replace or correct these thoughts. Just continue what you were doing and forget about it. That thought is like a bully. The more you give it attention the more power you give it in controlling you. If you have repented, you have repented!
Thank you Mom for the pictures and everything you are still doing for me half way around the world! :)
Con Amor,
Elder Austin Heywood
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