May 25th, 2010 (Email)

Hello!

Well we're working hard down here though there's not too much progress happening with our investigators this week. Diana didn't make it to church. She was going to take both of her sons this time but her "disorganization problems" got the best of her. That's okay though. She knows where she needs to be so she's hard enough on herself that we hardly need to re-commit her. She said that she's starting to feel more like our Church is the place she needs to be. We didn't get to teach her a lesson last week but we're scheduled to teach her on Wednesday. She's still has the most potential when it comes to baptismal candidates in our area.
I'm almost caught up again in the office. I started my own travel itinerary a couple weeks ago. I'm scheduled to submit my travel request tomorrow. Scary. I have the most terrifying job in the mission I think. I think that out of all the missionaries here I'm probably the most aware that the mission actually ends. Yesterday I printed out six more release certificates, six more release letters to parents and six more release letters to stake presidents for six elders that I've known pretty well throughout most of my mission.
So the elders that work with the Cordovas asked them if they really had been baptized back in 1988. They were apparently confused and said that they hadn't. So I guess we're supposed to take their word for it now. I was surprised myself when the Church sent the e-mail. The Cordovas didn't seem like people that'd do something crazy like that.
Hey, parents that know more stuff about computers than I do-- President accidentally set up some sort of program called Content Watch on his laptop and now it won't let him log onto the internet unless he has a password and he doesn't know nor has ever set up any sort of password. Neither I nor my companion nor the assistants are computer savvy enough to help him. He was originally trying to figure out how to re-activate the gadget on his laptop that scans his fingerprint to log on but we couldn't figure that out either. Do you know how to fix either of those things?
So I'm almost done reading the Book of Mormon again. I finished Ether today. I noticed that part of either teaches about the plan of salvation. In chapter two we learn about the Brother of Jared and the barges that the Lord commanded him to build. The little group of Jaredites are going to head on over the the promised land. In Ether 2:24-25 the Lord tells the brother of Jared that they'll be "as a whale in the midst of the sea" and that "the mountain waves will dash upon [them]." While reading that I remembered something that the General Authortiy named Bishop Edgley taught during the Southern California Multi-Stake Conference Broadcast last year. He said that before we came to earth the Lord let us know that this life wasn't going to be nor was supposed to be easy. We would be subject to all sorts of challenges and sorrow. So with that in mind, back to Ether. The Lord continues by saying "Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea." He also says, "And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross the great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come." Then the Lord asks the brother of Jared, "Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?" And what is the brother of Jared's response? He goes to the mount and moltens out of a rock sixteen stones, and they are prepared by the Lord to provide light for the Jaredites during their journey. Even so, Heavenly Father prepared for us a Savior (the Rock) to redeem us from the challenges we face during our separation from Him. If you keep reading the brother of Jared sees the Lord and He says in Ether 3:14 "Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people." And in Ether 4:12 "I am the LIGHT..." While studying those chapters I also learned taht the 16 stones probably represent the Gentiles. The stones were made clear and white when they were molten out of the mount to provide light for the Jaredites. Even so the Gentiles are supposed to "become sanctified in [Christ]" (Ether 4:7) and restore the house of Israel to the knowledge of the Gospel and the covenants of the Lord. That's the most I've ever learned from reading Ether I think.
Here's something interesting. President said that in the oldest copies of the Doctrine and Covenants a lot of the revelations changed people's names and had code-names in their stead. Some of the section headings in our books mention that the code-names were dropped in later publications. Well anyway, Joseph Smith's code-name was Gazelem. Now open your copies of the Book of Mormon and read Alma 37:23.
Now questions to answer. I may not remember them all. Diana has prayed and so far she said that she "thinks it's a good practice." I don't think she's got any definite answers yet because she hasn't prayed specifically enough yet nor with the amount of real intent necessary. Don't know about David and Dixie's plans just yet. I finished all the HAM Radio maps and President thought I did good. I'll only have to change a couple things due to a couple apartments getting closed. My apartment is clean. Mrs. Lowe is kind of old so I suppose she just fell. No she's not paralyzed. Oh by the way the Morgans (the member-neighbors) set us up with another appointment with them for last Friday and it went pretty well. We started reading the Book of Mormon with them. They don't really understand the purpose of the Book of Mormon yet so we'll keep trying to help them get it. It looks like we're going to go on over to Leisure World every Friday to teach them. Elder Cluff is great. We get along just fine and he's got positude.
I will pray for Tim. Hope he's alright.
Have yourselves a good week!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis