Letter from SAMMER xxooxx

hey friends and family!

 

woot woot, still in Eastwood with Elder Pogue! pretty sure I'm not going to leave my whole mission, we'll see! We found out this week that we will be replacing the other 2 elders in Eastwood, for sister missionaries! It's a huge blessing because the members have been wanting sisters for a long time and there are a lot of sisters that want to contribute to the missionary work! because the elders left the flat as a dump, Elder Pogue and I spent basically all of the Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning their flat and making it not smell like a sweaty gym haha, we did a pretty good job though! Honestly it was a really slow week for the work. However, we have a new investigator called Rachel!

 

Rachel is best friends with a member named Claire Sanderson, and she is elect! she came to church yesterday by herself without Claire, and she had to have her boyfriends mom drive her 45 minutes to get there! she's the best! tonight is our first lesson with her, because the other elders were teaching her before they had to go.  Later tonight we will also be having family home evening with claire and Shean's families. Playing Uno and watching the restoration and explaining the book of mormon. Shean's daughter Louise is sooo adorable and loves church! she's came the last 3 weeks and she really wants to get baptized, however, she's only 9, so we need to make sure she understands exactly the covenant she will be making! so yesterday we had 2 investigators at church, which is good! Elder Pogue and I are so blessed. I feel so insignificant, and like heavenly father is doing 100% of the work, I'm just walking and getting blessings. it's amazing. I'm so blessed to be a missionary.

 

Mom I'm so happy you loved Florida! I would love to go there with you sometime when we get back. just a mom and sam trip?? we'll see. sorry rest of the fam! hahaha mom It's kind of unreal how much you would enjoy serving a mission. something you said in one of your emails snapped out at me. something like "getting to know everyone's take on belief" talking about your baptist friend. It's amazing the number of different beliefs people have, and as missionaries, we get to hear how others worship, and what they believe in, and the different ideas they throw into the universe. 

 

I would like to share a spiritual thought every week if that is alright with you guys! in Preach my gospel Chapter 3: The restoration, there is a section called. "god is our loving heavenly father." if you read it and personalize all of the words it reads

 

"God is my Heavenly Father. I am His child. He has a body of flesh and bone that is glorified and perfected. He loves me. He weeps with me when I suffer and rejoices when I do what is right. He wants to communicate with me, and I can communicate with Him through sincere prayer. He has given me this experience on the earth so I can learn and grow. I can show my love for Him through my choices and my obedience to His commandments.
Heavenly Father has provided me, His child, with a way to be successful in this life and to return to live in His presence. However, I must be pure and clean through obedience in order to do so. Disobedience moves us away from Him. Central to my Father’s plan is Jesus Christ’s Atonement. The Atonement included His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane as well as His suffering and death on the cross. Through the Atonement I can be freed from the burden of my sins and develop faith and strength to face our trials."

It's amazing that heavenly father loves someone as insignificant and imperfect and me, and because he loves me, he will bless me so much when I'm obedient! I am a child of god!
I love y'all (Elder pogue got me into saying y'all. curse the south) Have an amazing week, and no matter what happens remember that heavenly father loves you! and if you know that, well then no matter what happens, it can't be more important.
Cheers!
Elder Sam Harris.