Wow a 31 on the ACT. She can qualify for a lot of scholarships with a score like that! She'll probably end up getting offered the same one that I did and then a whole lot more! That'll be really cool. It's hard to believe that Katelyn's already thinking about college and things like that.
Woa Maleah's driving?! That's crazy. I can't even remember Katelyn really driving that much. It does make me feel super old hearing about them doing all kinds of things that I used to do.
I did get Brittany's letter. It was at the other apartment so it took some doing to get but I got it. I had a feeling though that I knew what it was about before I even got it though. That's awesome that she's getting married! I totally called it when she started dating him that she was going to marry him. It was actually really funny because I suspected that's what it was about and I got given it be one of the zone leaders at zone leader council. He stood at the front of the room right before the meeting and announced that he had a letter for an Elder Guinto from a Brittany Larson and held it up. I don't know if Brittany described the letter to you at all but it is quite decorated with stickers and hearts and drawings. It was pretty funny. Not only that it was in front of all the zone leaders, the assistants, and the mission president and his wife. Awesome. I am excited about it though, if not surprised it didn't happen sooner. This'll be the first friend that I have from seminary so far to get married! It'll be exciting to see how everybody else fares before I get home!
I'm super excited to get the sd card. I can't wait to see everybody. As far as sending my clothes home I still haven't gotten around to it obviously. Everything's been super hectic and we really don't have a lot of time. I only have about half of the stuff that I need to send boxed up and I want to send it all in one shipment. Plus I'm still just hesitant just because it's still a little daunting about how much it's going to cost too but I'm going to have to do it sometime. I'll see if we have time today to box up the rest of it and then hopefully send it next week.
Woa, I didn't even realize that today was my eleven months mark until you said it. That's really kind of a weird thought. My birthday is coming up and soon I'll have to suffer through Thanksgiving again! As to my birthday I did have a few thoughts. One thing that I absolutely do need is new athletic shoes. I've been holding off because I want the ones I have to last till then but my shoes are devastated. I'll probably take some pictures of them with the sd card I send so you can see what I mean. A nice pair of running or training shoes would be an awesome present or also I was looking in that new thing the church sent out with this months ensign that is basically the lds store catalog at scriptures. What would be really cool would be to get a new pair of scriptures. Mine still work really well but they're getting beat up from the elements. It's not a need, it's a want. I really like the scriptures dad has that are the compact kind with the closure tab. But those are also really expensive so that's just an up in the air type thing. What I really would need are the shoes. Other than that I can't think of much else. God takes care of everything else. Just throwing it out there, one thing I DO NOT need is journals. Everybody and their mother gave me enough journals last year to last me the rest of my life so I'm good in that aspect. I also always like ties. I really like brightly colored ties. Paisley and plaid are my favorites. Just some ideas. If you need others I'm sure I can produce.
Anyways, this week was great in Jersey City! General Conference was a special treat. It was particularly cool because I had met, personally, two of the seventies who spoke, recently out here on my mission! Elder Juan Uceda who spoke so passionately about humility and love in the priesthood session I actually met about three months ago when he came to an all mission conference that we had and then also Elder Jensen of the Seventy who's our area authority seventy. It was really cool to say, "Hey, I know that man! I saw him a few months ago!" On top of that, they both gave excellent talks. Once again, I think priesthood session took the cake. It was all about humility and the effect of our choices. It really helped me to see how important humility is. How it really seems to be the mother of all virtues. If we have humility we will know that we must follow God in all things and then all else will fall into place. It was really easy to see the things that I would need to change in my missionary service and how it really begins with the heart. What are our desires? Are they God's desires? These are the questions that give effect and purpose to the things that we do here in this life and when we devote ourselves to that righteous purpose we can be sure we are on the straight and narrow path back to our Father. Elder Roper and I both felt that the overall theme this conference was that there are things that we as a church must do to cleanse ourselves of all unrighteousness but an overwhelming sense of possibility. That we can do the things necessary to perfect the man of God seemed to permeate the air in the churches and homes round the world and the mission of the church established of first perfecting the saints, preaching the Gospel, and redeeming the dead.
This week Elder Roper and I will be addressing the zone so that we can establish the goals and vision that we have for our missionary service. There are a lot of things that we hope to accomplish, not only in the work of the missionaries, but in the hearts of the missionaries. That is where satisfactory and even exemplary service begins, in the heart. In our hearts are cultivated our desires and that is where begins the long process of thoughts and actions which reaps the results we attain in this life. If our goals reflect the desires in our hearts then in order to serve God with all our might, mind and strength our hearts must be in tune with God's. If our desires are pure then our actions will be pure. True and lasting conversion occurs when a heart is touched and changed by the Spirit and that individual signifies before God that such change is permanent by entering into sacred covenants before God. This is the change our mission president wants us to achieve in the mission. We're going to really focus on finishing this year strong by realligning ourselves to our Father's will. In this we know that we can achieve much good among His children.
Elder Uchtdorf said that "if pride can fell Lucifer, that great "son of the morning" and one beloved by God, should we not look within ourselves?" I know that if we are to do God's will we must have His heart be our own. We must know that His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man is ours too and we must take action to assess ourselves so that we can do the work to the greatest measure of our ability.
-Elder Guinto
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