God's love

July 20, 2015

Dear Family,

It sounds like another fun week at home. I'm happy you're going through Preach My Gospel. It's practically considered scripture out here. Technically it is. I didn't know how good it was until I came out here. It simplifies the gospel and helps the missionary understand what their role is. 

The Ecco's are holding up great! I shine them every week. Every time I shine them they look good as new. I switch shoes every day. Weather doesn't really make a difference since they're both waterproof. I like the look of the laced ones better but the laceless ones are easier to deal with.

I'd say the highlight this week was the exchange I went on with Elder Gunnel. He just barely came out when Elder Lynch left. He's our district leader's companion. I got to lead out for a day here in Corydon. I've taken the lead before but I've never done it with someone who just came out. As young as Elder Gunnel is, he taught me a lot. He was, by far, the best missionary at contacting I've ever seen. He was the best at being bold, yet loving. He was fearless but he also understood when the answer was "no". I was impressed. He taught me a lot with contacting being one of my weaknesses. We balanced each other out though. He was strong at contacting, I was strong at teaching. Since then my own contacting has improved. My mind has been clearer and I've been taking "no" better. Not that "no" ever seriously bothered me, I'm just more comforted by the fact that I did my part. 

I have some talks for you to listen to. You'll have to look these up. They're all really long but they're worth it. The first one is "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. The second is "Bill Carpenter's Conversion Story". And the third is "The Belief Window/Self Worth" by Hyrum W. Smith. "The Belief Window" is the longest one (70 minutes) but it blew my mind. When you listen to it have some paper and a pen out and write down what he says. I have a feeling you would really like it because it deals with human needs and how the gospel relates to them. 

I don't know if I've told you about Emery's yet. Emery's is a little ice cream, soda and candy shop here in downtown Corydon. There's only 1 Emery's in existence and it's here. They sell a lot of old candy and old soda. Their ice cream is the highest quality ice cream I've ever had. I haven't had a flavor I haven't liked yet. The sell Nehi's too. Nehi is an ancient soda brand that you don't see too often. I'm sure Dad knows about them. Nehi has a peach flavor. Peach flavored soda is rare. Nehi Peach soda is the best fruit flavored soda I've ever had! For the love of me, find a way to get Peach Nehi in Utah! 

I'm still learning, I'm still growing and I'm still working hard. Elder Shelley and I have had to drop a lot of investigators this week because they weren't keeping their commitments. I've tracted a lot these past few days. We've somewhat lost contact with M & R this week. I'm worried they dropped us. Because they live so far away, we can't just drive up and check on them whenever. We have mileage limits on the car. They were progressing fantastically until I mentioned they had to be married before they were baptized. As far as I know they still want to join. They're just not answering the phone. They have been sick lately so that may be it. I seriously doubt they'd stop investigating the gospel at this point. We'll try calling and we may have to swing by at some point.

I'd say the lesson I learned this week was how to be more confident that I did my part. I have a lot of subjects that I'm constantly pondering in the back of my head. One of the subjects this week was if I'm doing my part or not. I often think to myself, "In that lesson did I say something that helped them? Did I teach clearly? In that contact was I bold? Loving? Did I give them a clear choice?" A lot of the time I feel like I MOSTLY did my part. This week I realized I'm doing more to please Heavenly Father than I thought. I'm not perfect but I'm trying my best and I'm always looking to improve. This week I was on exchanges and even though we didn't teach a whole lot I felt that Heavenly Father was pleased with the effort we put forth in trying to do His work. 

Here's something cool that I realized this week. I had these questions running through my mind this week: "Why does God love the sinner?" Why does God still love those who turn their backs on him? Why does God refuse to give up on ANY of His children?" I had these and other questions similar to them in my mind all throughout this week. One of the biggest things I've learned about the nature of God on my mission is that we call him "Heavenly Father" for a reason. He is literally the Father of our spirits and He is a lot more similar to an earthly father than most people realize. But the answer "because God is our Father and He loves us" wasn't satisfying my questions. Then I remembered what happened in the pre-earth life. There were two plans presented, Jesus's plan and Satan's plan. Satan wanted the glory but Jesus wanted the glory to go to the Father. 1/3 of the hosts of Heaven chose Satan. 2/3 chose Jesus. All those who chose Jesus's plan got to come down here to earth. When I remembered that I realized that everyone on earth chose to love God and follow Him. Imagine if your child came up to you and said "Father, I love you. I want to follow you. I'll do everything you ask of me." You'd probably be a little shocked. Ultimately you'd do everything you could to help you child grow. Heavenly Father didn't "cheap out" on anything. He gave us a very clear path to grow and to return back to Him. He gave us a way to be forgiven when we mess up. He wants everything for us because we chose to love Him before we came to his earth. So... why does God love the sinner? Why does God love everyone on earth? It's because everyone on earth chose to love and follow God before they came here. 

Thank you for you!

-Elder Ben

Sis Brough: The Zone Conferences were centered around "Planning for Investigators."
What do they need to help them progress towards baptism?
The Lexington North Zone had the cleanest apartments and the Louisville Zone had the cleanest cars.

New Albany Zone Missionaries singing "Army of Helaman" and "Called to Serve"

First haircut of the mission and the back of Elder Shelley