Monday, December 27, 2010

Alex's 19th email from Chile 12/27/10

I loved this live nativity with Elder Leavitt in it :)

Hola familia!

I feel like I just talked with you all :) These last couple days have just left me with such high spirits.

Well to answer your questions I know it is only been a week so I don't really know but I can tell Elder Diaz is awesome. He is hilarious and chill so obviously we get along well. The only thing is I can tell that this area has gotten him down and his companion before me is extremely hard. His comp before me came out with me and his first 4 changes he has had 4 different companions. So, I just need to work hard on him and get his spirits back up.

My first Sunday was cool a little different. First, they called me up to share a little about me so I went up said some stuff and bore my testimony. It was cool. My ward is tiny and they are all crazy old. There is like zero younger people in our ward!! I don't know the exact address of my apartment so I will get that to you next week but if you want I know it is the exact corner of Gran Avenida and Santa Clara above the pizza hut. So if that works cool.

No, there was no special thing if you finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish. I feel really good about it though because there were a ton of people who didn't do it. We celebrated Christmas with the family where I talked with you and we had a little something in our apartment it was cool.

Well it has just been really cool to celebrate Christmas differently you know? It´s like I totally missed celebrating with my family but it has been cool really focusing on Christ and trying to share that with other people. Being able to share your testimony of Jesus Christ in the time of year where almost everyone in the world is celebrating his birth is such a cool thing to do. It´s like I am just so happy to be a missionary right now. I know that what we are teaching and preaching everyday is so right. I know it is right because I have done everything that I ask my investigators to do. I have read the Book of Mormon which I have just absolutely fallen in love with. You can literally read any page, find some sort of doctrine or reference to Christ, and feel the Spirit testify of those things. Like it says in the introduction, there is no other book on this planet that can do that. I have prayed and asked my Heavenly Father if these things are true and I have felt His Holy Ghost testify to me that this gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ which he has revealed through his prophet Joseph Smith. I know that Joseph Smith was truly a Prophet of God. Every time I share his story or hear my companion read the first vision i can feel it. There is such power in that story and even if I didn't feel that God has always had prophets. And like mom shared with me last week about her own personal testimony of Joseph Smith why would God love the people in the time of the bible more than us? why would they have prophets and not us? they wouldn't and God loves us just as much as them and like it says in the bible and the Book of Mormon that ¨God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, never turning to the left or to the the right¨ I love my Lord Savior Jesus Christ so much. He has done everything for me. He has given me my Family who I am so blessed to have. They have always been there for me and I know they always will be. I know it is because of My Lord that I can live with them forever. I know through his atoning sacrifice for all of us that all of us have the opportunity to live with our Heavenly Father once more. I love the story in 3 Nephi 11 when Jesus Christ appears to the people of the Americas when he asks everyone to come forth and feel the marks in his hands feet and side. I love especially the part when it says that ¨they came forth one by one¨ I know how personal the atonement really is because before I once felt how can Christ really know what I am going through? how can something he did for everyone be personally for me? Well I know how personal it is. I use it everyday when I pray and ask my God my my short comings and my weaknesses. I know that Jesus Christ died and suffered personally for me. That I can have that chance to become better, god willing help someone else, and live with my God, my loving Brother Jesus Christ, and my Family for eternity. I am so happy to have a chance to share this with the people here in Chile. I don't care if my sector is dead. I already feel like I am losing time to share my testimony with these people. I don't have time to let these thoughts of a dead sector and how hard it will be to get in the way. I am so determined to try if not help someone to the straight and narrow path, to at least help prepare them for someone else who can. I love this gospel so much. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and the plan he created for us. I just thought I should share my testimony with you guys. I don't know if it was the whole Christmas spirit and what not or if someone needed to hear it. But I love you all and hope you all had an amazing Christmas and a happy new year.

Love,

Elder Alexander Thomas Leavitt



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