Elders McCleod and Romney

Monday, June 17, 2013

Blessings of the Spirit and pics


Hey!
 
SINGAPORE??(Haley got her mission call to Singapore) Are you serious?? That is awesome! Ya sister Evans is great, she called and I couldn't believe it. First thing out of Elder Adamsons and my mouth was "Where's Singapore?". That is going to be sweet. Safe country, is it nice over there? First world? We did a little research on LDS.org and they have a stake! Oh boy, she's going to have SUCH a riot! AND speaking English? Wahoo! That's great news!
 
I can't believe school is done already! Things are cruising along. It's so weird to think that it's that time of year over there. I've given up on keeping track of what the weather is like over there in the month. It's just always hot. And sunny. And beautiful. You work so hard at the farm. I hope people appreciate the things you do there.
 
Fathers Day was yesterday! Happy Fathers day to everyone! We had a good day, our birthday packages came in and President Medley brought them to us - Gram and Grandpa Bruce sent me one - thank you Gram and Grandpa! All I've eaten the past three days is jerky, sunflower seeds and candy! True the diet is in need of starting back up. E. Adamson also got his birthday package so we shared seeds, jerky and candy with President D and Bro. M at our branch presidency meeting. IT would be hard to have fathers day without their kids. I think we made them pretty happy though.
 
So this week was fantastic. We are going to have a baptism in Santa Cruz! Only the fourth one in the last year and a half. Missionaries have been teaching a woman named C for years and years and she keeps coming to church but never progresses enough to be baptized. She has two daughters, A and T, 12 and 8. A is the smartest 12 year old I've ever met. Anything you teach her, it sticks. She's been at church almost every Sunday for 3 years and her mom just thought she wasn't old enough for baptism. The idea to teach her came from two members who are very close to her. We thought a lot about it, and usually we want full support from the family, so we had a sit down chat with a member and C and she was all good and supportive of A getting baptized! We walked with them to church yesterday, it's only 5 minutes, they live so close! Honestly she could be baptised this week, that's how awesome she is but true we are going to go through everything one more time. July 13th is her date. Saturday night we committed her to pray and ask Heavenly Father if July 13th was the right date to be baptised, because she wanted to be baptised on her birthday in November. Her follow up question was "How will I know I got my answer?"... from a 12 year old! We are teaching grown men and women who can't wrap their minds around that and A is just all about it. She even asked "How does the whole mission thing work? I want to go, but I also am going to be a doctor so I'll have schooling to do. How does it work?" .... SHE'S 12! Very bright girl. Anyways, Sunday night we followed up with her prayer and it was one of the sweetest experiences I've had on my mission. In her own words "I prayed last night and asked Heavenly Father if July 13th was when I should be baptised and if the Book of Mormon was true. I could not stop smiling. I went to bed and woke up smiling, my cheeks hurt because I think I was smiling while I was sleeping. I know July 13th is when I should be baptised and that the Book of Mormon is true." Such a tender moment when she said that. I think the experiences I've had with the Spirit are the coolest and most enriching experiences of my mission. She's great!
 
This week we had Zone meeting, led by Elder Adamson and I. We had the District leaders speak on different topics, one on focusing on our purpose in all our activities, one on sustaining our leaders, and one on training. They all did really well, we've got some stud missionaries. Elder Adamson spoke about working with the branch and nutrition (kind of random but we the Caribbean mission doc came out and did a big presentation at Mission Leadership Council) and I spoke on working with less active members. That wasn't my whole topic though, I really wanted to make an impact on these missionaries, something that they would remember and look back at on their missions. I had them all take off their name tags and just look at it. Notice the scratches, the scuffs, but more importantly think back to all the sacrifices they've made to wear it. Saving money, getting active, finding a testimony, etc. I really wanted them to understand how much they've put into being here and that if it doesn't feel worth it now that it will soon. I thought it went really well, the Spirit was thick in that room. I got a little emotional. We talked about how it's a privilege to be serving at at time like this and how there has always been waves of the way missionary work is done. Golden questions, discussions, and now it's working through less active members. It was an awesome zone meeting. Teaching is a lot of fun. This week is Zone Conference - President Hendricks, Elder Worley's and my last. I'm so looking forward to the council President has for us. At a missionaries last zone conference he bears his testimony- talk about weird. I remember my first zone conference when Elder Dale bore his testimony and I thought how far away that day was. Noooo I was wrong, it came much sooner than expected.
 
Well I love you Mom, we're in Junction today with the Elders and Sisters here. I'm going to get a haircut and then we're playing beach soccer. Did Bishop Payne get back to you about speaking on the 21st? Please let me know. I love you!!
 
Elder Romney









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