HOLA!!!
Dang this week has been so FUNNN!!!!!!!!!! ALSO I AM ALMOST 20!!!!!! And it is about time! Can't wait to say I am not a teenager anymore! I like to think I am 19 going on 40:) HA!
Well This week we MINI MISSIONARIES!!!! It is so fun! So what happens is that we get a local kid that is thinking about going on a mission for a week! My mini missionary is named Alex (He is the one carrying me in the pic... typical)! He is awesome! He is planning on going on a mission at the end of the Summer! I think it is an amazing opportunity for a young person to go on a mini mission to really see what happens on a mission and feel the amazing spirit.
That is what I wanted to talk about, the Spirit. I sent another picture with a young guy with crutches. His name is Jake Dastrup. He is actually from Utah and is a gymnast on the OSU and National team! What is crazy about meeting up with him is that I actually met/saw him last year and the year before at the Olympic Training Center. We were training in the gym right next to him! I had no idea who he was nor that he was Mormon!!!! Well we have gotten pretty close! the reason why I wanted to talk about him is because he has changed my life. The minute I met him I felt something different. He started coming to lessons with us and I could just feel like positive feeling whenever we were around him. It was the spirit. He has never said a negative thing or even slightly crude thing around me. He is always smiling and SOOOO willing to come and teach with us. It is no surprise to me that he has the spirit with him! He has taught me how important that little things we do or can change can have a huge influence in carrying a light or Spirit with us. I love being around Jake cause he makes us all happier! I know I need to be even more positive and do the small things that will bring moreS of the spirit into my life! He is planning on serving a mission soon!
I also have been thinking a lot about my mission so far! Due to the fact that I will be home almost a year from now!!! WHAT?! I have reflected and realized how thankful I am for the spirit. I am so thankful that I don't have to do the converting! I think when I first came on my mission I thought "I" had to convert these people to the truth!!! Well I have learned and am continuing to learn that conversion is not by any man, but only by the spirit. I had a interesting discussion a few days ago with a man we are teaching! He told me that I was not going to convert him to being a Latter-Day saint. And I said,"I know, but the spirit will." He looked a little stunned. But I really meant that. I told him my conversion story about how I really struggled with my faith and belief in God. How I wasn't very active in this Church. I testified that what led me to knowing that this was true was the spirit that accompanied every little thing I did in or with the church. I saw objective proof through subjective experiences. I know that spirit is what will lead us through a LIFETIME of conversion! I will never say I am fully converted, because I believe I would loose the potential for growth! I look forward to learning by the spirit for a lifetime!
Thank you EVERYONE for all you have done for me! Reach out to those around you and help anyone and everyone you can in anyway that you can!!! CHARITY NEVER FAILETH!
Love
Elder Patch
Pics!
1.Elder Afalava and I were reunited! Miss that kid
2.Jake Dastrup aka the MAN
3.My Mini Missionary!!!
4. Our investigator Jay was Baptized!!!!
I appreciate your testimony, and the Spirit that emanates from you. I can't help to think of the phrase: "There are no coincidences with the Lord" and remember how connections are formed throughout the earth, and we hardly ever know how and when it happens. But, yes they do. I remember so clearly hearing about the Cowser family for the first time, and seeing the family picture on the front of the Mission paper for the Swedish Mission in 1967. I remember the picture of the little girl Linda. What is amazing to me, is that I was told about you 28 years later, and who your parents were, and it was brought to my remembrance who Linda was. It was not hard at all for us to understand your life situation, since we had adopted our son, and carried such gratitude in our hearts for his birth mother. I would like to share that little article about your grandparents family while they had been in Sweden. They had a profound influence on a lot of people over there. I'll post it for you on my Google page, and hope that you can access it, and see it for yourself.
ReplyDeleteWishing you lots of amazing experiences and joy in the work of the Lord.
Your friend, Yordi