Letter 2 - LJ was Baptized :)

Hi mom!

Typical busy week for ya! I'm sorry to hear about Uncle Lisiate passing away. It's a good thing grandpa went. Everyone also sounds like they are busy as usual! But here are a couple thoughts from this week which was an amazing week! 

Well I'll start with the best thing that happened. LJ was baptized :) It was awesome.

He had a lot of people from his family come, and the ward came and supported him as well. There were so many people we had to have his service in the chapel! I think the coolest thing though was the spirit that was present throughout the whole thing. I had the wonderful and humbling opportunity to baptize him, and Elder Quick was asked to confirm him. 

LJ is seriously such a special kid. He can literally do anything he sets his mind to, including being baptized. It is obvious to see the great potential he has as a young man and a son of God, and the places he will go as he continues to live the standards of the Gospel. It's really quite amazing! He even mentioned to us a long time ago how he wanted to be a missionary, too. And I can't wait for the day that he does, mom. Quick and I really love this kid and his awesome family. I am so grateful that I was able to come back to Columbus to be with them all again and to witness the happiness and change that comes from living the gospel.

Also, Elder Quick is leaving :(  Yup, he is needed as a ZL again to help out the zones. I am grateful to have been able to be his companion and I learned A LOT from him. Things I know I will definitely carry with me after the mission. 

He will be going to Elkhart. I will be staying in Columbus for one more week with an Elder Larsen. He is a stud. I was around him a lot in South Bend so I am excited to be his companion, too, even for this very short amount of time. 

This Sunday was stake conference. It was great, President Hill (Stake President) gave an amazing talk. He talked about Life, and the worldly definition of it. He said in the worldly definition of Life, Life consists of Loss. Eventually we all LOSE loved ones to death. Eventually we LOSE use of our own bodies and start to age and deteriorate. And eventually, we LOSE our own lives. There are so many things we will lose in life, but that's not the case with the gospel. The gospel offers a more eternal and celestial view of life. We will eventually reunite with the loved ones we lost. We will eventually regain the bodies we lost. The gospel offers a bridge between our losses and us. It offers a bridge between us and our Heavenly Father. A bridge made possible by Jesus Christ. It was such an amazing talk. After that we had a luncheon with LJ's family to celebrate his baptism. It was great to be with them. 

Those are just a couple things from this week that I learned and appreciated :) 

Well I'll be off and working for this last week. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. All the wonderful people in Indiana (and Niles) I've met and come to love and I hope I get to see again some day. 

All the amazing missionaries, young and not as young, that I've worked with and looked up to. 

All the memorable and hard lessons I've learned and hope I never forget. On Sunday I can skype for a bit, too. We have church from 9-12 here so from 7am to 10am your time I'm not available. But anytime after that I'm pretty much available! 

Love you mom. Give my love to the family!

Ofa Lahi Atu

***

Hi Family,

Real quick i am going to be getting transferred to Elkhart, not the ward i served in but the other ward. I "ghosted" that means 6 week in an area, and now im heading back to the North!!! 

LJ got baptized on may 6th 2017, what a powerful experience i was able to be apart of. Elder Heimuli and I found LJ at the beginning of the transfer and just started playing basketball with him, about 2 weeks later he approached us saying he wanted to be baptized. Linda told us to start with the discussions. So we began, LJ has such a high comprehension he is like a sponge and takes all of it in when we ask him questions  he responds with very personable and meaningful answers. Elder Heimuli baptized him, and his smile was so big, he asked how long he had to be under and we both told him 3 minutes... he was like ohh, and then we told him we were just joking. But seeing people are they are baptized they glow, we told him how does it feel to be the most righteous person in the entire world? all he could do was smile. I was able to Confirm LJ and it was one of the most memorable experience i have had Confirming someone, the love and the spirit was very strong in the circle. Words can't describe how much joy there was in that chapel and when he got baptized, he's an example to his family that he can make such a grown up decision and do something to better himself without anyone else telling him to do it, it was all on him. I am blessed to have been able to be apart of this experience. The scripture that has came to my mind this entire transfer is that the hearts of the father will turn to there children and there children to the fathers. How LJ 14 years old is and example to me and Heimuli and all those who are 40+ years old and all of his cousins. 

Fastest transfer that i have ever experienced, the two best friends cruising around Columbus. i remember when i first got here. We literally just threw our stuff in the apartment and then went out trying to visit people and find them all. That night we literally just pull our blankets out and pillows and then sleep, wake up, workout, and study, and get out to work. Slowly we kinda unpacked our stuff but we never really unpacked because we never really had time. Constantly running around doing things, riding our bikes through the pouring rain, walking for days to get where we need to. I have made so many friendships in this period of time, that i will be in contact with, FOREVER. The Gospel will bring people closer together faster and stronger than any other thing. 

We had stake conference, and something different happened i have never seen this before.. but we were there and they just announced that there is going to be a broadcast from salt lake. I was like what in the world? Elder Gong, a member of the 70, and a relief society 1st counselor and Elder Oaks spoke to us all gave us some great counsel. He talked about how the Missionary work in the midwest needs to improve, that it needs to get better. He said this was through the members, they need to be the ones actively finding people and having the missionaries teach them. Also warned the youth about having an addiction to their phones, he stated that anything that takes away from regular activities that you would normally do is considered an addiction. He said "have a face to face, old school !" Then we all laughed. He also said "you youth will never be prepared to serve a mission if your faces are always planted in your phones. how will you feel when you have to talk to some random stranger when you hardly talk to those you love so dearly?"

Elder Quick