Missionary Moments: Mesa Temple Christmas lights, 'Anti's' and questions for a Pastor....

Weekly Email

Mesa Temple Christmas light display.

It was sure great to talk to you guys on Christmas! I am so glad you able to chat with T--- for a little bit, he is an awesome guy. Tell the LaRue's thanks for coming over, it was so good to see them too. Can't wait for Albert's wedding, haha. So had some exciting stuff happen this week. First I had to go get fingerprinted on Friday to get sent to the FBI.(a new requirement for a Brazil VISA) They told me it normally takes about eight weeks to process but I think that covers the FBI clearence you mentioned. so who knows, maybe I could be off soon. That's a crazy thought. I kind of forget that I am going there, haha. We were able to go to the Mesa Christmas lights and visitor's center with our investigator C-----, the lights were truly amazing. He worked as a security guard for the temple last year so he had seen them before but he really enjoyed going. Had a pretty funny experience while we were there. When we just had gotten there and were walking from the parking lot Elder Ault and I started to get some anti (people saying things against the LDS church members) from some Baptist minister of some sort. I have learned you just gotta 'out happy' any anti you face, which we did. But C-----, the guy we brought to the temple lights, got super super mad that someone would do that to us and let the guy know how he felt about it using some pretty direct and bold language, I guess you could say, haha. (Love it!) It was neat having him stand up for us even though he is not a member. Anyhow C----- is awesome, super nice to us always. Just trying to get him to progress and read the Book of Mormon, we will get it. We picked up a new investigator this week H--- is her name. She is from China and is married to a less active member. We showed her the temple presentation and invited her to church and she came. We were super excited. We should begin teaching this week with her. Elder Ault can speak Mandarin with her as well, which is pretty cool. We were able to do some service for K-- and give her a set of scriptures so she can use the footnotes. We have a lot of hope for her. She said she is going to ask he Pastor about what we have taught her and why does it all make sense. I hope that goes okay, haha. I finally got a bunch of stuff in the mail for you guys today and for G'ma Hutchens and G'ma Beve, should be there soon. Have been studying the new testiment a lot lately. I really like reading about Christ's life. The book of Hebrews has been one of my favorites. That's an awesome experience you had Ma with sharing the scripture, that is really neat. The Spirit really does direct everything. As a missionary, it really is cool how what we study can help people out. I know that the Lord directed you to that scripture so that when you were in that lesson you would have it ready and have a testimony of it that you could share. Awesome. We did a lot of member visits this week. Getting them motivated to invited thre friends to the temple and seeing how we can help. A lot of Christmas messages too. We taught young women's (youth age girls) in one our wards this week, haha, about being a missionary and inviting their friends. The youth our awesome, not afraid at all to share what they know. Well love you guys!!! It was sure awesome to talk to you!!!!

love

Elder Mountain

Comment from Elder Mountain while email chatting, "Can't believe it's pushing 6 months already. Gilbert time better not count against Brazil time, haha!" Sorry to inform this service lovin' missionary but YES your time in Gilbert does count against your time in Brazil! You get ONLY 24 months, however it's split between the two places. ;)