Hello my dear family,
I am so happy to see that you are all doing well. I am also very happy to hear the progress that is being made by Uncle Bob and by Nicky. I do pray for them both. I am especially grateful to hear about Sarah :) I know that we have all done our very best to help her see the wonderful woman she truly is. She is incredibly intelligent, she has great courage and faces the trials of everyday with strength, she also has a strong testimony of this gospel that shines through in her face. I am so grateful for all of you.
Audrey is also a great woman who has such a happy attitude all the time. She brightens any room she walks into.
Rebecca you are so cute with a deep desire to do your best. You will not settle for anything less and I know that this will be a great blessing to you in your life. You are also very bright and have a great understanding. You have a great love for others and never really want to hurt anyone.
Jeffrey you are so cool :) You also have a very happy attitude and desire to serve others. You like to get things done on your own and have fun while doing them. You are also very funny :)
Mom I love you so much and thank you for your being such a great example of love and kindness to me. You serve others everyday. You always do your best to understand people and put yourself in their shoes. You too have a very strong testimony of the gospel that shines through whenever you smile.
Dad you are also a great example to me of diligence and always striving to do your best. You are constantly learning and striving with all your heart to follow the spirit. Every once in a while you have said that you pray for more patience but I don't think anyone could be all that much more patient than you (except maybe mom ;) ) I'm kidding. You showed me the importance of using my knowledge in the best way, which in truth is being wise. The way I have always heard wisdom defined is not knowing a lot but using what you know in the way it is intended. You truly are a very wise man. You are also very humble.
I love you all and it is only because of your examples that I am the person I am today. Some of you may think that I am a great person but truly I am only parts of your personalities. Everything that you see in me and in each other is a part of yourself as well. We have all grown up together. If you ever find yourself wishing to be like your brother or sister just know that it is absolutely possible because we are all part of each other. That is the beautiful thing about families. When you look at yourselves just realize that you are a son or daughter of God and because He is perfect, you can be perfect too. I give you a promise that if you strive to look at yourself in this way your faith will increase, you will reach those goals that you set, and you will constantly and consistently progress. Now down to this week. I had an amazing week this week. We have been over to a few members' homes and loved being with them and sharing our testimonies with them. Also, we were able to visit a few different investigators this week. There is one in particular that I would like to talk about. I have already had a day or two where I thought for a moment that it was impossible for me to truly learn Mandarin. At those times I felt great amounts of despair and at one point I began to have tears roll down my face. I wasn't sure I could do much more. But I started to remember the times that my Heavenly Father had blessed me with the ability to understand the members that I talked to and be able to talk back with them. Everything that I wanted to say came easily. So yesterday we went and met with an investigator named Xiao Yun. We started teaching her and she had a great deal of questions and comments and right as we were starting to teach her I thought that we should pray but I was too shy to cut off my companions. I let them go on for a while and they talked back and forth with Xiao Yun. Around the middle of the lesson I found that it felt like the Spirit was speaking very sternly at me and telling me that I should stop the conversation have someone say a prayer and then bear my testimony simply and surely that the things we talked about were true. I thought that my Mandarin still wasn't very good but I did it anyway. After that the conversation went much faster and much more smoothly and our investigator was much more intent on listening and understanding what we were saying I was even able to reply to what questions she asked me. I know that the gift of tongues is real and that I can learn this language with my Heavenly Father's help. I know that we need to listen to the Spirit and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Sincerely,
