Monday, August 19, 2013

Dear Friends and Family

It's been super busy here! Fountain Valley has been so great!  The members have been so helpful and they are pumped to do missionary work. We've has some wonderful lessons because of the willingness of the members to help out.  I want to tell you how our most recent investigator found out for himself the truthfulness of the Gospel.  His brother had joined the church a few months ago.  Their mom was unhappy about this because she believed they needed to remain in the religion they had been raised in.  Through church attendance this young man knew the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints offered him more than what he had.  After a couple of lessons, he took the challenge to read and pray to know if the Church is true.  After a sincere prayer, he went to his phone to read from the Book of Mormon.  Instead of opening to the main page like he expected, the app. opened to Alma 32:31 which says: 
"And now, behold are ye sure that this is a good seed?  I say unto you, Yea; for every seed bringeth forth unto it's own likeness.
Therefore, if a seed groweth it is good, but if it groweth not, behold it is not good, therefore it is cast away.
And now, behold, because ye have tried the experiment and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good" (Alma 32:31 - 33)
This young man, as most of us would, took that as an answer that the Book of Mormon is true.  Some of us, who have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, can point to a time where a decision about the authenticity of the Book of Mormon was made; some of us cannot.  I would urge you, I would exhort you, remember the feelings that you have about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  Remember that it is an ever-growing faith. Remember that the Lord gives precept upon precept...[and] unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say;  We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have (2 Nephi 28:30).
I love you all and I keep you all in my prayers and thought.  Thank you for the love and support.
Love,
Elder Sanderson

Weekly Letter

Salutations Friends and Family!
This week has been so great. The past few weeks and months have been great actually. I cannot express how good of a time I'm having here helping people to come unto Christ. The blessings that have come from my mission have been amazing. The ward that I am serving in has definitely "caught fire" as some say. The ward members are becoming more and more involved with the teaching and fellow shipping of investigators and we have been able to see a difference. 

We have one investigator I would especially like to tell ya'll about. His name is ****** and he's an 18-year-old guy. His brother was baptized about a year ago and they've both been coming to church for quite some time. We began teaching ******officially about 4 weeks ago. He has been progressing very well. Last Sunday we set a baptismal date for the 24th of August. The only problem was he lives in a city called Santa Ana which not only isn't in our ward or stake, but it isn't even in the Long Beach Mission! We were worried with how it would work out because his brothers records are here in the Fountain Valley Third Ward and he said that he wants to go to this ward. This posed a major problem. He was most likely going to get baptized in the Santa Ana Stake. Some of you may notice I am speaking in the past tense even though this is a future event. Allow me to explain. We spoke with the Bishop of our ward and he spoke to the Mission President. Some how, I'm still not sure how, we got permission to have the baptism here in Fountain Valley. This is definitely a miracle because this process usually takes weeks to work out. It took him 2 days. We are extremely excited for******to be baptized because now we will be able to attend.

The Lord will always work things out. He always has, he always does, and he always will. All we can do sometimes is have hope that things will work out and they will. I know they will.

Thank you for all your wonderful support. You are all awesome and I love you all. I appreciate everything that you all do. Keep being the great people that you all are.
Love,
Elder Sanderson :D