Tuesday, March 24, 2009

> Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood@myldsmail.net> To: telliehike@hotmail.com> Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:07:59 +0000>

> > hello family and friends.>

well this week has been a really good week. we had a baptism on sunday and it was just awesome, i had the opportunity to baptize this kid of 14 years. we have been teaching mario for some time and his family is all members except for him, but his family are inactive, he has been going to church lately and has come to the knowledge that it is true, he was so very excited this whole week to be baptized, he couldn´t stop thinking about it. but it came to the day of his baptism, he started to get nervous. he then asked me, what am i going to do if i sin again, i can´t be baptized twice, then i told him no te preculpas or don´t worry about that, that is why we have the sacrament. the sacrament is like a mini baptism all over again, through this you can be clean of your sin again, just like with you baptism, if we take of the sacrament worthily God will not remember those sins anymore, then he got the confidence to be baptized again, then after i baptized him, i asked him, how do you feel? how does it feel to have all of your sins taken from you? he then told me that he didn´t feel any different, and then my jaw dropped, then he said just kidding, he told me that it is something that he could not really explain, it was like an overwhelming feeling of love and peace. he said that i really feel clean, it is so awesome when we are baptized, it is the first covenant that we make with God, a covenant is a two way promise. and through this promise we can be forgiven of our sins and we open the door that leads us to God, but it isn´t the end, we progress and we try to better ourselves and we make more promises and God always makes a promise in return. i can´t describe the overwhelming spirit that was in the baptism of someone that you taught that knew little to nothing of God that now knows the greatest thing, that you are his child and he wants you to return to Him, and that through this he can return to live with him.> but other than the baptism we have had many opportunities to teach the people the Gospel and see many changes in the lives of many, there is one person named gustavo, he has problems with smoking and drinking, but he has been cutting it out little by little and i swear every time that i see him i see more of the light of christ in his face, yea the mission is crazy awesome to be able to witness all of this, but there are also other crazy things that happen too, the other day i was walking and there was this dog underneath a car and i couldn´t see the dog, but when i walked by the dog jumped out and bit my leg, it didn´t bite hard enough to do anything but i was in shock that i dog finally bit me after all of the dogs that have tried to bite me, the first one to actually do it, was a little tiny dog. o.k. that is about the only thing that is crazy in the mission. Mexico is starting to get pretty normal to me and i can´t notice if something is really different that i can really write about. but back to the investigators. pedro still has a hard time getting to the church on Sundays, but he really likes the church, i haven´t had a chance to talk to him about that lately so i will have to talk to you about that next week, well Julio the other that is going to get baptized this week, he really likes the church and all, but he said that he need a profound answer to his prayers to know that it is true, then we taught him through the spirit we can know the truth of all things and we told him the fruits of the spirit and what he would feel. we also told him that the spirit answers in many different ways, but the Lord will always answer in a way that is best for us. by what he has told us what he has felt,( he felt love, peace, and other feeling really good.) it sounds to me that he has already found an answer. this happens a lot in the mission, people feel this in their prayers, but they sometimes don´t put two and two together, they don´t realize that they have received an answer. i sure hope that he receives an answer and i can´t wait to see what happens, well i have to go for now, i hope you all have a great week. >

love,> elder robert atwood>

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

hello family and friends.

well this week was awesome. i received a new companion. his name is elder avila. he is a mexican from chiapas. he is really cool he is really tiny. he is about 100lbs., but he is a really hard worker. we have beenhaving some big success in this area. not much out of the ordinary hadhappened this week but we could definitely see the lords hand in every step of the way. the first thing that happened is that we got a call fromthe zone leaders that one member had been sick and is in the hospital inour area. so we went down to the hospital to find that this lady had a tumor the size of an orange on her throat. so we explained to her about faith and through faith and the priesthood you can be healed if it is thewill of the lord. i then told her what ever happens trust what the Lordhas in store for you. because this life is a life if probation and the life to come is where all the Gold lies. we then gave her a blessing andi anointed and i felt so much love in that room. and the cool thing aboutthat was there was another person who had blood poisoning and she was cleaning out her blood and she was in a lot of pain. but her mom saw us giving the blessing and after the blessing with her she said can you givemy daughter a blessing. her daughter couldn't hear anything becauseof the pain, but right when we started the blessing you could just feelsome relaxation in her body. you could feel her temperature drop a little.it was so awesome. that was a huge testimony builder that the priesthoodreally is the power of God given to his children. i know that if we have faith.and it is the Fathers will, everything is possible.we then left feeling like we never wanted to sin again because of the strongspirit that was in there. but we are human and i am sure we did sin=again. but another thing that happened this week is that every time we =thought we had nothing to do besides nock doors, there was someone to teach.you could tell that these peoples hearts were being open to the messagethat we brought. i just hope that one day that they will pray for themselvesthat they could know the truth and i know if they pray i know that they will receive the answer that this is true because this is the only true church on the face of the planet. if everything goes as i hope this transfer we are going to have five baptisms. Mayela prayed the othernight about our message and she told us that she feels it is true and sheknows it is true, but right now she said she can't go because shefeels that right now she has a responsibility to take care of her mom, whois really sick. we offered to teach her but then she said it would be no use because she has alshymer. but tonight we are going to teach herthe plan of salvation. and we are going to tell her that she can live with her mom after this life. i know that she will be baptized one day, but if she has prayed about this thing with her mom, and she has receivedher answer, i can't say anything to stop her from doing that, i can only just teach her and show her that i care and i will always be there for her family. the other baptism that we might have is gustavo. he isabout 25 years old and he drinks and he smokes and we just taught him the word of wisdom and he has been trying to cut these things out of his life. i don't know how that went, but i will give you an update next week. but you can just see the change on his face at what joy the gospel brings in his life. when we first saw him he looked all down and didn't like to talk much, but now he doesn't shut up and you can just see a brightness on his face. seeing this makes all the trials of a mission disappear. nothing hard matters and you are just satisfied with the happinesswith other people. well pedro is the baptism that we were supposed to have this week. pedro is about 24 years old his parents are really faithful in the church. pedro has been having some problems with taking the decision of being baptized. because his friends keep telling him that he should wait longer and learn more, but he tells us that he knows that joseph smith is a true prophet and he knows that this is the true gospel. i then said to him that yea it is little time that you have been learning about the church, but you have prayed and asked a perfect source to know if this is true, you have asked God and God has told you that this is true and this is what he wants you to do. if you are worried aboutwhat you friends think, don't be, if they make fun of you for doing the right thing, are they really your friends. then i explained the talk of gordon b. hinckley. how there was this boy who felt like leavingthe church because of the persecution from everyone. but then he said you know it is true, you know that joseph smith was a prophet, what elsematters. but yea that is about it. but nothing else matters if this church is true, because you can have the assurance that after this life there is something great in store for you. i know there is a greater/happyperfect life after this one. well i have to go. i love you all and i hope that you have a great week.

love,elder robert atwood