A beautiful morning at the temple
Hermana Glenn sometimes likes pointing out how short I am.
Hello all! It's the time of year when the missionaries in the California Arcadia Mission have to opportunity to attend a session in the Los Angeles temple, and today happened to be that day. So today is also our P-day. So here is the weekly e-mail. First and foremost I absolutely love going to the temple. It was hard to leave in fact and come back into the real world. The temple is the place where our souls really belong, because it is the literal House of God. As C.S. Lewis said, "We aren't human beings having spiritual experiences, we're spiritual beings having human experiences" and the temple is where we can remember that. I've been thinking about the temple so much recently, partly because conference was very temple heavy this year, and also because we are helping quite a few people prepare to enter. I also received a letter showing the progress on the Tucson temple, and hearing about the four new temples during general conference reminded me of the excitement I felt when the Tucson temple was announced. (Sorry if this was a little disorganized and doesn't make much sense, we got up at 3:00 am to make it to the earliest session, I'm a little sleep deprived). Now on to the progress of the people we are teaching: Carlos: I contacted him a few weeks ago on exchanges and it took us a little while to find him again, but he's super cool and is doing really well. He loves coming to church, and hearing about the words of God. To him it makes perfect sense to be baptized, and then receive the Holy Ghost. The only problem is he's going a little blind so has a hard time reading the Book of Mormon, but really enjoys when we read to him, and we are planning on giving him some CDs soon so he can listen to it. He's well on his way to being baptized by the end of the month. Aurelia: This woman is a surprise and a half. First of all she is the first person to ever call and request a Finding Faith in Christ video from a pass along card. Secondly she is the only person to actually call us and ask is when we're coming back after she said she would call us. Third, she is the only person to ever call us and tell us she wants to come to church so could we please find her a ride? Fourth, she is the only person to call us when she has questions about her Book of Mormon. Finally, she is the only person to have asked us to move up her baptism date because the one we were thinking was "too far away." So now she has a date for May 1! And finally Joaquin: to be honest teaching this man is a roller coaster. As soon as we think he's on the up and up he takes a sudden turn or plummets. He will either fall of the face of the earth, or stop keeping some commitment, or something else will happen. Most recently his greatest struggle has been living the Word of Wisdom. His date to quit is April 29, and he's had both highs and lows. Tuesday for example was a low, increased by the fact he was lying to us about it, but our lesson last night was definitely a high point. He is slowly learning how to use the Atonement and let others help him change. The best part is he is learning to listen to the Spirit so he can begin to change faster. All in all it is an amazing process to see and be a part of. Things are going really well here. We're getting to know our new are and new investigators, getting used to living with three other people instead of just two, and trying to balance biking, walking and using the car. In other words it's missionary work. I hope all of you are doing well in each of your personal lives. I think and pray about you often! Hermana Christensen
