How are you all doing? I am doing great this beautiful, sunny morning in downtown Hamilton. Let's jump straight into things shall we? Oh by the way, did I tell you that New Zealand does their date like this: 12/11/10. That would be the November 12, 2010. That's just an example. That's a cool date huh? But yeah, that's how they write it. Anyways... I got like a dozen letters on the 19th. THANK YOU!! I'm not usually a double exclamation pointer so you know I mean it. The most recent letter was dated February 7th I think. So mail can get here in 12 days, maybe less. But they hold them at the mission home until they have a lot to send out to the districts. And I don't think I'm supposed to give anyone the address of my specific area. Not sure why. Probably because we get transferred (every six weeks, but you sometimes stay in the area, for those who are illiterate in missionary goings-on) and then whoever replaced me would be getting my mail and that's no good.
We have a Mission Tour next week. We have these once a year. The area president, President Callister (wrote The Infinite Atonement), is going around holding meetings, similar to zone conferences I think, training the missionaries. We had an assignment to study the Atonement and write an essay explaining what the Atonement means so a ten-year-old can understand it. Then teach it to a ten-year-old. Just finished doing all that this morning actually. I taught the 10-year-old yesterday and it went well. But that, along with me feeling like I should speak about the Atonement for my farewell talk, and the focus of our mission being "teaching Christ" (relating everything to the Atonement), I have realized that everything is about the Atonement. Everything. It's incredible. My testimony is strengthened every time I study it. It's amazing to me how Christ was literally separated from Heavenly Father. He was, in the fullest sense of the word, alone. That's what it took. He had to be perfect, and then He had to suffer everything that could ever be suffered. That's why it's infinite. We can't even understand how much He went through for each one of us. I'm excited for the mission tour. I'll let you know how it goes.
The letters were fantastic and I'm feeling much better because of all the great insight you all gave me on patience and working hard and sticking with it even when nothing seems to be happening. Seriously, I feel like many of the letters I received were inspired. This mission has really opened my eyes to how important it is to have a solid testimony of your own. You can't lean on anyone else because the day will come when the only Ones you can rely on are Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It WILL come, for everyone. I promise. I was reading a General Conference talk By Elder Scott about faith and character. It's pretty much my favorite thing ever right now. It helped me so much. I really should have taken the time when I was home to strengthen my testimony every day. I'm ashamed to admit that I did not have a very strong testimony. Why? Because I was passive, as Elder Scott talks about. You could compare it to walking up the "down" escalator. If you're not taking steps forward in the Gospel, you're moving backwards. Does that make sense? I'd encourage everyone to read the talk. I'd also encourage you to take the time to pray about the Book of Mormon. Ask Heavenly Father if He's listening to you and if the the book is true. Even if you think you're fine, push forward strengthen your testimony! I didn't even realize I was moving backwards. Check yourself and make sure you're not. This time has been hard for me. I wasn't as strong as I thought. But every day makes me happier as I strive to do Christ's work here on earth. Faith is a principle of power. With faith you can do anything. There's an elder in my district who stopped the rain in the name of Jesus Christ. Everything obeys our Savior. Hopefully we will too.
Haha missionary e-mail to the extreme! Love you all. I haven't written any letters here in New Zealand yet, but I'll try to write soon... Thanks for the support. It means the world to me.
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