Weekly Update: Elder Schank!

Hey everyone!

 

I don't know if you heard, but over the last week we had a fire... and an earthquake... AND a hurricane! I don't really know what was up with the fire, to be honest. It happened almost a week ago. The earthquake was actually just the aftershock of an earthquake up north, but I could feel it when we were teaching a woman about the Book of Mormon on her porch. The hurricane, though, has messed a lot of our plans up! Our mission president instructed us to evacuate Greenville and stay with missionaries in Rocky Mount, which is farther inland. So on Friday morning, we headed over there before the storm began to come in on Friday night. Hurricane Irene hit Moorehead City on Friday. It was a level 3 at only about 110 mph (apparently they can be a lot worse), but it was very destructive because it was traveling laterally by only 15 mph. We had no power Friday night, all of Saturday, and Sunday morning, but we were completely safe... just hungry and very very bored. I did a lot of studying, and we watched some church videos on the little DVD players they gave us for training. On Sunday morning, we were finally allowed to leave the apartment and see the destruction. Fences and signs were torn up, and I was really surprised at how many trees were taken down. Sacrament meetings all over our mission were cancelled because trees blocked parking lots and meeting houses had no power. We had permission from our hosting missionaries' bishop to hold our own sacrament meeting. That was an awesome experience. Our sacrament meeting took place in a bedroom and consisted of opening and closing hymns and prayers, the administration of the sacrament, and each of us sharing a scripture and testimony. The whole meeting lasted about 15 minutes, but the Spirit was very powerful. After the meeting, we changed into jeans and t-shirts to go do service. One of the members in the local ward owned a golf course, and we went to help him clear up the greens. It was incredible how the winds had taken down some really big trees! They were as big as 70 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter! It amazed me how a tree so strong and so heavy could be completely torn out of the ground by the wind. As we used chainsaws to reduce the fallen trees into smaller pieces of lumber that were manageable enough to be removed and collected in piles, I began to realize the reason that these trees didn't stand a chance against the winds. I looked at the roots, and observed that they were only shot about 2 feet deep into the ground. The trees were also planted in soil that was very loose because of the humidity and moisture. It didn't matter how tall or heavy or thick these gigantic trees were... when it all came down to it, it was the root and the foundation that could make or break the tree. 

 

 

As I pondered over this, I remembered a different service project that I had been involved in many years ago as a Boy Scout in Arizona. We were camping in the desert, and we were working to clear part of a hiking path. I found a little bit of sagebrush in the middle of the path and tried to pull it up. It wouldn't budge. My scout leader noticed my efforts and told me not to waste my time. He taught me that sagebrush, even though it looks very small and weak (it usually grows between 1 and 2 feet tall above the ground) is actually very hard to uproot because it has a huge root system. The roots of the sagebrush grow wide and deep (up to 10 feet deep!) in search for any water they can find in the hot and dry climate of the desert. The hard, rocky ground in which the roots are set cling tightly to the roots as well, making it nearly impossible to rip them out of the earth. As I compared the fate of the gigantic trees torn down by the hurricane to that of the little sagebrush, I began to learn the importance of growing our own personal roots in a solid foundation. It seems that most people in the world focus all of their energy to grow above the surface, focusing only on improving in areas that will bring them recognition and admiration from people around them. In doing so, they grow their roots down just enough to survive. Few people these days are like the humble sagebrush; they don't so much care about how strong or great they appear to others, but rather they focus on expanding their roots deep into their foundation and continue to expand, knowing the true source of strength. However, these people still can never find greater strength unless they build themselves in the right foundation. What is this foundation? I think you already know. The Book of Mormon prophet Helaman knew, and he taught the answer to his sons: "Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall" (Helaman 5:12). I have learned throughout my life that it is vital for us to focus our strength on pushing our roots into the foundation of Christ. I have a testimony that if we do build on the Savior by having faith in Him, repenting of our sins, making covenants, and enduring to the end, that the hurricanes of life will have no power to bring us down. It is my prayer that we will all be better able to do so. To me, it seems that life has two difficulties: hard and harder. No matter how difficult we find life to be, we can ALWAYS find peace, comfort, and a helping hand in Jesus Christ. Remember what He told Joseph Smith as the Prophet was suffering in Liberty jail:

"If thou shouldst be cast into the ^apit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the ^bdeep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to ^chedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of ^dhell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee ^eexperience, and shall be for thy good. The ^aSon of Man hath ^bdescended below them all. Art thou greater than he? Therefore, ^ahold on thy way, and... ^efear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever" (Doctrine & Covenants 122:7-9).

 

Well things are beginning to pick up now that the storm is over. We're actually expecting another hurricane in about a week. The big concern with this one is going to be flooding... after all the rain we got with Hurricane Irene, this next storm is going cause a lot of flooding probably. Even more service opportunities! I'm really excited to be able to serve more. Tracting is the worst possible way to find people to teach (remember that... if you know of any one who missionaries in your area could teach about coming closer to Christ, let them know! You will make their month. Referalls are like Christmas to a missionary, and missionary work is 100 times more effective (literally) when Church members work with the missionaries!) These service opportunities will hopefully become teaching opportunities.

 

Greenville is doing considerably well. A lot of trees are down, but there wasn't a lot of flooding... just a little bit in our kitchen and living room, but none of our personal property was damaged.

 

Have you heard? My older sister Christa got her mission call! She will be serving in the New York Rochester, English-speaking mission! That includes the Hill Cumorah visitor center! I am so happy for and proud of her and I know she will make an incredible missionary because of her wonderful example to me.

 

I love this work! If any of you who aren't members of the LDS church want to learn more about what I do and teach, I would love to hear from you!

 

How are you doing? Yeah, I'm talking to YOU! I would love to hear from you and get an update on your life! I hope all is going well. To those of you who have written me, thanks! I loved reading your letters and I will be writing as many of you back later today when it's letter-writing time! For those of you who haven't written me (including my own siblings!), I would still love to hear from you!

 

I love you all and continually pray for each of you! God bless you!

 

With love,

 

Elder Schank

Week #2 in the Field!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been great. Nothing too exciting, but great. I am still trying to get used to North Carolina. It amazes me how completely different it is over here, even though it's part of the same country as the west. For one, there are no sidewalks, and there are barely ever crosswalks. People just kind of amble across the street where and whenever they feel like it. They pretty much just expect cars to yield to them, and the crazy thing is that they do! That's been tough for us, because we have to ride our bikes in the middle of the street. Last email I mentioned the diversity of the people here. This week I got a little taste of how diverse their living situations are. We've been in and out of a lot of ghettoes. They're kinda scary in broad daylight, and we look very out of place with our light skin and nice dress clothes. We get a lot of stares. It can be difficult to visit some of the people who live there, because we can't really go there at night (too dangerous), but we're supposed to make visits with church members whenever we can, and they're usually available only in the evenings. The last time we went to visit someone in a ghetto at night, though, we brought a police officer in our ward with us. He works at the prison in town, and he said most of the people in that particular ghetto knew him. He brought his gun, just in case. On the other hand, we've also gone tracting around some neighborhoods that have the most beautiful houses I have ever seen. They've got all these columns and they're made of brick, with climbing vines and gigantic trees on huge lawns. Some of them are 3 stories high, and others are bigger. There's one particular neighborhood with $15 million houses, and you can see grand staircases and chandeliers bigger than our car in the window. It's sad to see the ghettoes that are barely held together with molding wood and rusty nails next to these pristine mansions with 5 muscle cars in the garage(s). It's also pretty interesting to see the difference in the way the rich and the poor people receive us. Whenever we're in the ghettoes or other poor communities, we see a lot of scary people. They're covered in tattoos and their faces are filled with piercings, their homes are filled with the smell of alcohol and drugs, they wear dirty and cheap clothes, and a lot of the time they're missing half of their teeth, and the other half are just about to fall out. But they are (almost) always so nice! They'll just talk your ear off like we've been old friends, laughing and thanking us and offering us water and shade. Then there's the rich people. At first, they seemed like the ones with the greater potential to hear us out. Their houses are big and comfortable with nice air conditioning, they wear nice clothes and look clean and neat, and a lot of them have little signs or carvings decorating their front lawns and doorsteps that say something among the lines of "Welcome". And then when they figure out that we're missionaries, they wave us away or interrupt us or even just close the door before I can finish introducing myself. If they do actually listen to what we have to say, they tell us "I am satisfied with my salvation" or "Don't waste your time" or "I'm too busy". It reminds me of the differences between the shepherds and the innkeeper at Christ's birth. The innkeeper was probably pretty well-to-do, and he had no room for the Savior. On the other hand, the shepherds, who were undoubtedly very humble, immediately came to see the Christ as soon as they heard of His coming. I hope that we never think to ourselves, "I'm too busy to grow closer to the Savior." I am very confident that if we put Him on the backburner, it will take us a very long time to put Him at the top of our priorities, if we do at all. I hope you know that I pray for all of you every night before I go to bed that you will grow closer to the Master as individuals and families.

This last week we have obtained two tracting treasures! On one occasion, we knocked on a man's door while tracting. He had a cool-looking cattle skull in his flowerbed. As he opened the door, Elder Westley and I mentioned that we thought it looked really cool and that it reminded us of home. He wasn't very interested in our message, but he did tell us that his wife hated the skull and that we could take it! So... we did. It's on our dresser right now.

On another day, we were tracting in this little rich neighborhood of town homes. The founder must have been Irish, because the streets were called Rainbow, Clover, Shamrock, and Blarney. And, believe it or not, Blarney was a pretty lucky street! We talked to an old man for about half an hour. He was a very kind Methodist who told us that he was preparing to die soon because of his old age and the poor condition of his lungs. He told us of his family who he loved dearly. I testified to him of the Book of Mormon and its ability to bring happiness into our lives by teaching us more about the Savior. He wasn't too interested. Then I felt that I should ask him about his beliefs as a Methodist. He stated some basic Christian truths about Christ and His Atonement. I asked him about his belief in life after death. It was pretty in line with what we believe: that we will be judged according to our works and that if we are righteous we will inherit a place in heaven. Then I asked him if he thought he would see his family again after he died. He said he wanted to believe that, and that he hoped so much that he could. I then testified to him that I know that families can be together forever; that God loves us and created the family, that He wants us to be able to live with our families for eternity, and that He provided a way for us to do so through His Son, Jesus Christ. Tears began to well up in this good man's eyes. He praised the two of us for our faith and our dedication to and love for God. He invited us in for water. We accepted. He gave us each a glass of water and a cayenne pepper. He explained that he grew them himself, and that he didn't have a lot to offer us as an expression of his gratitude, but he could give us some of his peppers. I could tell that they meant a lot to him, and we gratefully accepted his gift. He told us that if we put a drop of pepper juice on bug bites, it resolves the itchiness almost instantly. However, I am going to let it dry out and keep it for as long as a reminder of his hospitality and that the Spirit testified to him that the words of my testimony of eternal families were true.

We are STILL trying to find people. We really don't have many people to teach. I'm trying not to get frustrated here, but it's difficult because people's views of God here are so warped and they're so sure that they're right that they won't even give us the time of day. The few people who actually have let us speak to them only seem to like to talk about Jesus; when we talk about any other important beliefs, they tell us that it doesn't matter and ask us to leave. I don't understand it... these people swear by the Bible and say the believe everything in it. And then we learn that they think God is some amorphous spirit, or that by grace alone they are saved and that their works have no effect on their salvation, or that salvation is a single event that they have already achieved, or that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are all one being. I don't understand how anyone can believe those things and call themselves Christian! The Bible clearly shows that these ideas are not true. We have given away only three copies of the Book of Mormon because we are discouraged to give them away on first contact unless we feel prompted to do so. Most people hate it anyway, even though they've never read it and they don't know what it is. It's like they think we're handing out Pandora's Boxes or that evil will enter their homes if they accept it. The prophecy found in the Book of Mormon is being fulfilled, as written in 2 Nephi 29:6-9: 6 Thou fool, that shall say: A ^aBible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews?
 7 Know ye not that there are more ^anations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the ^bisles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the ^cearth beneath; and I bring forth my ^dword unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?
 8 Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the ^atestimony of ^btwo nations is a ^cwitness unto you that I am God, that I remember one ^dnation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two ^enations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.
 9 And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the ^asame yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my ^bwords according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one ^cword ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my ^dwork is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever.
This scripture just makes sense! I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that it is a gift given to us because our Heavenly Father LOVES us. That is what the entire gospel comes down to. Every ordinance, every commandment, every prophet, scripture, and teaching are given to us by our Father in Heaven as an act of love. The Atonement is the best example of them all. People here are very familiar with John 3:16:
16 For ^aGod so ^bloved the ^cworld, that he ^dgave his ^eonly begotten ^fSon, that whosoever ^gbelieveth in him should not perish, but have ^heverlasting ⁱlife.
While they understand that Christ's sacrifice was a manifestation of love, I think they fail to realize that it is really just the beginning.
I know that the Book of Mormon is true! If you aren't reading it, please do! If you don't have a copy, let me give you one, as my gift to you. It is the best gift I could ever give. If you would like a copy, please let me know! I would love to mail one to you. (Don't worry, it's free.) I promise and testify to you as a representative of Jesus Christ that the teachings of this book can help you to be more happy than by any other means. I PROMISE you, with a 100% surety that this is true. It testifies as a companion and help to the Bible that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of our souls.
While it has been hard to find people who are willing to listen to our message, I have not given up, and I never will. I know that there's someone out here that the Lord has prepared for me to teach, and they are "kept from the truth [only] because they know not where to find it" (Doctrine and Covenants 123:12).
I love you all and hope all is going well. Again, I pray for each of you EVERY DAY! Please let me know how you are doing! I don't have a lot of computer time, so please send snail mail rather than email. I stare into the mailbox everyday and sob.... Ok, just kidding, but really, please send me mail. Thanks! My address is:
6508 Falls of Neuse, Ste. 100
Raleigh, NC 27615

With love,
Elder Schank

First day in NC!

Dear Friends and Family,

Whew! I'm finally here in North Carolina! Flying in was a breathtaking experience because there are trees EVERYWHERE! I still can't get over how green it is here. The trees are so big that they are apparently hiding the mountains, because I can't find them anywhere. It's kind of a disorienting feeling. It is also super humid here! That has made tracting oodles of fun because the air is so full of water that it keeps your sweat from evaporating! I've had to get used to the fact that I will just feel nasty all the time, and that people here recognize that and it's not actually that gross to them. It smells like tobacco smoke, rain, and fried food outside wherever you go. There are tons of ghettos all around, and it's pretty funny because a lot of people here have cars (or even just the rims of their cars) that are more expensive than their houses! This is the only place I think I have ever been where I have been a minority! It's amazing how many African Americans are here! I think only about 30% of the people I see every day are white. So far, I have been doing really well at living my first mission goal, which is to not laugh at people while they are talking to me. Their accents are so awesome! I'm trying to get used to it, but I can't help chuckle on the inside whenever I hear a really thick southern accent, especially at church. People here say stuff like "Cut that light off!" and "Mash that button!" and "I usedta could _______" and, of  course, "YA'LL".

My first transfer is in the Greenville 2nd ward of the Kinston stake. It's the area that is on the western end of the eastern most zone in my mission. So basically I don't get the coast at all, just the humidity of it. Nice. My companion is Elder Westley from Sandy, UT. He's been out here for about 19 months. He's loud, hyper, and absolutely hysterical. I love him! He's even a cancer survivor. He is an awesome trainer and I have loved working with him! He's been super helpful and I've learned a lot from him. Oh yeah, and Kyle Simmons, my friend from high school is in my district! I saw him a few days ago.

The Church just barely, barely came out with a brand new infield training program that involves the junior companion (me) a lot more so that he doesn't just sit back and let his senior companion (E. Westley) do all the work. It's so new that the group of missionaries who left the MTC with me is the first group to ever use it! They shipped us out with new manuals and DVD players so we could watch instructional videos. A lot of the videos are from The District.

Our day goes like this:

6:30 wake up, exercise, eat, yadda yadda yadda get ready for the day

7:30 personal study

8:30-10:30 companion study (an extra hour for the new training program)

10:30-9:00ish teaching, tracting, planning, and all of that good missionary stuff

9:30 plan for the next day and get ready for bed

10:30 bed time! Hooray!

So far, I've had no problem getting right to work! On my very first day we already were tracting. We just pick a place on our big map to go, ride our bikes out there (yep, I got my new bike!), lock them up on a street sign, and start walking! I was really nervous to start talking to people right away, but I decided to suck it up and deal with it! The second person I talked to was very interested in our message but she's out of town till the 20th. So we gave her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet about the Restoration, and she sincerely committed to read them and pray to know if their words are true! We're going to follow up with her and start teaching her once she gets back.

When I got here, NO one was currently investigating, so, for the most part, we've been visiting members and asking them for referrals, and contacting/tracting. We've had some people let us talk and invite and they are super nice. Some of them even ask us to come back later. Others, however, are not so receptive. One lady opened the door, looked at our nametags, and rolled her eyes and shut the door right in the middle of our introducing ourselves. Oh well! It can be really hard here. There are a lot of hard-core Baptists here, who are "satisfied with their salvation". A lot of people think that as long as they verbally admit that Jesus Christ is their Savior that they are saved! That's frustrating alone! I don't really get how anyone can say they believe the Bible and believe that, too. Oh well, we just do our best and continually pray for the Lord to bless us by leading us to the people He has prepared for us to teach!

The people we teach, if we're lucky enough to be able to do that, are really interesting. We've gotten to teach a schizophrenic nonactive man who is so caught up in science that he has a hard time with faith. Then there's the woman who claims she is a "prophetess" because she shares God's word with others. We taught her yesterday. Actually, it was more like we talked to her yesterday. She was happy to "talk Jesus" with us... until we began to teach about the apostasy and a living prophet, and then she said she didn't want to talk anymore because she didn't believe in that. I thought that was the point of our being there: to teach what we believed to her. Oh well. She's super nice and she's going to call us soon to get our help with her gigantic lawn. It was really interesting praying in her home. I gave the opening prayer. After every sentance I said, she would say "Thank you, Jesus!" or "Oh, God, yes, Lord!" or something like that. It freaked me out the first time. The closing prayer was given by her. She had us stand in a circle and join hands and it was the craziest most beautiful prayer I have ever heard.

I actually had Coke for the first time here... on accident... kind of. For those of you who don't know, I don't drink caffeine because of how unhealthy it is (and it's not like I need that extra energy anyway) so it's a pretty big deal. :) We went out into the boonies to visit a prior potential investigator and invite him to come to church. He wasn't home, but his girlfriend was. So we just taught her instead! She sounded really interested! She even said that she was looking for a new church to go to cause she had just moved into the area, so we invited her to come to ours and she said she would! She saw that our faces were dripping, so she asked if we would like a drink. I said yes, because 1) I wanted to extend our time with her and get that church invite in, and 2) I was thirsty! A minute later she came back to the door with two cups. I looked in and saw some brown soda. It tasted nasty like nothing I'd ever drank before, so I assumed it was Cola. She was watching us, and I didn't want to offend her or make anything awkward, so I drank the whole thing. Gross. But we invited her to church in between sips and she said she would come! Yes! Did she come on Sunday? Nope. *Sigh* oh well. We'll follow up with her and get her there next time.

Please send me letters! Please, please, please! I know you are all busy, but it really is so wonderful to hear from all of you at home! I am so busy so I can only write to you on preparation days, but I will write back eventually! (Mom and Dad, please send me snail mail rather than emails... I don't have time to read emails with my limited computer time! Even if you just type it up, print it out, and send it. That would be perfect. If you could also mail me any emails you've sent since August 3rd, that would be great, because I haven't had a chance to read them. Thanks!) I will write back in the same order I get emails, and I will respond to family first. For those of you who sent me mail already, THANK YOU! I will be writing letters today. Our mailbox was actually broken when I got here, so I got a ton of letters all at once and I will try to get responses written ASAP! For those of you who haven't written me yet.... write me, for crying out loud! Thanks. :)

The work has been going really well! I love it here! The mission is awesome! I hope all of you are doing well yourselves! Please let me know how you are doing! I love you all and my computer time is up so I will write you again in a week!

Love,

Elder Schank

Week #2 in the MTC

Dear Friends and Family,

 

Two weeks down, 4 days to go! I head out for Raleigh at 4:00 AM on Monday! I am SO excited!

 

This week was pretty crazy. Saturday evening, I started to get sick. That night, I was having a really hard time falling asleep because I couldn't really breathe very well. After hours of heavy breathing and scaring my companion, I was finally able to fall asleep at 2:30 in the morning. When we woke up, I was still having a hard time breathing. We went to the doctor to see if he could help, and he sent us out into the "real world" to go to the InstaCare, which was a bummer because I missed our priesthood meeting. It turns out that everything was fine, and a new inhaler and some medicine to take care of congestion did the trick. Sacrament meeting was AWESOME. It was all about the Atonement of Christ and His earthly ministry. The sacrament was blessed in sign language by the ASL district in our branch. It was really cool to watch, and what was even better was how the Spirit grew stronger even though they weren't saying any words. The Sunday devotional was also super great. It was given by the director of missionary services, and it was about Christlike love and charity, which just so happens to be the Christlike attribute that I've been working on currently. After the devotional, I went on a split with our district leader, Elder Robledo, to take pictures with our respective friends. It was great to see a bunch of my friends from the Logan institute choir and Latter-day Voices. After the pictures were taken, Elder Robledo told me that his head really hurt from getting elbowed while playing basketball in gym on Friday, and he asked if we could run to the doctor again. 10 minutes later, we were back among the Gentiles in the emergency room. Hours passed, and a CT scan showed that there was no brain damage, so they just shot him up with a lot of pain-killer through an IV for a good 45 minutes while I just reviewed past notes that I had taken during my scripture studies over the summer because my little notebook was all I had with me when we got out of the devotional. When Elder Robledo was ready for release and our ride had come to take us back for the MTC we walked out into the parking lot when a man ran after us yelling, "Elders, Elders!" We talked to him and he asked if we could help him give a priesthood blessing. It was already 45 minutes past the time we were supposed to be asleep in our beds, but we followed him back into the hospital to administer to a frail, frightened woman, who apparently was just about to be prepped for surgery. As we headed back to our rooms, Elder Robledo and I discussed the day's events. It was very interesting to us that even though he got hit on Friday, the symptoms didn't begin until Sunday night, which placed us in the emergency room just at the right time to be able to help with that late-night priesthood blessing. I know that the Lord uses His children to help His other children, and I am so happy, excited, and honored to be nothing but an instrument in His hands for the next two years.

My favorite part of the MTC is the Training Resource Center (TRC). Every day, we do a lot of role-playing to practice our teaching skills. But in the TRC, the role-playing is completely different. We meet with real people, who have their own real stories, and we get to teach them for practice. A lot of them are new converts, but many of them are inactive members or nonmembers, and, to be honest, you can't really tell which category they fall in, and they aren't allowed to tell us. My favorite investigator in the TRC is an elderly man named Melvin. He is struggling with the recent death of his wife. When we first knocked on his door, he barely even let us in, on the condition that we could chat with him, but we couldn't teach him. As we talked more about him and his recent loss, some things led to another, and now he knows all about the Restoration of Christ's gospel through Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, the Atonement of Christ, prayer, eternal families, the plan of salvation, temples, and the different steps we must take to come unto Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). As we taught him that he could live with his wife again for eternity, he completely changed. Now, he is interested in being baptized and is making great progress. In our last discussion, as we testified to him that he could live with his entire family again for eternity, the Holy Ghost flooded the room and taught him that our words were true. Even more miraculously, the Spirit told us that he knew it was true too! The Holy Ghost literally showed us his thoughts and feelings. He prayed at the end of our discussion to have help to change so that he could receive these blessings and to know with a greater assurance that our words were true. My testimony of the principle taught in Moroni 10:4-5 has grown so much stronger. I only have 3 minutes of computer time left, so I'll let you read it yourself.

I hope all of you are doing well! The best (and sometimes worst) part of the day is when we check the mail. I love hearing from you! Please write me more! I have one more scripture that I want to leave with you before I go. It's in Alma 7:11-13.:

 

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith that he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.  Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me."

I love you all so much!

 

Love, Elder Schank