LDS Aquarium - Only in My Dreams

Hello All,

This week feels like it was really not eventful at all, so I apologize in advance for this email being so incredibly lame. But I want to start off by venting a little bit. Usually, I am very complimentary of the U.S.Postal Service. When you stop and think that it is possible to get a letter from one side of the country to the other in such a short amount of time…like four days, it’s pretty amazing. But it has come to my attention that my mail is not being delivered to me. One of my best friend’s letters never showed up, and I know that at least two pieces of mail have been delivered to my neighbors apartments. So, if you are reading this and you wrote me a letter, and I never responded back. I’m not being rude. It’s just that my mail hasn’t been getting to me! It’s quite a tragedy.

Okay, yesterday was Memorial Day, so we couldn’t email. We went grocery shopping with a girl that was baptized almost a year ago. It was SO much fun! Then we played soccer, as usual with the Elders. Lucky me. (Note the sarcasm). On Saturday, we decided to spend most of the day on Sullivan Road. Sullivan Road is a LONG road that is on the other side of the river. There are a TON of less active members on that road, and if all those people would start coming back to church, there would be a new ward in Bloomfield. So we tried to visit as many people as possible. But it was the holiday weekend and a lot of people took off. It was thunder storming, which played to our favor because I think we got a little bit of pity.

One of the members in the ward has been making us Cajun food lately… and I LOVE it. We had jambalaya recently. Yum!

Okay, so since I’ve been on the mission, I’ve started remembering my dreams more. And it’s ridiculous. I’ve dreamed about BYU turning into a pencil factory sweatshop, to being at the weirdest wedding. But this one takes the cake. I guess transfers have been on my mind a lot lately…but in my dream President Anderson called me on the phone, quite notably upset. He told me that I wasn’t supposed to be in the New Mexico Mission. He felt very inspired that I was to go to the New Zealand LDS Aquarium Mission. I cried and cried. I didn’t want to leave New Mexico. When President Anderson told my new mission president that I was coming, the new mission president told President Anderson that he could keep me in New Mexico, since they didn’t really need sisters in the LDS Aquarium Mission right now. But I had to go. All the companions I have had thus far in my mission drove me to the airport. When I got to New Zealand, they wouldn’t give me a companion, so I was wandering around the Aquarium completely lost. I wanted a companion so badly! None of the other missionaries could understand why I missed New Mexico. They kept saying things like, “New Zealand is so much better. You’re lucky to be here, because EVERYONE wants to go on a foreign mission. You escaped being a stateside missionary!” The LDS Aquarium was beautiful. It was huge, and had escalators going to many different levels. Pretty crazy right?

We did tract into one guy this week who attended Seminary in High School. His best friend served her mission in Spain, and he’s read a lot of the Book of Mormon and LOVES it. So we asked him if he had any questions about the Book of Mormon. He said no, and started talking about how he remembered Gaddianhi and stuff. He said it’s a record of what happened in America, and is a lot like the Bible. “Hmmm.” I thought. “What now?”

"Well, it sounds like you know a lot!...You should be a member!” I said.
“Yeah, I probably should.”
“Well, would you be interested in taking the missionary lessons?”
"No"
“No?” (WHAT? How can someone who knows this much refuse to learn more.) “WHY?” I said.
“Because my mother would kill me. She’s a Catholic.”

Okay, my companion and I were struggling to teach him something about the Church he didn’t already know. So Sister Weatherston pulled out a copy of the Family Proclamation.

“Have you seen this before?”
“Yeah, I sure have!”

We were stumped. So we chatted for a bit, and told him to have a great week. In my planner, I put his name down as a potential, with the comment… “GO back when mom is dead.”

I was studying this morning about the Book of Mormon and how so many of the books tell about the latter days when the ancient American prophets’ writings would be handed down to their children. I LOVE these verses because they talk about our mission and how we get to help fulfill prophecy: that the Book of Mormon would come back to these people. The Lord ALWAYS keeps his promises! The prophets plead with their descendants to believe their words, and to remember who they are! All of Mormon 7 is written especially for their descendants:

“1. And now, behold, I would speak somewhat unto the remnant of this people who are spared, if it so be that God may give unto them my words, that they may know of the things of their fathers; yea, I speak unto you, ye remnant of the house of Israel; and these are the words which I speak:
2. Know ye that ye are of the house of Israel.
5. Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that he was slain by the Jews, and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up.
9. For behold, this is written for the intent that ye may believe that; and if ye believe that ye will believe this also; and if ye believe this ye will know concerning your fathers, and also the marvelous works which were wrought by the power of God among them.”

One of the things that strikes me is that like the Lamanites, for whom the Book of Mormon was written in part, we must all come to know who we truly are. There is POWER in knowing that we are the children of God. He is our Father. When Satan was tempting the Savior, the one thing that he wanted him to doubt was that He was in fact the Son of God. Knowing our heritage enables us to do great things. But it is surprising how little, we as children of God value ourselves. The media, and its distorted emphasis on outward appearance, not valuing our bodies, and on the acceptability of disregarding and belittling those around us ALL plays to Satan’s goal: to have us believe that we are less than we are. To forget out divine parentage.

Here is an incomplete listing of scriptures dealing with the Book of Mormon coming forth to the remnants of the Ancient Americans. So amazing!
1 Nephi 13:35
1 Nephi 15:14
2 Nephi 3:19-20
2 Nephi 26:16-17
2 Nephi 30:4-6
Jacob 4:4
Enos 1:15-18
Helaman 15:12-13
3 Nephi 21:26
Mormon 7:1, 5, 9
Moroni 1:4

We also found a wonderful CD in the car this week. It’s called “The Mountain Speaks”, and someone put it together just for the Navajo people. It’s in both English and Navajo. It explains the Book of Mormon and how it relates to their people.

Well, I love you all.

Have a wonderful week!