9 Oct 2017

 Hey everyone!

This week has been good! Elder Hamblin and I have been having fun and getting along; we've also had quite a few good lessons.

We have been teaching Derick more frequently in preparation for his baptism. He's really excited for it, and it’s been great to see someone take hold of the gospel. He's been really engaged in seminary, and he's enjoyed young men. He was talking to us about his favorite conference address. It’s been a great blessing to have the opportunity to teach him.

We also had a lesson with Jaycee and she's a ball of energy. She's primary age and just a goofy kid. We taught her the restoration and we built a tower with her and talked about how Christ organized his church, but how parts of that tower were taken away, such as prophets and apostles. So we removed some of the bottom pieces and the tower collapsed. But then we talked about how the church was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the Church returned the way it was when Christ organized it. She's excited to be baptized as well, but we haven’t set a date yet, we are waiting to see a little more progress from her and the family in keeping commitments.

 Everyone in the wards know I’m short on time so it’s been fun... every time I see them they'll ask not how much longer do I have, they just ask what day do you go home. But it’s been fun we had dinner with the Capson family last night, one of their daughters was just baptized on Saturday and we stood in on her confirmation. They are active but we invited a couple investigators to the stake baptisms. We also taught one of the kids who was getting baptized, Emmit. His family has spurts of activity so we taught him a couple lessons, and also attended his baptism. Anyways we were having dinner with the Capsons, and there little daughters made me a surprise, it was a nice little note and a bag of candy. It was nice.

But I’m not sure I’ll send out an e-mail next week, it'll be pretty busy.

But I just wanted to leave a good message of what I’ve learned.

 So one of my favorite words became awake; at least in the scriptures. Lehi in 2 Nephi 1 he asks his sons Laman and Lemuel basically to wake up before he dies. Three times in that chapter he asks them to awake. They don’t listen and I imagine Nephi was just outside the tent listening, because in 2 Nephi 4 Lehi dies and during a prayer Nephi says to himself Awake my soul. And just the idea of really being awake in the gospel. Some people straight up are a sleep, some people day dream through it, some are just there and just go through the motions. But to be awake i feel takes and active effort. When a player in a sport isnt fully engaged or just seems out of it, its not uncommon for the coach to yell wake up. But to be shorter in writing I've come to realize the importance of daily discipleship and that the gospel is about being humble enough to follow the way the Lord has established, and its about becoming. It says we will be judged according to our works, so are we trying to do the things we've been asked, and the desires of our hearts, so what we are becoming. The Latter part gives a lot of hope, because we aren't perfect, but if we desire to do good it counts for something, but what we truly desire will reflect at least in part of what we do.

So I just encourage everyone to be faithful, desire to follow Christ and let that desire grow with in you or continue to grow. And if you want to know how to be like Christ read about him.

I love you all and am grateful for everyone who has supported me in my mission. Hope you all have a great week and I’ll see many of you soon!

Elder Hoffman