Letter 22 - 8/16/10

Me. and the super ghetto homes. I really don't like this pic. Is it just me or do I look bloated and fat. bad angle.... I hope. jk I've actually lost some weight so that's why I'm so confused I look so pugdey. anywho.... I'm probably gunna get robbed now, but it's worth it.
hahahahaha

Hi!

This has been a trippy week. I was adjusting to a new companion and new style of teaching, but we're totally good now. He's still coming out of his trainer mode so I kinda have to wiggle myself in there to say something, but it's all coming along well.

To be completely honest I could write a whole letter just about what we saw yesterday. It was absolutely incredible. So the first of the cool things was that the big family (they're a bunch of cousins so there's about five last names. So we just call them Familia Grande) that we've been teaching came to church on their own account this week. The grandma that is a member was going to come but she had to stay and watch the other kids. Four of the boys:

• Michael (14)
• Carlos (13)
• Ricardo (11)
• Diego (10)
  

just walked to the church all by themselves because we were late getting to their house. When we got to the church they were all there waiting for us. Talk about the coolest thing. There are two older girls in their twenties. One, Michelle, has classes Sunday morning and couldn't make it, but tried to find another chapel in the afternoon, even though she got lost. She wants to go to church badly. The other one, Angie, also really wants to go to church, but has to attend in an area that's outside of our mission. So we're still working on finding her one. But the whole family is just AWESOME. I really love visiting them, and seeing their progress. The older girls told us that they want to be missionaries, and they were serious. When I heard that my heart seriously jumped. That was one of the coolest things I've heard. Sadly, Michelle has a child, but I know she will be a great example to her child and teach her these truths.

Anyway back to Sunday. So after church and study time we had a few appointments fall through. So Elder Richins wanted to go visit an investigator that lives around a super rough area (more rough than what is usual).

PAUSE.
REWIND.
...Saturday morning we were looking for an old investigator in that same rough area. Even though it was 11:30 am I was getting some bad feelings. We couldn't find the guy and I really didn't want to look lost and EVERY corner I turned we saw Negro Jessie gang members (Super notorious, Super dangerous gang). So I really don't know why, but I walked up to these guys to ask where a street was. There were two guys (the guy I talked to looked like someone filled a nail gun full of earrings, gave it to a four-year-old and to him to have fun with this guys face). So as we left I gave him the gangsta slide with the soul pound. Ya know, just doing my thang, keepin it real. We made a contact over there and during the lesson we saw the leader of Negro Jessie, and heard gun shots.
FASTFORWARD.
...Saturday night. Elder Richins said he wanted to go over to that area, and I straight up told him no. He's new here and still is learning of how dangerous it is.
FASTFORWARD. ...now we're caught up.

I begrudgingly say ok and we walk over to the other side. I wasn't feeling very good about it, but we went. We walk down a street turn a corner and see a family of about five, and the guy I saw the day before with the disco-ball face comes up and around them. He lifts up his shirt and I saw a gun in his pant waist. I seriously thought he was going to pull it out on us and rob us. Then he turned around and he crony grabbed the dad and they robbed the family. I turned around and saw the look on Elder Richins face then he just ran off. Luckily we were close to the corner, so we got out of sight fast. It was an incredible blessing that the we weren't robbed. Everyone thinks American's are filthy rich. I know for a fact that we were protected at that time. More than I think I even understand. I'm almost positive they never even saw us. And even better Elder Richins now understands how bad it is over there.

So our Sabbath Day was filled with a bunch of other awesome stuff, passed out drunks, people getting into a fight and then a woman running out screaming with a machete, etc. I mean it really doesn't get any better than this. There was a whole bunch more that happened too, but I only have so much time. We had another lesson with Familia Grande and as a was walking away I thought of how awesome it was that amongst all the bad that I'd seen that day, I had seen and experienced so much good at the same time. It really is such an incredible blessing to be in this sector and to find so much good, and then share with them these truths that will bring themselves so many blessings. It's awesome. And then we went and did a Family Home Evening with Familia Albuja. Probably my best friends in the ward. José is someone who really would do anything to help the missionaries and really wants to see this ward grow and be strengthened.

For public information, yes I did feel the earthquake. It was pretty cool. I was studying and I felt my seat shake. It's pretty normal for the house to shake when a semi goes by, but it was stronger and was long. I saw the fan was shaking. So I told Elder Richins to sit down and tell me if he felt anything. When he sat down nothing was going, but then it jerked again. His eyes got huge and said, "Let's go! let's go!" and just ran out of the house. I yelled out to him, "Elder we need a shirt!" all he said was "Don´t worry about it let's go" So I had to go out with him. Being from California and continually hearing about earthquakes, I knew what we were experiencing was nothing to worry about. It was pretty cool, but uneventful where I was. Elder Márquez saw some people out in the street praying the Rosary. It's amazing what it takes for people to remember God.

As far as the investigators go we still have really really great people. Luis Reyes is going to institute. Like the real deal institute that's through the church, not mental institute. He is loving it all. He describe his knowledge for the gospel as a thirst, and it truly is. As I watch him during the lessons it's amazing to see how much of sponge he is. He writes everything down. Such a privilege to teach him.

Fa Campuzano hit a roadblock this week. They're amazingly receptive and want to live these commandments. We taught the law of chastity and they didn't try to rationalize anything. They fully accepted it and said they want to get married, but right now he's trying to get into the Marines and apparently you have to be single when you enter. How this helps the quality of their military I don't know, but I do know that It's impeding on the work of the Lord. So we need to see what we can do about this, but encouraging someone to change careers isn't the easiest. It'll just be a test of their true desires.

Fa. Grande. Amazing amazing. Great great people, and still everyone is really listening and receptive. It's a little difficult to keep the kids interested, especially during the plan of salvation. but we manage.

So that's about it. It's been a really great week, and I hope it was for all of you. Scripture this week is Mormon 9: 19-21.

And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.

Anyone who thinks that God can't bless them or even help them in their lives, believes that God is no longer God. Pray to him in faith and ask him sincerely for what you need. He will provide.

Love,

Elder Vuinovic

Letter 21 - 8/9/10

Dirty side... clean happy green side. In all seriousness the dirty side is suuuuuper clean. I actually wouldn't mind touching the water there. When the tide goes down it looks a lot worse and the other areas are almost imcomparably worse. But I don't want to take out my camera there.

This week has been absolutely insane.

First of all it's the end of the change. Tomorrow I officially have three months in Ecuador. Crazy glue. We didn't have any baptisms, but I know that we worked really hard. When we started the change we literally had no one in the program, just recent converts. As of now we have a good amount of really solid investigators, a baptismal date with more to come this week. It's been such an awesome opportunity to be able to make a program out of nothing, it was tough, but fun. There were seriously several nights where I came home and all I could think was "I love being a missionary, I love being a missionary".

Elder Robinson left. It was for sure his time. He's been in this little place for six months and he was starting to loose it. Plus my training was done in my first change, so it was weird to be with my trainer when he wasn't training me. haha. We all thought that he was going until this Wednesday when the assistant, Elder Garcia, stopped by our sector to see what's up, and he told us that Elder Robinson was probably going to stay because the President didn't want to do a lot of changes. So we were getting ready mentally for another change together, but the call never came to confirm that there were no changes. The zone leaders tried to call the office, but no one was answering. So Elder Robinson was a little unhappy to have to go to bed not knowing if he was staying or not. This morning we get a call that he was leaving. He's going to a city called Milagro to train again. He's going to spend about two thirds of his mission outside of the city. Super lucky.

My new companion is Elder Richins. He's really cool. The only bummer is that he went from the largest sector in the city to the smallest. We're going to have a really good change together, especially with how many good people we still have from last change.

Fun fact. I heard from Elder Garcia that National Geographic did a study on the most dangerous cities in the world. After six o'clock is Guayaquil. The most dangerous part of the city is maybe a hundred feet from us across a bridge. YAY! Who need's Compton?

As kind of a investigator update right now we have some great people (as I've already said).

Javier Jiménez.

One night we were walking down a street and I saw a tv on in a house. I always see TVs on, but this time I felt my attention was grabbed a lot stronger. So I called Elder Robinson over and we contacted the house, and he let us right in. He's a really open and really humble guy. The only problem we have is he thinks he's going to move soon. When we taught the restoration he was super open to it. We met with him this last Monday for the second time, and all Sunday before I was praying that he'd read and receive an answer. When we met with him he said he really didn't like reading, but he and his wife (super bonus!) read and prayed, and they really felt that it was true. I was so excited. It'll be so great if he progresses and gets baptized in our program. We meet with him and his wife tonight.

The next is family Campuzano.

Wow. So how we came across them was awesome. One night we were just going around contacting. Elder Robinson asked me were I wanted to go and so I chose this house across the street. The lady let us in, but we only did a few principles and set a return appointment. When we came back she wasn't there, but the people she lives with were. We talked to the guy that answered and started to try to get in to teach him. Then I said something and almost right afterward I felt a strong confirmation that what I said was the right thing. Right after that he let us in to teach. The first lesson went great and the totally understood the Restoration and were also open to the Book of Mormon. Something incredible to see was when we came back we saw her sister outside and the look in her eyes was very dark and cold, and she really didn't want to talk to us, but sister Campuzano was such a bright person, and she really accepts what we teach.

It's such a crazy correlation, but there really is a light in people, and it's crazy to see how much it correlates to their receptiveness of the message/messengers. So when we met the second time they had made us lunch. That wasn't part of the plan, they just made it for us. They ate the chicken feet and they gave us the better cuts. I was so humbled when I saw that. There are some absolutely incredible people. It's such a pleasure to meet people that are so good in a place where you would never guess to find it.

Finally is family Antamba.

This is a good one. They're a really huge family. With a gillion cousins all living in the same house. The grandma, Elsa, I found on an interchange. She is an inactive member because she couldn't get to church anymore. We tried to get in that day, but it sounded like they didn't want anything and neither did anyone else in the house. I told Elder Robinson that we should go back. When we showed up they let us right in with out us even saying anything. We taught for a little to one of the kids, Carlos, but it was too busy so we just set a return appointment. When we came back there was a bunch of people listening to us. We got to the second principle, the family, and they all started talking about who does what and kinda venting. Me and Elder Robinson just kinda sat back and watched and listened as we learned about them in their discussion. It was really cool. When we went back on Saturday eleven people were with us. Elder Robinson wanted to just teach Sabbath Day Observance, but I really thought we should finish lesson one. So we did, and it was great. Everyone was listening. It was so awesome to teach people from age six to 70-something and still have everyone's attention. My favorite part was giving the account of the first vision and have everyone's eyes one me. It was so powerful to look in every pair of eyes in the room and tell them of this glorious Restoration, and then to testify that I truly knew that it was true. Yesterday three of the kids went to church; Carlos, Ricardo, and Diego. I'm hoping to be able to get these kids baptized and also help Elsa get back to church. We got her a wheelchair so we're going to see if she wants it tomorrow night at our lesson.

Well it's been a great change/week. I love this opportunity I have to bring this great message to the world. I truly know this is the work of God for all of His children. I truly love my mission and being a missionary, and many of these people, but still I love you all just a little bit more.

Take care and have a great week.

Elder Vuinovic

Letter 20 - 7/26/10

So this week was for sure one of the tougher. I think it was the week with the lowest amount of lessons, but we had one of the two kids (Kevin and Yulexy) come to church so he'll be baptized this week. Yay!

The biggest problem this week was that we had a lot of appointments fall through. I'm guessing because this week was "Guayaquil Week" so everyone was away and partying. Also because my comp is District Leader two nights he had to go do baptismal interviews, which are the most vital times to be teaching.

We've found some good people in a family that have serious potential to progress and are completely willing to go to church, but they have difficulties because of their work. They leave at five thirty in the morning to work and don't get home til nine. So the only time we can meet with them is on Sunday. Not the easiest situation for a smooth progression. So we going to have to work with that.

This week more than anything has taught me about just going out and being diligent at all times. It's not been easy in such a small sector, but I've really done a lot of relying on guidance during the day, and I'm trying really hard to figure out something new that can be done to get more investigators. I'm still maintaining my greenie fire, but trying to be more organized. For sure still learning a lot.

So I found a really good scripture on diligence, but of course I forgot it. So I'll give a double next week. Anyway I love you all so much and thank you for your continued support.

Elder Vuinovic

Letter 19 - 7/16/10

Wow.

This week has been one of the best.

We didn't have anyone come to church this week, but I've really learned a lot this week and felt a lot of changes. The biggest is when I had my "I'm actually a missionary" epiphany. It happened on Thursday when we came back early.

Pause... Let me explain why we came back early. We were looking for things to do so we decided to try and get into this apartment complex to try and find more people. There are buildings like this everywhere that hide so many houses, but you can't get in because the area is so unsafe that they only let in the people who live there. So we decided to pray first to see if we could get a little extra help trying to get into this place. So we went behind a bus that wasn't being used so we weren't praying in the street. Right in the middle of the prayer we heard a loud bang. At first I just thought it was a really REALLY loud engine backfire, because that's what always happens here. Then I thought, "Wait, that was an actual gun shot." Right after I thought that, we heard another one. I finished up the prayer and saw a cop, about 100 ft. from us, get back into his car and drive off. He had shot twice across a freeway, at some robbers probably. I almost instantly felt a feeling like, "just go home." I was glad because this happened right around the corner from our house.

Now that you are caught up, I had some extra time to just sit and think. I realized how crazy it was that I'm a legit missionary. It's something I've waited for for so long. Years and years, and now I'm official. It's such a thrill to see my name next to Elder on paper work too. And having those small moments where the Spirit prevails in a lesson are such great blessing. I absolutely love everything about the missionary work and the tough parts just make the good times even better. I absolutely love my sector. (Despite how Ghe-TOW it really is)

I especially love my ward. That's one thing I really felt this Sunday. There are only a few members who are truly active and help the missionaries. Those people mean everything to the ward, and I love them so much. I already would be sad to leave these people behind.

The next day we were reading in "Preach My Gospel" and we read all the intro stuff from the First Presidency. As we were reading it my perception of my sector changed completely. It's not just this little plot that I've been placed in. This is my "part of the vineyard" that I've been given to harvest, and now I really think of it as my sector of the vineyard. It's such an incredible honor to be able to be entrusted with a piece of God's greatest work. I was so grateful for that experience. It's helped me change my views and attitudes of work everyday.

Last night we met with the Gonzalez family. We found the dad because he was visiting a member when we stopped by his house. The member, José Albuja, said that before he would joke around with the missionaries, but wouldn't want to listen to the message, but this time it was serious. We had an incredible lesson with them and the presence and testimony of José made all the difference. The Spirit testified strongly and there was a lot of trust in what we were saying because of the support from their friend. Working through the members truly is the best way to work, and the only way to work if you plan on retaining the converts. I really value that experience this early in the mission.

Finally, we had a lesson with a girl named Brenda. Her family is super-hardcore Evangelical and were saying some untrue things about us. We asked her if she felt that these things were true and especially that the Book of Mormon is true. She just kept saying that she was so confused because she was caught between what we were saying and what her family was saying. Elder Robinson was getting super frustrated because he would say, "What do you have to do to not be confused?" "Pray." she'd say. "Ok, will you pray?" he'd say. "I don't know. I'm so confused." ...This went on as a near eternal round until we finally got her to pray. I explained what she had to do with all the faith and love that I could muster. As she finished the prayer a gentle wave of peace came over me and the tension in the room dissipated. It was amazing. She too felt better as a result from the prayer. Elder Robinson told me afterwards that his frustration was swept away and he too felt the peace that was there. It was such a great reminder that the Book of Mormon is everything people say it is, and my testimony is again strengthened.

I want everyone to know for sure that I know the Book of Mormon is a true book from prophets who held the true authority from God. I am not here because it was expected of me. I am serving this two years away from home show to the people of Ecuador that God is the same today, tomorrow, and forever. For that reason I want everyone at home to know the same. That truth is on the Earth and it can be found in a powerful testimony that all can attain through the Book of Mormon. Love you all so much, and I testify of this truth in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Love,

Elder Vuinovic

Letter 18 - 7/4/10

Happy 4th..... 5th of July!!

IN all seriousness, I was really missing home yesterday. I really wanted to smell BBQ and blow something up. But we at least bought a cake on saturday and they wrote "America" and "234" for us. 234 because that's how many years ago it was since the Declaration of Indendence for all those who slept through US history. The only thing it lacked was vanilla ice cream, but beggars can't be chosers.

So first awkward experience of the week. We've been doing door contacts all week trying to find people. One of the houses we sent to the guy sounded a little off while we were talking to him. The stuf he was saying almost sounded recited. He realized who we were and started rattling off all these things about the church. Stuff like the prophet, how 'powerful he thought the Ensign is, asked about conference. What really threw me was he said he has "Jesus the Christ" memorized. But I believed him because he told us how Talmage talks about a discrepency between two of the gospels and even cited the page. We ended the contact because he said he liked his church, but I had to take some time and digest what had happened, and then realized that he was autistic. Normally they have an obsession with numbers, but for him it was religious facts. It was so insane. We walked by his house another day and sure enough he was there reading some religious magazine. I was seriously trippin' out about how much he knew.

Then this Saturday while we were walking around we heard something buzzing. We looked up and saw it was something on the power lines. There was this arc that was just raging and it got super hot. So much so that the coating caught on fire. Which actually was really awesome because you had this really bright arc surrounded in flames. We thought (hoped) it was going to blow up. But it didn't. It was still a great precursor to the 4th of July. Just goes to show how ghetto it is in Ecuador.

Health advisory. When you haven't eaten for 24 hours it's not a good idea to load up on hot stuff. I had just ended my fast when we went over to a member's house to have lunch with them. I brought over this hot sauce another member made for me from a local pepper called ají. It also had these things called rosilla which are decently spicy. I normally eat the sauce with anything so I wasn't worried about adding a lot. Only thing is before I went to eat my rice I added more, and had forgotten how much was already there. Then Elder Robinson added a lot more with four rosilla bulbs. It started eating the bulbs and my rice, and it was pretty spicy, even for me. But when I finished my rice I felt really dizzy and my eyes couldn't focus. It started to feel almost drowsy too. When we went back home afterwards I realized, "wow I ate a crazy unhealthy ammount of ají on an empty stomach and I'm probably hi right now." I don´t know what it was, but it was a bad ride and I just wanted off. in conclusion. Kids don't eat too much ají, it's a train that just doesn't end. haha.

I met the president this week (again). He called a huge meeting to meet a lot of the missionaries and kind of talk to us about what he's going to change. He's already made alot of changes. It's really different from how it was before. A lot of missionaries are having a hard time, but it'll just take time to understand what he wants to do with the program. He's much more business than President Johns, so it'll be interesting to see how that translates to the mission program.

As far as the work goes we're still looking for people. We found some good people, but they haven't progressed or don't want to anymore. We still have those two awesome kids though Kevin and Yulexey (Do-lex-e). The whole family is just great and really open and accepting of the message. The parents just need to fix their marriage situation, but for now the two kids have the baptismal dates. We're going to start to have to work in the more dangerous third of our sector because we've kind of run out of room otherwise. So it'll be interesting to see how the week turns out. I'm guessing two robberies one with a knife the other without. hahaha jk.

So "suggested reading" for the week is a talk by Elder Holland. It's called "The Best Is Yet To Be" and it referrences Luke 17:32 where the Savior cautions, "Remember Lot's Wife". It's really really powerful. It talks about living in the past and how by not letting the past be the past (but still learning from it) we inhibit ourselves from learning the great things God has placed in front of us. It's really helped me and my comp during this time of change and also for when I get a wave of homesickness. Love you all, and hope you have a great week.

Letter 17 - 7/1/10

End of my first change!! I can´t believe how fast it´s going already, and this is supposed to be the slowest one. I´m still with Elder Robinson for the next change. It´ll be his last, though, because he's been here for three changes already. We're excited to be starting the program fresh for this change too.

We rearranged the house to innagurate the change. The only person that left was Elder Tobar, which was really sad because he wanted to stay the most. He loved his sector so much, but because there were clashes with the Bishop there had to be a change. What's more is that he really didn't want to leave the city and he ended up in the sector farthest away from the city.

This week went really well. We had to completely start our program over. People weren't progressing so we had to drop them. We've been going street by street knocking every door. It's been really interesting, and I've liked it a lot actually. There's more of a game to it. We've met some really god people that have serious potential. We just need to help them progress by understanding the importance of what's going on. What was really great was on day we were walking down the street and I looked around and thought, ¨Wow. I really do love this place.¨ I really do enjoy my sector. It's really just doing the work makes you love it. This sector has been closed seven or eight times in the last tem years because things don't really progress here, or hadn't progressed, and it's not the prettiest, to say it nicely. But it's still great.

Once again we had an encounter with a drunk. He was urinating on the wall and was yelling out to us as we were walking behind him and said, ¨Hey you gotta say hi to me. You gotta say hi to me.¨ He quickly finished and came over to us to shake elder Robinson's hand. All I thought was, ¨Please just keep talking to Elder Robinson.¨ Sure enough he walked up to me too. Luckily I had germ-x. BAM! It was still gross making myself shake his hand, but hey it's all part of the experience right? (See comment from Steve)

President Johns leaves this week. I feel pretty sad about it. He is such an amazing man. I really felt close to him even in the first two weeks. He'll be called as a Seventy for sure. There's for sure more things for him to do in the work. This Friday I get to meet our new mission president. AGAIN! President John's told me that he still remembered me and has asked about me. Needless to say , I was really excited to hear that.

Well, that's it for now.

I love you all so much!

Have a great week :)

Elder Vuinovic

Letter 16 - 6/22/10

...so here's the general update.

Here's how cool the robbers are here. At least the ones that aren't in gangs. On Saturday, while Elder Robinson and I are getting ready for the baptism, This guy jumps off a bus and comes up behind us and says,"Remember me? I robbed you." (way to make an entrance) so this guy is nagging us for a dollar while we're trying to go drop off our stuff at the church building. We both had our cameras on us, but we just told him we didn't have anything. I told him again that we were broke and he just yelled, three inches away from my face, "AMERICANO!!!" All I thought was, "You have a very flawed argument ,sir." so I just sarcastically told him I'm Ecuadorian. He kinda looked at me confused for a second or two and called me a liar. To show that we really didn't have any money he pulled out his pocket. The guy nearly jumped out of his skin and told us not to do that because he didn't want it to look like he was robbing us. So I thought, "Oh, so you don't like that do you? Well take this." And I just pulled out all my pockets and was like, "See? We don't have anything." He got all miffed/scared and then left. It was pretty funny.

*Side note. Along with my "Costly Apparel" franchise (all rights reserved). I´m going to open up an "Exceedingly Fine Footwear" sister company. I know, I know totally brill.

So this week I donated blood..... in a third world country. The grandpa of a recent convert in the other ward is dying and he needs a blood transfusion. The family can't pay for it so they have to donate enough blood to match the amount he'll receive. The other missionaries donated and we were asked to help. So what the heck. The mission president already said it was ok, but I don't think I can ever give blood in the US or ever donate an organ. Which really stinks because seven pounds really inspired me to do so. Sorry everyone, but believe me you may not want my kidney. When I was going through the questions with the guy in charge and I was laughing while he was asking me if I had any "relationships", diseases, drank or smoked. He kinda did a double take on the alcohol one. So I finish the questions and he said I'm not supposed to give blood, but he's going to let me because of my religion.

(strike one)
If they're willing to let a foreigner break the rules like that who knows who else's blood is there.

The place looked and felt like a WWII army hospital. When she went to put the needle in my arm she just took the bloodstained gloves she had for someone else and turned them inside-out

(strike two).
Then she took scissors and cut the tubes into an an open bin filled with other bloody tubes

(strike three).
I probably have a jungle disease, but I'll just find out when I cough up my liver. Fun stuff.

(Mom's note: Please pray for Adam that there will be no lasting effects from this!)

So to end the week was really cool. We baptized Ana Bermeo. She's so awesome. I think I already talked about her, but she has an ability to understand the scriptures that blows me away, and she's 15. It was such a privilege to teach/be taught by her. She also was asked to give her testimony after the baptism, and she was really nervous, but I told her to just say what she knows and how she felt after being baptized. She bore a powerful testimony. You'd never ever think she'd had only been introduced to the Book of Mormon only two weeks ago. She really knows it's true to her core.

There's something I've really learned from the sector. I've looked at these people for six weeks and wondered how can you allow yourself to be stuck in a life like this? Then I realized that all people are stuck like this who chose to not follow the commandments of God. Until this society chooses what is right they will forever be stuck in non-progression. It's so sad to see, but they have no value for marriage, the Sabbath Day is a joke to them, and they live under the influence of instant gratification.

(Steve's note: Sounds like a lot of Americans ...sadly.)

It's really sad, but I value obedience to God's laws even more now, and want to be able to help them understand the importance of it.

So the scripture is Jacob 4:6 I don´t know if I already shared this one. If I did than will you delete it mom? but it´s about how studying the words of the prophets increases your faith.

Wherefore, we search the prophets,
and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea.

So everyone search the words of the prophets
(the scriptures and the Ensign.)

I love you all, have a great week!