Dusty's Email -- 7/17/2008

“Hey

Well this week has been great and the package that i received was awesome mom and dad thank you so much. But today is a sad day because my companion left to go home. About two days ago he asked me a couple of real serious questions which I answered for him, and he then began to go into all these interviews with the Branch President and the District Presidency. The last two days I've spent more time studying in a waiting room than ever before. But I had my thoughts about what the meetings were about, and yesterday in the last meeting he was told that he was going home the next day.

He was telling everyone that it was his body that needed more time to heal. But my suspicions turned into actual truth when I was told last night by the Branch President that he was going home for other reasons. It was real sad and hard. I loved that Elder and served him and tried my best to make sure that he was comfortable, and that he caught up to where everyone was. It was just kinda disappointing. This morning I told him that I knew and I told him basically what the Branch President told me he needed to do, that he needed to humble himself and get rid of the pride that held him back from clearing stuff up. It’s just kinda a downer.

But on a happier note, on Sunday I heard a story in Priesthood meeting about the Mission President in Scotland a little while ago, The President asked what there number of baptisms were the year before, and he was told 9. So the President called everyone in the entire mission together and told them to send either their Bible home or themselves, so everyone sent their Bibles home and the baptisms the next year went to 125. So here we get to teach the lessons, and I've put my Bible away for this week and only taught the lessons from the Book of Mormon, and relied on the Lord to guide which way the discussion goes. And it’s the most amazing thing!!! I love it!!! The Book of Mormon is so amazing. Every lesson I've taught from it and just knew the things that I needed to hit, but told the Lord that I was gonna rely on Him to lead the discussion, and He did it. The Book of Mormon is amazing!!! It the most correct of all the books on this here planet. I love it so much and am continuing to gain a deeper testimony of its power. It will stand on its own, despite what others say. We don’t need proof from the Bible, the Book of Mormon is all thae we need. So read it daily.

I love you all. Things are going great and the language is going amazing, and so learning the Gospel. And I love waking up every day and getting ready for a packed day of missionary work.

Continue to pray for the visas, yeah the missionaries that have been called to Russia the last like 3 or 4 months are getting their calls changed to like Cali or somewhere local. My friend Jeremy, Jason’s cousin, I think is the last ones allowed to go. So he barely made it. But the word is that visas may start going through beginning of August. So keep praying for it. The church is true and I love to hear from everyone about how things are going. If you write me i will write back. Promise.

Love Dusty
P.S. How's CJ? Haven’t heard from him in awhile