Dusty's Email -- 09/21/2009

Hey,

Ok, this last week was extremely busy. On Tuesday we had to be in the house by 6 because it was Mexican Independence day, and for safety reasons we had to be in the house early. Thursday and Friday we were in President Bulloch’s house for the council meeting with him. His house is about 5 hours from where we are at, so when we got back home we were super tired from all the traveling.

Saturday we had a bunch of interviews to do all over the place...this zone is enormous....it covers part of the state of Veracruz and the state of Puebla. On Saturday we went to Puebla to do 2 interviews. The area is extremely cool. It’s up in the mountains and its all green and foresty. It rains everyday there or is really cloudy, threatening to rain. I will have to take some pictures and send them because it’s really cool.

The Bishop on Saturday asked me to speak in Sacrament meeting Sunday on missionary work and how the members can help with the work. So I talked about the responsibilities that missionaries have of service. Then shared the quote from President David O Mckay “that every member is a missionary”, and said that we all have the same responsibilities - the members and the missionaries. I then shared an experience. I take it that it went well because the members started giving us referrals of families and friends that they have been thinking about sharing the gospel with. So it went well.

Mom the ward doesn’t have a pianist so I played yesterday:)

The ward is really cool here, the Bishop is super excited and wants to help and so do many of the members. The zone is good, we have a lot of good missionaries that just need to be instructed how to work more effectively. 2 of our 3 district leaders are ex zone leaders and the other one was a district leader with me in Tecamac. We had a council meeting last night with the District leaders and the 2 that are ex zone leaders made a lot of comments that just led my companion and I to think that they were happy with the change of the Zone Leaders, and real excited to work this cycle.

Mom, I know that you are going to do well in your new calling, just keep working and keeping your life in harmony with the Gospel.

In the council meeting this last week President Bulloch shared a thought that I had never honestly thought of. In the scriptures it mentions in a couple places the eye of faith....and he explained what is the eye of faith. Its seeing what we want to achieve in the future, but really being able to see it our minds. He talked about the importance of faith. In Alma 5:15 it talks about “seeing your body raised from corruption to incorruption but with the eye of faith”. He asked if we had thought about that day, when that would happen. Do we have the hope and faith that its really going to happen. It was real powerful. Made me really change the way that I look at things and how I’m using my faith. When I get back I’d like to share it with you guys.

That’s about it here. We have to head out. I love you guys and take care.

Elder Howard