Much of the email time in the last few weeks has been dedicated working on college stuff. I apologize that the blog entry has taken a slacking. I hope you all understand.
I did want to give an update for transfers. Elder Argyle and I are happily staying together for another transfer (if one of us gets transferred, it will be to an English area, and neither of us want that) and Elder Snyder is also sticking around with us. In fact, it is exciting because Elder Snyder's got another new greenie, fresh from the MTC. We'll get to know him better as time goes on.
The work goes well and we had a really great week, with some great missionary activities in the branch. I hope you are all well and that your lives of faithful service are receiving due blessings. I love you all. Be faithful.
-Elder Sam Bostwick
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
a great week
I love Mesa! We just have a good time here. Week after week proves to get better and better. The Lord definitely blesses us as we are committed to serve Him.
It was our privilege to get permission to go out and eat with Grandma 'Jean and Grandpa Terry. We had a great, and perfectly obedient time with them, and of course got some pictures. It was so nice to see them and to talk about life in the gospel. I feel as though I still have yet to figure out how to be a good "normal" member of the Church. I didn't necessarily have very great desire to follow the commandments before my mission, and now that my testimony is much, much bigger, I will need to learn to live life as a regular person in accord with the testimony I've gained. I'm sure many missionaries face the same challenge when they return home.
The branch had some great baptisms on the Saturday, and then confirmations on Sunday. One of the confirmations was done by Elder Snyder's greenie, Elder Scott, who has been on his mission about four months. He was very nervous for the confirmation, but the sister had asked that he do it. I remembered the first times I was asked to give a blessing in Spanish, thankful that those occasions were in the privacy of people's homes, in the comfort of people I knew and trusted well. I thought about how much my ability to communicate myself has grown in Spanish, as well as in English, and was thankful for the gifts the Lord has blessed me with. Elder Scott did just great, though Sister Hernandez said she could feel his hand shaking the whole time. What an honor to participate in such amazing ordinances!
Elder Argyle and I teach well together, we work well together, and doing missionary work just comes so easily and naturally between the two of us. One of us is always ready to speak, at all times and we can jump back and forth between the two of us seamlessly, without breaking a smooth connection of thought. I've learned a lot from him, and it is great to work together. Plus, we jam at the beginning of companionship study on the piano and guitar in our own arrangement of hymns. Brother Brown, the man we live with, has now started coming to the kitchen or living room at that time just to listen to us--it's very fun.
We trained the zone on Monday morning, and it was a good chance to talk about how to better the work in our zone. We had great participation from everybody, and there is now a higher enthusiasm to work hard, and we see the results every night when we hear about each companionship's day.
Now, this weekend, we will be going on a branch campout (we don't get to stay the night, but we are going both Friday and Saturday) and then to a special musical missionary fireside presented by the 5 Browns (a member family of 5 siblings that play concert piano and have gotten to be quite famous) at the ASU Institute. It will be a great weekend, and I'm excited for all the events.
Well, I should go. The gospel is true and we have so much evidence. The highest proof that God lives is to do His will and see how He will bless us. Faith is gained by acting on faith--and interesting concept, but true. I love this gospel and teaching it to everybody we meet. I love you all, thanks for reading every week. I hope you feel my love for the Lord and for serving Him. Now go and do likewise!
-Elder Sam Bostwick
It was our privilege to get permission to go out and eat with Grandma 'Jean and Grandpa Terry. We had a great, and perfectly obedient time with them, and of course got some pictures. It was so nice to see them and to talk about life in the gospel. I feel as though I still have yet to figure out how to be a good "normal" member of the Church. I didn't necessarily have very great desire to follow the commandments before my mission, and now that my testimony is much, much bigger, I will need to learn to live life as a regular person in accord with the testimony I've gained. I'm sure many missionaries face the same challenge when they return home.
The branch had some great baptisms on the Saturday, and then confirmations on Sunday. One of the confirmations was done by Elder Snyder's greenie, Elder Scott, who has been on his mission about four months. He was very nervous for the confirmation, but the sister had asked that he do it. I remembered the first times I was asked to give a blessing in Spanish, thankful that those occasions were in the privacy of people's homes, in the comfort of people I knew and trusted well. I thought about how much my ability to communicate myself has grown in Spanish, as well as in English, and was thankful for the gifts the Lord has blessed me with. Elder Scott did just great, though Sister Hernandez said she could feel his hand shaking the whole time. What an honor to participate in such amazing ordinances!
Elder Argyle and I teach well together, we work well together, and doing missionary work just comes so easily and naturally between the two of us. One of us is always ready to speak, at all times and we can jump back and forth between the two of us seamlessly, without breaking a smooth connection of thought. I've learned a lot from him, and it is great to work together. Plus, we jam at the beginning of companionship study on the piano and guitar in our own arrangement of hymns. Brother Brown, the man we live with, has now started coming to the kitchen or living room at that time just to listen to us--it's very fun.
We trained the zone on Monday morning, and it was a good chance to talk about how to better the work in our zone. We had great participation from everybody, and there is now a higher enthusiasm to work hard, and we see the results every night when we hear about each companionship's day.
Now, this weekend, we will be going on a branch campout (we don't get to stay the night, but we are going both Friday and Saturday) and then to a special musical missionary fireside presented by the 5 Browns (a member family of 5 siblings that play concert piano and have gotten to be quite famous) at the ASU Institute. It will be a great weekend, and I'm excited for all the events.
Well, I should go. The gospel is true and we have so much evidence. The highest proof that God lives is to do His will and see how He will bless us. Faith is gained by acting on faith--and interesting concept, but true. I love this gospel and teaching it to everybody we meet. I love you all, thanks for reading every week. I hope you feel my love for the Lord and for serving Him. Now go and do likewise!
-Elder Sam Bostwick
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
warmin' up
Slam on the brakes! Time is really starting to go too fast. It couldn't have been a week ago that I was writing my last email! This has been a great week, and my enthusiasm for the work just gets increasingly larger the longer I am here. Both Elder Argyle and I agree that the end of our missions will come too soon.
The heat is coming back already! I miss Utah weather. We're getting up to the 90s .... I think I can, I think I can, I think I can ....
I am really loving getting to know the missionaries in the Mesa Zone. There are some great, powerhouse missionaries that just pump out good results. They're out meeting people and teaching and extending commitments and seeing the fruits of their efforts. I am grateful for the chance to see their work and learn from it in how I can improve my own missionary skills. And then there are others that just don't seem to understand the gospel. Their lack of understanding affects their work ethic, their effectiveness, their desire, their results, their spirit, and attitude. I often wonder how this will translate over into the rest of their lives. President Craig says that everything we do in the mission is a foreshadowing of the rest of our lives in almost 100% accuracy. I wish these missionaries would understand correct principles of the gospel, so their future will be sound with their Father. I worry for some ....
Then I begin to think, "How can I avoid falling into the same traps as other people?" This is a question that has been in my mind since the beginning of my mission with my trainer. I saw his actions and began to worry about my mission. He was teaching me how to be a missionary like him, which I frankly didn't want to be. I thought a lot about the moves and tactics I had to take to avoid the same pitfalls. "What will I do to avoid the same self-destruction?"
This introspection has helped me a great deal. As we learn truth, we must stick to it as exactly as we can. It is a tragedy every time we justify ungodly behavior. If thy hand offend thee, cut it off. Christ clearly was not teaching about self-mutilation, but rather self-discipline and self-instruction. What is the source of offense? Identify it, and cut it out of our lives. I am highly grateful for the Atonement of our Savior, that allows us to seek support in finding a better way--a more god-like life. No impure thing can enter into the presence of God, so we have great need to purify, refine, work, and beg for the mercy of God in helping us change. Otherwise, we have no hope, for alone we will never be pure.
Miracles do happen as we act on our faith. I've seen it and I know it is true. We have faith, we act on it (naturally) to pass the trials of our faith, and miracles are wrought as a result of our faithful action. It is the recipe for a miracle--that simple. We have no need to doubt the power of God, and that's the truth. There is no fear in faithful living, and no sorrow in true understanding.
There's another rant--I apologize if you want to hear about my mission .... I end up just going on spiels fairly often. I hope you gain something out of my blabbing. I love you, family. It will be joyful to see you again, even though I don't want to rush anything .... Thanks for the examples you have always given me. Bye for now.
-Elder Sam Bostwick
The heat is coming back already! I miss Utah weather. We're getting up to the 90s .... I think I can, I think I can, I think I can ....
I am really loving getting to know the missionaries in the Mesa Zone. There are some great, powerhouse missionaries that just pump out good results. They're out meeting people and teaching and extending commitments and seeing the fruits of their efforts. I am grateful for the chance to see their work and learn from it in how I can improve my own missionary skills. And then there are others that just don't seem to understand the gospel. Their lack of understanding affects their work ethic, their effectiveness, their desire, their results, their spirit, and attitude. I often wonder how this will translate over into the rest of their lives. President Craig says that everything we do in the mission is a foreshadowing of the rest of our lives in almost 100% accuracy. I wish these missionaries would understand correct principles of the gospel, so their future will be sound with their Father. I worry for some ....
Then I begin to think, "How can I avoid falling into the same traps as other people?" This is a question that has been in my mind since the beginning of my mission with my trainer. I saw his actions and began to worry about my mission. He was teaching me how to be a missionary like him, which I frankly didn't want to be. I thought a lot about the moves and tactics I had to take to avoid the same pitfalls. "What will I do to avoid the same self-destruction?"
This introspection has helped me a great deal. As we learn truth, we must stick to it as exactly as we can. It is a tragedy every time we justify ungodly behavior. If thy hand offend thee, cut it off. Christ clearly was not teaching about self-mutilation, but rather self-discipline and self-instruction. What is the source of offense? Identify it, and cut it out of our lives. I am highly grateful for the Atonement of our Savior, that allows us to seek support in finding a better way--a more god-like life. No impure thing can enter into the presence of God, so we have great need to purify, refine, work, and beg for the mercy of God in helping us change. Otherwise, we have no hope, for alone we will never be pure.
Miracles do happen as we act on our faith. I've seen it and I know it is true. We have faith, we act on it (naturally) to pass the trials of our faith, and miracles are wrought as a result of our faithful action. It is the recipe for a miracle--that simple. We have no need to doubt the power of God, and that's the truth. There is no fear in faithful living, and no sorrow in true understanding.
There's another rant--I apologize if you want to hear about my mission .... I end up just going on spiels fairly often. I hope you gain something out of my blabbing. I love you, family. It will be joyful to see you again, even though I don't want to rush anything .... Thanks for the examples you have always given me. Bye for now.
-Elder Sam Bostwick
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