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