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January 17th, 2015 - Weekly Letter

Family,

    Well it sounds like you've all gotten in the game rage lately! I remember times like that before the mission when all that I wanted to do was play board games with the fam!  That's super fun for you all!!  And I remember before the mission seeing that expansion. Alvin and Dexter are like a dinosaur and an alien or something like that right?  Sounds fun!  I'm also super excited for Jon and Emma! Over all of the years as a youth, I never had the opportunity to go to trek.  That'll be so awesome! And thanks for informing me on the new dates for Burley.  I was honestly struggling in choosing a final date. I was between the 29th and the 22nd, but I didn't want to choose the 29th because I was thinking that that same day we were going to Burley, so I was going to come home the 22nd, but then I felt it was too early, so this helps a lot. I'm almost 100% sure now that my release date will be the 29th of July.  I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT AUSTIN is returning from his mission this week?!?!  I remember him posting on Facebook two years ago that he was so excited to serve.......but it doesn't feel like 2 years.  Scares me~~~~~~~~~~~

     But yeah. This last week was good!  I didn't get as much time as I wanted to to work out of the offices, but I'm almost done with all that I have to do. I have a few deadlines for a few things this coming week, so to not procrastinate, I've been working a lot on those things.  But I'm really excited for this coming week.  The new elder is going to come in, and I'm going to start training him.  It was really cool because President told me to start to pray to figure out who would be the next secretary, and I didn't get any real clear answers. So while we were walking with some zone leaders last week they started talking about an elder in their zone, and just a little story about him, and it came to me very strongly that he would be the next financial secretary.  When I went to President I told him 3 other names that I had thought of, and then last I told him that I felt strongest about this one elder, and then President just sat there, and then he said.....that's the one.  Me and President both felt super comfortable with this elder. His name is Elder Barroteran, and he's from Tijuana, but he knows really good English.

    This last week I learned something really cool from my patriarchal blessing.  So just during the day this last week I had the feeling to read my patriarchal blessing, and so since it was at the house, I read it the next morning for my personal study, and I saw something really cool.  It said that Satan is very powerful, and that he desires to destroy my testimony, and then it gives me a list of things that I should do. And then after the list it says, and if you do these things, Satan will have no power over you.  I'm not saying I'm a huge sinner, but when I read this I just said wow.  It gives me the ingredients in my patriarchal blessing of how I can make Satan powerless in my life.  And I realized that I hadn't been putting them all into practice to the fullness. So that's my new goal for the next while.....to work on those parts.   That will be the best day....the day that Satan has absolutely no power over me.

     Also this last week we brought the rest of the family to church.  All 5 of them! It was so cute to see them all there and enjoying church.  Also we brought one of the couples to church, and they were super excited too. 7 at church!  It was pretty chill!!  The family has a baptismal date for the 7th of February, and the wife of the couple has a baptismal date for the 14 of February (Valentine’s Day). The family is named Family Delgado, and the wife of the couple is Denisa.  We're super excited to bring them to church tomorrow, and we hope to bring more to church!  Our goal is to baptize every week in February, because this year in 2015, the area presidency predicts that most all of the companionships will be baptizing every week, so we're going to start in February!  My last month in the offices! It will be fun!

    Also this last week we saw Meet the Mormons!  President got a copy of it in Spanish, and so we all saw it!!!! I loved it. I got kinda teary eyed in a few parts....especially with the mom and her missionary, like when he's saying goodbye to his family and his little sister just starts bawling.....reminds me of when Emma started crying.  Good thing I'm past that part.........that was hard.

    But yeah! Thanks for the continued support! I love you all so much! Have a super awesome week!!! Enjoy your day off of school on Monday, and READ the Book of Mormon!!!

Love Elder Loveless

January 10th, 2015 - Weekly Letter

Family,

    This last week was a life-changing experience.  I had a lot of cool experiences.  Sounds like you guys had a sweet week too. I always wanted to play killer bunnies before the mission.....so we gotta play it after!  I'm just remembering how cool games were...and are!  I remember how I wanted to make games when I was older.  Maybe I will.....but when I'm retired.  But that's cool. I'm glad everyone still plays games. That's one tradition that is never going to leave the family.  I'm just thinking it's so weird that Jon and Emma are already half-way through this school year.  But I'm like freaked out, because I felt like last year it went by slower.  And now Jon's like almost graduated.  Weird.....But I'm so happy for you guys! Sounds like everything's going great!  

     This last week my testimony truly grew of the following quote from President Hinckley.     

   “The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served.” 

     I'm not going to bash on or say anything bad about my past companions here in the offices, but they just never wanted to work because we always have work.  Now that Elder Reynolds is here we have really focused on at least leaving every day to at the least contact someone in the street.  With all of the stress in the offices it helps so much!  It makes my worries go away.  Because "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17).  Work truly is the antidote for all of the bad feelings that we could have.  God is love....and when we serve Him, He gives us part of that love.   

     The next big thing that I learned was through revelation that I received during my personal studies these last two days, and it is about the true meaning of Ether 12:27.

   "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

    First we must go to Christ to find out what our weakness is. Next we have to humble ourselves before God and have faith, but not just have faith.....act on that faith.  Then the grace of God will make it possible that our weakness becomes strong unto us. Imagine that......Maybe it's procrastination.....maybe it's an addiction....maybe it's worse....maybe not so bad. Whatever it may be, in this verse we learn how to make weak things become strong unto us.  I'm not going to explain details, because if it interests you guys you can study it personally.  But let's just say that it took an hour yesterday and an hour today to fully comprehend this verse.  Let's just say that we have to be worthy of the grace of God....for it is what will bring us to Exaltation.  And that's just a little part of the puzzle of Ether 12:27.  It's an amazing verse and I recommend that you all study it. But not just read it, but that you take time and write notes, because it will change your life forever. It is currently changing mine, and I know that it is true and works.  

    So that was about the coolest things about my week.  We brought a lady named Claudia to church and her daughter Jeromi to church last week. They liked it a lot and are going to come tomorrow with all of the family. We also are going to have 2 other young couples come to church.  We're really excited for tomorrow. Actually like in 15 minutes we're going to go work some more to invite more to church.  

    It's been good. And during this time I feel the happiest that I've been the whole mission.  It's super cool being in the offices and being able to work. Like it's what I would like to do after the mission as well. Continue blessing lives, but work and attend the family at the same time.  The happiness that this gospel gives us is better than any other thing that exists, and I'm so happy to be a representative of Christ during this time.  

     I'm so happy for you guys and thanks for everything that you do.  I hope you have a great week! Envelope yourselves with a good study of the scriptures and you'll see how your lives change! Keep enjoying life....and board games!!!   Love you all!!!

 

-Elder Loveless

January 4th, 2015 - 8 more months to go!!!!!

Baptisms with the family Cruz Aguirre (The sister missionaries taught this family then Zac became good friends with the dad and the dad asked Zac to baptize him.)

January 3rd, 2015 - Weekly Letter

Family,

     Wow! Sounds like you all had a good/crazy week. I think it's kind of funny that Emma got sick, well not funny, but I'm always the one that gets sick during the holidays, so I guess Emma just had to take my place!  But it sounds like for the most part everyone enjoyed their holidays!  This whole time period is awesome. You just feel the spirit of Christ so much more.  I hope you all put good goals.  My goals this year are a little bit different than last year’s goals, but we'll see how everything goes.

     Even though it was a new year this week, it was just a pretty chill week.  Elder Ferrel finished his mission and Elder Ante had transfers, and so now just Elder Reynolds and I am here.  But I'm actually really happy that I can be here during the beginning of the year.  What happened is that when I arrived I was taught how to do everything, and I did it all exactly as I was taught.  But now after seeing how the money works for the second half of 2014, now I know what works better and what doesn't work so good, and so I can change everything now that it's 2015.  I'm doing a lot of things to make it easier for the future financial secretaries, because this last month was SUPER stressful because of everything that the secretaries has not ever done.  But yeah, I'm happy to start the year here.  

      Also today 12 missionaries went home.  It was weird, because I got to know just about every one of them, and they were all really good missionaries.  It's super weird to think that they all left.  But it was also funny because this lady saw my name (from my green card) and then just started calling me Zachary and joking around and stuff like that, and I was like....whoah lady. I just came to pay for extra baggage fees.  But it was super funny. Nobody has called me by my real name in a long time.

     So yeah, my New Year’s eve party really wasn't a party. We didn't really do anything. Elder Reynolds received pudding packs so we toasted with pudding. That was cool!  Then we went to bed early. I know it sounds kind of lame, but we can't stay up until midnight anyways, so going to bed early felt really good. Especially in the offices. The more sleep we get, the better things go....or at least that's how I feel.  

     Also, yesterday President redid the presentation with our parent’s hands, but he showed the hands of the newer missionaries. I remember more than a year ago when he did it and was just a greenie and didn't know any Spanish, but I had to go up and talk about mom.  I don't know why, but they mission really makes a person love their family more, and just have more love for everyone.  Because now if they were to ask me what my parent's hands have done for me, I think now my answer would be different than a year ago.  Those hands took me when I was just born, and grew and shaped me until where I am now. Those hands worked until they couldn't so that we always had food in the house, and a shelter where we could stay.  Those hands changed diapers, fed me, cleaned the house, and made sure we were safe. Those hands held a Book of Mormon and guided people to baptism.  Those hands grasped me and held me safe. They hurt me at times as well, but more than anything.....they put me on the path that leads to God.

       Thanks for everything mom and dad....for everything that you have done for me.  I'm so grateful for you guys because you've always been there for me.  Even in the mission I've been able to see how much you do for me, even if it’s just praying for me. Thanks :)

But yeah....2014 was great! It was the only year in my WHOLE life that I'll be 100% set apart as a missionary.  No other year will be like that. 

Cheeeeeers to 2015!!!!!

I love you all!!! Have fun starting school again!  Hope your 2014 was great as well!!!! 

Enjoy life....and read the Book of Mormon!!!

 

-Elder Loveless