Week 44 - San Tan Valley

Momma and family! yes it was so great to talk to you guys yesterday! i thought i would be trunky after talking to you but i was totally fine! so that's good. ready right away to get back to work. ummm yes my face is a little better. here and there i get some acne (i hope this isn't going to be sent out), but yeah overall it's fine. haha a sister missionary said she wanted broccoli? oh that caserole is so good. our mission is so small, that when we play ball on mondays, it's usually a zone or 2. or whoever wants to come in the area. oh yes i forgot to forward you that email. i'll take a sec and do it right now. there ya go! Sister moody is seriously awesome. I remember first talking to her. We just saw her on the ward list, and didn't know who she was so we went and contacted her! She was friendly, but didn't want much to do with us. she lived in an apartment, and she had like 30 cement bricks behind her. we were in a service kind of mood that week so we decided to go bring them to the trash. it took a 30 mins or so, but later she said that was one of the defining moments for her. not a defining moment like, "the gospel is true", but a moment like, "maybe i should reconsider". We would try to build her testimony on the porch week after week, with not much success. However, Elder Abramson (who is decently quiet), really spoke up that day, and basically told her, "hey christine, experiment upon our words. come to church. if you want to know if it's true, you gotta do (john 7:17. that rhymed, unintentional). so she decided to come. She came and felt the spirit powerfully. ever since then, her faith has been building. She's made incredible changes.

anyway... moroni 6 is awesome. i love using that. "nourished by the good word of God." just like President Hinckley said. once their baptized, they gotta keep coming. meet together oft to fast and to pray. alma 6:6. you're right, we need to help others. most of the time, we focus too much on ourselves. even building our own testimonies. why am i not happy? the best way is to fix all the problems at the same time. serve others. it's part of our baptismal covenant (mosiah 18), and if we do it, he will pour out his spirit more abundantly upon us. we can be happy, we can have our testimonies strengthened. Just this last week, we were teaching an inactive family (who came to church this last week). and she brought up a concern of hers. she said that she doesn't receive the attention and doesn't have all of her needs met. no one has reached out to her for the year that she has been here inactive. except us. For a short time i almost lost my temper, and wanted to rebuke her for thinking so much of herself. i wanted to say, "how can you say that? you have not so much as thought of yourself, when there are others in the same position! why should they be required to help you? who have you helped to come back to church?" thankfully i did not say such things. but simply invited her to try again. they did and were met by good members of the ward that showed interest and love. It's too easy to think of ourselves. But when we think to feed his sheep, he rewards us (mosiah 2:22). and then we are still indebted to him. i digress.

love you too! have an awesome week!

elder bronson