Salut,
Joyeux Noel et Bonne Année! Well it's almost 2012. I never thought it would be! It seemed so far away back in 2010! This was one of the best Christmas's I've ever had. On Christmas Eve and Christmas night we ate with a Romanian family. We spent Christmas eve with G and V B. They prepared SO much food. Honestly, I have no idea where they get all this food, because they just sell newspapers all day for 40 cents a piece. They're so humble, generous, and jsut full of charity though. V made a wicked good egg salad, but it was called beef salad. Don't ask me why, there wasn't an ounce of beef in it haha. On top of the big egg salad, which looked like a cake, she had decorated it with trees and snowmen and a sleigh all made out of olives, carrots, and peppers haha. She's so awesome. We all sang Christmas carols together after dinner and just had a great time. G played his guitar and sang us a Romanian song. He's the man. I played have yourself a merry little christmas for them on the guitar :). After we finished singing, we watched the Joseph Smith movie with them because G wants to know more about Joseph Smith's life. The spirit was very strong, and at the end, G said, "I know Joseph Smith was a prophet." Hearing investigators bear testimony is the greatest thing ever! I was so touched by the whole evening together. When we left, Elder Buss and I talked about it, and we were just so happy and agreed it was the best Christmas ever. We were invited to a member's house that night, but were invited later by the Bostacas adn decided to go there instead. I'm so glad we did, because if not, they would have just been all alone on Christmas Eve. We were so happy so blessed to celebrate Christmas with them.
On Christmas we went to the Wilkey's, an English family, and ate with them and opened presents; Everyone in their family got each missionary a present. It was so nice! I got some sweet union jack socks haha. Then I skyped you, as you all know. It was so great seeing all of you! It gets less weird every time I call home. I remember the first time was awkward because I had no idea what to say haha. Sophie and Mia are so huge! So is Colin! Colton, I knew you would grow back teh beard haha. It was nice to actually see you this time, Ally!
Christmas night we went to P and L's, the other Romanian family. It was hilarious because they prepard almost exactly the same meal we had had the night before. I guess it was the traditional Romanian Christmas meal! We taught them the plan of salvation. They are so golden. At the end, L asked, "but when I die, will I still be able to see my husband and my children?" They're so ready for the Gospel. So many miracles! I love it here, and don't want to go anywhere. Transfer calls are Friday. Elder Buss and I want to stay put. I'm so blessed to be able to work with Elder Buss. He's the man. I learn tons from him and he's such a good missionary. I hope we stay together another one! Well I'll leave this email a little short since I just talked to all of you, and I have to write a big thing to president this week and probably already have less time than I need for that. I love you guys. Thanks so much for your love and your support. You're the best!
Love, Elder Tudor
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
December 19, 2011
Bonjour à tous,
It was a miraculous week. I can't even explain everything that happened! It was such a crazy week haha. We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was our zone and the Toulouse zone all together here in Bordeaux. Elder Buss and I threw together a pretty sweet presentation complete with a musical demonstration on how the Spirit works in the conversion of our investigators. I wrote a story about a family and started from before they met the missioaries, when they met them, when they were taught etc, until they got baptized. As I told this story, Elder Buss played this beautiful song on the piano, and we said that the Spirit was like the sustain pedal on the piano, so as I read, everytime the misisonaries did something to help the family have the Spirit, the pedal would go on, and it would sound beautiful, but every time the missionaries failed to follow up or something and the family lost the Spirit, he woud take the pedal off and it would sound strange and not very pretty. Near the end, the Spirit is constant because the missionaries are diong everything they're supposed to in order to help the investigators have the sustaining influence of the Spirit and the family is baptized and Elder Buss just plays the end of the piece as normal and it's such a beautiful piece, and for the last few moments of the song I read Mosiah 2 verses 2 and half of 5. The Spirit was really strong, and half the missionaries were crying at the end. It was a really spiritual experience for me to write the story and I really gained a strong testimony that our investigators really depend on us in order to be converted. Of course it's the Spirit that converts, but we are teh ones that invite them to do things that will help them have the Spirit and we create an environment for them to feel adn be converted by teh Spirit. The image with the sustain pedal worked out perfect.
We had a great white elephant gift exchange at zone conference as well. I ended up with a pineapple. Elder Buss and I brought a second tree that we had cut down with our leatherman and wrapped it up in big garbage bags. It looked like a body bag. We also brought a big can of baby milk powder that G and V gave us haha. We told them we don't have children, and V just looked at us and in her awesome english pointed at us one at a time and said, "baby - baby" haha. So we gave it away as a white elephant.
After the zone conference we went on exchagne with the assistants and that was really fun. Me, Elder Bollero, and 6 other misisonaries went to place de la victoire and sang Christmas Carols and contacted people. It was really fun but it was raining and freezing cold haha.
Tuesday and Wednesday were crazy picking up the assistants at the airport and doing zone conference and everything, and then thursday was insane because Elders Duncan and Allen flew in from Lyon to do their legality in Bordeaux and so we had them and the assistants all day long and we had to help them get all their legality sorted out and it was just complete chaos haha. And to top it off, we got a call from president informing us that we no longer have the right to drive in France. Apparently after one year in France, our US licenses are no longer accepted, so we've been driving illegaly. So now we have this giant area with sparatic buses because it's mostly a residential area and we don't have a car anymore. We were nervous about it at first and it's been hard to be effective with our time because we can't just drive around everywhere whenever we want, but we saw miracles this week and just had new investigators coming out of the woodwork. We found four new Chinese investigators this week, and an awesome Romanian couple. The Romanian couple came to church with V this week and we taught them after church. They speak english and they're named P and L. They are so golden. When we sat down before the lesson started, I asked if they had any questions. L said, "Yes, I was wondering... because there's so many churches in the world and how could anyone know which one was right? I've always wanted to know and I've prayed many times to know which one was true, but God hasn't answered my prayers yet. How do I know?" They have a baptismal date for the 7th of January. I've never during my whole mission hear someone say that during a first lesson. I love this work. Both Elder Buss and I agree that we don't deserve to teach these amazing people that are just coming out of nowhere. We feel like we didn't do anything, these people just show up. Miracles always follow faith and works, even if it's not when, where, how, or who you expect it to be. The Lord truly prepares people to receive the Gospel!
G and V are not married so V is moving out today, pray that everything goes well and that she finds a place to live. She has so much faith and is so Christlike, it is incredible. She cuold be baptized this week! we'll see how everything works out. We've got 6 investigators with baptismal dates for the next few weeks, so we're really praying and doing our best to help them get there. It's miracle month, so they will!
I'm living my dream out here. I've always wanted to serve in Bordeaux, and the miracles are just flowing! I know this is God's work, and that we can't even comprehend His love for us. I know Jesus Christ suffered pains and temptations of every kind in order to overcome everything that separates us from our Heavenly Father, and I know we can use His power in our own lives to overcome ourselves - if we only choose to. I'm so thankful for the Gospel and for my mission. It's just flying by, I can't believe it. I love you all! Have a great week, et Joyeux Noel! Je penserai à vous tous, merci pour tout ce que vous faites, je vous aime!
Elder Tudor
P.S. N'oubliez pas de regarder Christmas Vacation pour moi! :)
It was a miraculous week. I can't even explain everything that happened! It was such a crazy week haha. We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was our zone and the Toulouse zone all together here in Bordeaux. Elder Buss and I threw together a pretty sweet presentation complete with a musical demonstration on how the Spirit works in the conversion of our investigators. I wrote a story about a family and started from before they met the missioaries, when they met them, when they were taught etc, until they got baptized. As I told this story, Elder Buss played this beautiful song on the piano, and we said that the Spirit was like the sustain pedal on the piano, so as I read, everytime the misisonaries did something to help the family have the Spirit, the pedal would go on, and it would sound beautiful, but every time the missionaries failed to follow up or something and the family lost the Spirit, he woud take the pedal off and it would sound strange and not very pretty. Near the end, the Spirit is constant because the missionaries are diong everything they're supposed to in order to help the investigators have the sustaining influence of the Spirit and the family is baptized and Elder Buss just plays the end of the piece as normal and it's such a beautiful piece, and for the last few moments of the song I read Mosiah 2 verses 2 and half of 5. The Spirit was really strong, and half the missionaries were crying at the end. It was a really spiritual experience for me to write the story and I really gained a strong testimony that our investigators really depend on us in order to be converted. Of course it's the Spirit that converts, but we are teh ones that invite them to do things that will help them have the Spirit and we create an environment for them to feel adn be converted by teh Spirit. The image with the sustain pedal worked out perfect.
We had a great white elephant gift exchange at zone conference as well. I ended up with a pineapple. Elder Buss and I brought a second tree that we had cut down with our leatherman and wrapped it up in big garbage bags. It looked like a body bag. We also brought a big can of baby milk powder that G and V gave us haha. We told them we don't have children, and V just looked at us and in her awesome english pointed at us one at a time and said, "baby - baby" haha. So we gave it away as a white elephant.
After the zone conference we went on exchagne with the assistants and that was really fun. Me, Elder Bollero, and 6 other misisonaries went to place de la victoire and sang Christmas Carols and contacted people. It was really fun but it was raining and freezing cold haha.
Tuesday and Wednesday were crazy picking up the assistants at the airport and doing zone conference and everything, and then thursday was insane because Elders Duncan and Allen flew in from Lyon to do their legality in Bordeaux and so we had them and the assistants all day long and we had to help them get all their legality sorted out and it was just complete chaos haha. And to top it off, we got a call from president informing us that we no longer have the right to drive in France. Apparently after one year in France, our US licenses are no longer accepted, so we've been driving illegaly. So now we have this giant area with sparatic buses because it's mostly a residential area and we don't have a car anymore. We were nervous about it at first and it's been hard to be effective with our time because we can't just drive around everywhere whenever we want, but we saw miracles this week and just had new investigators coming out of the woodwork. We found four new Chinese investigators this week, and an awesome Romanian couple. The Romanian couple came to church with V this week and we taught them after church. They speak english and they're named P and L. They are so golden. When we sat down before the lesson started, I asked if they had any questions. L said, "Yes, I was wondering... because there's so many churches in the world and how could anyone know which one was right? I've always wanted to know and I've prayed many times to know which one was true, but God hasn't answered my prayers yet. How do I know?" They have a baptismal date for the 7th of January. I've never during my whole mission hear someone say that during a first lesson. I love this work. Both Elder Buss and I agree that we don't deserve to teach these amazing people that are just coming out of nowhere. We feel like we didn't do anything, these people just show up. Miracles always follow faith and works, even if it's not when, where, how, or who you expect it to be. The Lord truly prepares people to receive the Gospel!
G and V are not married so V is moving out today, pray that everything goes well and that she finds a place to live. She has so much faith and is so Christlike, it is incredible. She cuold be baptized this week! we'll see how everything works out. We've got 6 investigators with baptismal dates for the next few weeks, so we're really praying and doing our best to help them get there. It's miracle month, so they will!
I'm living my dream out here. I've always wanted to serve in Bordeaux, and the miracles are just flowing! I know this is God's work, and that we can't even comprehend His love for us. I know Jesus Christ suffered pains and temptations of every kind in order to overcome everything that separates us from our Heavenly Father, and I know we can use His power in our own lives to overcome ourselves - if we only choose to. I'm so thankful for the Gospel and for my mission. It's just flying by, I can't believe it. I love you all! Have a great week, et Joyeux Noel! Je penserai à vous tous, merci pour tout ce que vous faites, je vous aime!
Elder Tudor
P.S. N'oubliez pas de regarder Christmas Vacation pour moi! :)
Thursday, December 15, 2011
December 12, 2011
Wow, it has been a totally insane week, and I don't have enough time at all to write about it! But anways, my chinese is coming along quite well if any of you were wondering :). Really though, Elder Buss is teaching me! That's what we do in the car haha. Speaking of Chinese, we found a new chinese investigator this week named H, or Ava is her French name. She's a student and has only been here a month but studied french and speaks really well. She knows nothing about God, but we've already seen her a few times and she is progressing really well. She has a baptismal date for new year's eve. She's already best friends with like everyone at institute as well. We're so excited for her! In other chinese news, one of our recent converts, C, invited us over for dinner the other night. He usually makes really good chinese food (well, Taiwanese, he's from Taiwan and would be mad if I said Chinese haha). So we got there and there was rice on the table like usual. Then he brought out this meat dish and it was like nothing I'd ever seen. I asked him what it was and he just said beouf, so we went for it. At first we thought it was just fat or somethign cuz it wasn't really meat and it was all chewy and gelly like. It was really odd, so we asked, "C, what part of the cow is this?" - "The foot." Elder Buss and I took a second look at what we were eating, and sure enough, I was holding a cow's hoof in my hand and I was gnawing on the ankle, but we didn't notice at first because it was all brown and cooked. After realizing this, we both tried to contain our laughter while not throwing up. Probably the first time I've ever had that sensation before. Oh C.
The ward Christmas party was Saturday night, and Elder Buss and I did a song. I played guitar and we both sang. It was a song by a french member of the church. It"'s pretty cool, I'll try to send you a video. At the end of the video, you can hear C yell from the back of the auditorium super loud, "well done, Fish!!!" He calls me fish becquse the first time he met me we were at an English member's house, and when they said my name to him in their English accent, it sounded like "Tuna". So now I'm Fish. all the missionaries and the ward mission leader sang a hymn as well. It was far far away on Judea's plains, and we forgot to plan an accompaniment, so I had to make up one onthe spot on the guitar haha. It was intense. I think it worked out ok though.
The Lord blessed us with an amazing miracle this week. A couple weeks ago we found a new investigator named I. She is really sweet and we had a really good first lesson. Then a couple day sbefore our return appointment, she called and left a message and said she didn't want to see us anymore. We decided to let the Spirit do it's work and not call her back, because we knew she knew our message is true. A couple days later she called and left a message saying that she wants to see us again and that she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and wants to learn more. We saw her the next day and had a great lesson. I'm so thankful to be a missionary. It makes me realize how much teh Lord does for us. As I think back on this week, we didn't do anything special. We just worked, were obedient, and kept a positive attitude, and we saw so many miracles. I love Bordeaux. These last few weeks have been some of the best of my mission. Elder Buss is the man and I love working with him!
Since it's Christmas, Elder Buss and I decided to go out into a little forest today and cut down a little Christmas tree. I'll send pîcs. It's a long story. To make the story short, all we had was a leatherman. We have a tree now though!
There are so many more things I could write about this week, but don't have the time. The church is true and I love the Gospel because it makes people happy! Have a great week! Love you!
Elder Tudor
The ward Christmas party was Saturday night, and Elder Buss and I did a song. I played guitar and we both sang. It was a song by a french member of the church. It"'s pretty cool, I'll try to send you a video. At the end of the video, you can hear C yell from the back of the auditorium super loud, "well done, Fish!!!" He calls me fish becquse the first time he met me we were at an English member's house, and when they said my name to him in their English accent, it sounded like "Tuna". So now I'm Fish. all the missionaries and the ward mission leader sang a hymn as well. It was far far away on Judea's plains, and we forgot to plan an accompaniment, so I had to make up one onthe spot on the guitar haha. It was intense. I think it worked out ok though.
The Lord blessed us with an amazing miracle this week. A couple weeks ago we found a new investigator named I. She is really sweet and we had a really good first lesson. Then a couple day sbefore our return appointment, she called and left a message and said she didn't want to see us anymore. We decided to let the Spirit do it's work and not call her back, because we knew she knew our message is true. A couple days later she called and left a message saying that she wants to see us again and that she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and wants to learn more. We saw her the next day and had a great lesson. I'm so thankful to be a missionary. It makes me realize how much teh Lord does for us. As I think back on this week, we didn't do anything special. We just worked, were obedient, and kept a positive attitude, and we saw so many miracles. I love Bordeaux. These last few weeks have been some of the best of my mission. Elder Buss is the man and I love working with him!
Since it's Christmas, Elder Buss and I decided to go out into a little forest today and cut down a little Christmas tree. I'll send pîcs. It's a long story. To make the story short, all we had was a leatherman. We have a tree now though!
There are so many more things I could write about this week, but don't have the time. The church is true and I love the Gospel because it makes people happy! Have a great week! Love you!
Elder Tudor
December 5, 2011
Hello!
It was a crazy week! We weren't even in Bordeaux for a big part of it. Thursday at noon we left Bordeaux on the train for Lyon and we slept there Thursday night with a bunch of the other zone leaders, and Friday morning we had Jedi Council, which was pretty amazing. It's just the zone leaders, the assistants to president, and the president. We just discuss things that have been working in the mission and areas we can improve and every zone gives a report about their zone and goals that they have. Basically President Murdock just like receives revelation and talks to us and we try madly to write down everything he says haha. It was so inspiring and was such a blessing to be there and be in such a spiritual environment. Then Friday night we took the train back through Montpellier and stayed the night in Toulouse and then took the train to Bordeaux in the morning where we went right to Samedi Sportif (sports saturday) where we played basketball at this giant park with members, other missionaries, and investigators. We had a couple of investigators there. Louis and Rick came, who are so awesome. They're both chinese, and super good at basketball actually. I guess Yao Ming isn't much of a mystery after all! Rick is super tall and at one point he totally stuffed (blocked) a sister missionary hardcore. He wasn't messing around haha. He's going back to China for a few weeks though, but then he'll be back. Luckily I'll most likely still be here when he gets back.
While I was at Jedi Council, I saw Elder Garland! I love meeting old companions again. He's in Lyon now and he came by the institute building where we were having the council because they were doing a lesson there. I missed him! And I got some great news about Yves, remember him? He got baptized just a week or two after I left Cannes. Apparently he's still super strong and active and even helps the missionaries often with teaching. Yes! I love hearing news like that. And I couldn't write him because I don't have any of his info, so I was really happy.
We had a great/crazy Sunday this week. F was confirmed, which was so great, and I had the blessing to participate. Then after church, a chinese recent convert named Charming was given the Aaronic priesthood and F got to watch. He also got to watch as we gave a member a blessing for the sick. Then afterwards, we taught F about hte priesthood, and he was super excited to receive it because he had seen so much Priesthood in action that day. I'm so excited for F! He already finished the Book of Mormon. What a stud. He's progressing like crazy. Then we went to this Romanian couple's house. They told me their son's name is Tudor haha. We taught them. The husband speaks pretty good english and french, and the wife not so much, but he translated. They accepted to be baptized on Christmas Eve! The poor people though, they live in such a terrible house. There was a fire in the house before they bought it so everything is just charred and the walls are all burned and everything, and there's just burned clutter everywhere. Not the greatest place to live. I felt so bad for them. We're going to go help them clean it Monday morning. Before we left, the husband played the guitar and sang us Romanian songs haha it was great. Then they gave us this huge bag of food even though we told them that it was ok and we didn't need it a hundred times. They're so nice. Some of the food was pretty sketch though. It was really interesting! So we drove aroudn the rest of the day with that big bag of food in the back of the car, and there was this goat cheese in it that just smelled terrible. Later that night, Elder Buss was driving and I was in the passenger seat, and all of a sudden Elder Buss started rolling down my window and yelling "that spider is so big!!! it's so big!!!" and I had no idea what was going on. I looked outside for a spider somewhere but was still confused, then to my absolute horror I noticed this big white mass right up on the little ledge by my window in the car, and I looked and saw this massive white spider who's abdomen was probably the size of my thumb! Of course, I screamed like a little girl and when the window was down all the way, I hit it with my cell phone out the window. We kept freaking out for 10 minutes after that haha. It was so scary. We figured it came from the big bag of food cuz the bag had been in the garage. I've never seen a spider like that! I'm pretty uneasy in the car now haha.
I love being in Bordeaux and time is just flying here. We're really busy and I love it. Even though I'm so busy, I don't think I've ever been as focused on the real reason why I'm here as I am right now. When Elder Causse came, he said that sometimes we lose teh Pearl in the box. The story is that this Jewler bought this giant magnificent pearl and wanted to display it in the window of his store. Because it was so amazing, he had this special hand made beautiful box made so he could display the pearl in it. The only problem was that when the people walked by and looked at it, they only noticed the box and the pearl kind of got swallowed up in the box. Sometimes, whether as missionaries or as just members of teh church, we lose the pearl in the box. There's so many techniques and theories and ways to do things in missionary work, and sometimes, we focus too much on finding the best "box" to present the Gospel in, and we forget a little about the precious "pearl" that is the Gospel itself. It doesn't matter what box you have if it doesn't draw attention to the pearl! As members we can get caught up in big extravagant activities etc. and we can get distracted from what is really important. Let's all remember how simple and precious the principles of the Gospel are and how rich the blessings and promesses are that come with them. Out here, I'm not just going contacting, I'm offering people salvation through Jesus Christ, their Savior. I'm not just teaching lessons to say I taught a lesson, but I'm teaching people the way to come unto Christ. Let's remember why we do everything we do in the church. The purpose of the church and its teachings is to invite everyone to come unto Christ and partake of salvation. I know the church is true and that the principles of the Gospel and the commandments are REAL. They make us happy for eternity. Well gotta go, but I love you all!
bisou,
Elder Tudor
It was a crazy week! We weren't even in Bordeaux for a big part of it. Thursday at noon we left Bordeaux on the train for Lyon and we slept there Thursday night with a bunch of the other zone leaders, and Friday morning we had Jedi Council, which was pretty amazing. It's just the zone leaders, the assistants to president, and the president. We just discuss things that have been working in the mission and areas we can improve and every zone gives a report about their zone and goals that they have. Basically President Murdock just like receives revelation and talks to us and we try madly to write down everything he says haha. It was so inspiring and was such a blessing to be there and be in such a spiritual environment. Then Friday night we took the train back through Montpellier and stayed the night in Toulouse and then took the train to Bordeaux in the morning where we went right to Samedi Sportif (sports saturday) where we played basketball at this giant park with members, other missionaries, and investigators. We had a couple of investigators there. Louis and Rick came, who are so awesome. They're both chinese, and super good at basketball actually. I guess Yao Ming isn't much of a mystery after all! Rick is super tall and at one point he totally stuffed (blocked) a sister missionary hardcore. He wasn't messing around haha. He's going back to China for a few weeks though, but then he'll be back. Luckily I'll most likely still be here when he gets back.
While I was at Jedi Council, I saw Elder Garland! I love meeting old companions again. He's in Lyon now and he came by the institute building where we were having the council because they were doing a lesson there. I missed him! And I got some great news about Yves, remember him? He got baptized just a week or two after I left Cannes. Apparently he's still super strong and active and even helps the missionaries often with teaching. Yes! I love hearing news like that. And I couldn't write him because I don't have any of his info, so I was really happy.
We had a great/crazy Sunday this week. F was confirmed, which was so great, and I had the blessing to participate. Then after church, a chinese recent convert named Charming was given the Aaronic priesthood and F got to watch. He also got to watch as we gave a member a blessing for the sick. Then afterwards, we taught F about hte priesthood, and he was super excited to receive it because he had seen so much Priesthood in action that day. I'm so excited for F! He already finished the Book of Mormon. What a stud. He's progressing like crazy. Then we went to this Romanian couple's house. They told me their son's name is Tudor haha. We taught them. The husband speaks pretty good english and french, and the wife not so much, but he translated. They accepted to be baptized on Christmas Eve! The poor people though, they live in such a terrible house. There was a fire in the house before they bought it so everything is just charred and the walls are all burned and everything, and there's just burned clutter everywhere. Not the greatest place to live. I felt so bad for them. We're going to go help them clean it Monday morning. Before we left, the husband played the guitar and sang us Romanian songs haha it was great. Then they gave us this huge bag of food even though we told them that it was ok and we didn't need it a hundred times. They're so nice. Some of the food was pretty sketch though. It was really interesting! So we drove aroudn the rest of the day with that big bag of food in the back of the car, and there was this goat cheese in it that just smelled terrible. Later that night, Elder Buss was driving and I was in the passenger seat, and all of a sudden Elder Buss started rolling down my window and yelling "that spider is so big!!! it's so big!!!" and I had no idea what was going on. I looked outside for a spider somewhere but was still confused, then to my absolute horror I noticed this big white mass right up on the little ledge by my window in the car, and I looked and saw this massive white spider who's abdomen was probably the size of my thumb! Of course, I screamed like a little girl and when the window was down all the way, I hit it with my cell phone out the window. We kept freaking out for 10 minutes after that haha. It was so scary. We figured it came from the big bag of food cuz the bag had been in the garage. I've never seen a spider like that! I'm pretty uneasy in the car now haha.
I love being in Bordeaux and time is just flying here. We're really busy and I love it. Even though I'm so busy, I don't think I've ever been as focused on the real reason why I'm here as I am right now. When Elder Causse came, he said that sometimes we lose teh Pearl in the box. The story is that this Jewler bought this giant magnificent pearl and wanted to display it in the window of his store. Because it was so amazing, he had this special hand made beautiful box made so he could display the pearl in it. The only problem was that when the people walked by and looked at it, they only noticed the box and the pearl kind of got swallowed up in the box. Sometimes, whether as missionaries or as just members of teh church, we lose the pearl in the box. There's so many techniques and theories and ways to do things in missionary work, and sometimes, we focus too much on finding the best "box" to present the Gospel in, and we forget a little about the precious "pearl" that is the Gospel itself. It doesn't matter what box you have if it doesn't draw attention to the pearl! As members we can get caught up in big extravagant activities etc. and we can get distracted from what is really important. Let's all remember how simple and precious the principles of the Gospel are and how rich the blessings and promesses are that come with them. Out here, I'm not just going contacting, I'm offering people salvation through Jesus Christ, their Savior. I'm not just teaching lessons to say I taught a lesson, but I'm teaching people the way to come unto Christ. Let's remember why we do everything we do in the church. The purpose of the church and its teachings is to invite everyone to come unto Christ and partake of salvation. I know the church is true and that the principles of the Gospel and the commandments are REAL. They make us happy for eternity. Well gotta go, but I love you all!
bisou,
Elder Tudor
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