2010 Dec 13

2010 Dec 13

Hey Guys!
This week has been pretty good. We set a baptismal date for Francis (I think that I told you guys about him) for the 18th which is this Saturday. This week has been really great and kind of mediocre all at the same time. The reason that it was great was because it was probably the most spiritually edifying week so far in the field. And that is because I was able to study the gospel more this week than I usually would have been able to. And I'm technically not even supposed to mention this because they don't want you guys to worry (so stop reading if you don't think that you can handle it) and they even wanted me to go to the hospital but it wasn't even that bad. They are just overreacting, mom so don't even worry about it. I just ate something bad on Sunday so my stomach was just a little bit sensitive but I am completely better. So, seriously, don't worry about it and don't call church headquarters. SO…

My companion and I kind of took turns being sick and when he was just sleeping it off one day, I had the opportunity to do some hardcore gospel study. I mostly just read Search for Happiness by... Ballard (?). I'm not even sure if that is the title of the book. It's one of the ones you sent me with. Anyway, he makes a lot of sense. And he does it all at the same time as being really spiritual so it ends up being really edifying. So that just really strengthened my testimony of the gospel a lot so that was awesome.

But on Saturday we had some activity with the members (and a lot of them actually even showed up) and we had the ambitious goal of getting 150 references from it and we ended up getting 149! So that is really, really exciting! We watched a video about missionary work and one of the quotes that I liked was from (I think) Howard W Hunter and he said something like you can measure the conversion of someone by how great their desire is to share the gospel. So that means that if you don't have any desire to share the gospel then you are not converted enough. True faith leads to action. And it's really hard to do missionary work by contacting so share the gospel! So Saturday was a really great day! And then I was kind of playing prelude music informally and I was zooming on that thing! I can almost play I believe in Christ with both hands and I can play any song in the hymn book with my right hand (reading two different lines of music at the same time is hard. I don't even know how you guys do it).

Oh! And with the Spanish! This week I was praying pretty hard core to understand what people were saying and it was like someone turned a light on in the Spanish part of my brain! I forgot what I said last week about my Spanish but this week and can understand between 70 to 97.67594966755 percent of what people say depending on how hard they are to understand in general and how hard I'm trying to understand what they are saying. And all because of prayer! And yesterday I was trying to write in my journal in English and it felt really awkward! SO EXCITING! With any luck, by the time I call you guys on Mother's day, you guys won't even be able to understand what I'm saying! It is completely impossible that I learned to comprehend what people were saying that quickly all by myself (because it was such a night and day difference between before and after I prayed) that God would have had to help me. THEREFORE God lives. :)

And I wasn't really as sad that I wasn't able to play the violin as I was disappointed in myself for not being able to do it. I'm pretty sure that if I had had it down already and everything then they would have been okay with having me play the viola but since I didn't have it down and two other groups before us did the exact same song that we did and we already had a whole other act that we wanted to put on, it was totally fine. So it's kind of just like whatever.

And that is SO awesome that Janeen and Sarah are going crazy with their talents and not "hiding them under a bushel" because that's what God gave them talents for in the first place! By the time that two years has passed by, Janeen will probably be playing concerts at amazing places with her voice and accompanying herself with her harp all at the same time. And Sarah being spotlighted at her strings concert with her harp as well after being the lead role in the play!? I have such a talented family! And then with Dad going all over the Colorado with work?! Good job guys!

So my companion is waiting for me to finish and I still have to write a letter to President Lorenzana, so I'm gonna have to go.
Love, Elder Froelich