February 18, 2013

hey mom!

wow, i really don`t know where to start this time either. i just spent a good while reading all the emails and support and advice everyone sent me, and i`m sorry i don`t have time to reply to them all, but just know that i did read them and appreciated every single one. i have the best family in the world! i may have even teared up a little bit, you guys got me to cry so well done :) i do feel the support and prayers of everyone, and i feel super blessed knowing that i do get thought of, cause sometimes i have felt alone. and i am amazed at how many understand. really all the wisdom that was shared amazed me, and i hope to one day be the same. i know the Lord understands our trials, and understands every single pain. uncle mark shared my favorite scripture, which is alma 7:14-16. forever i just thought that the atonement was only for our sins and that was it. but i`ve come to realize that it was a whole lot more. that because He suffered for us, he understands every pain, affliction and temptation that we might ever have, and so even when we feel like there`s no one in the world that understands exactly what we`re going through, maybe there`s no human being, but He does, and so he can provide us personal help because he understands perfectly. i`ve been really caught up in the word "hope" lately, and i`m always hoping for better things, and i think they`ve come.

so last night we got a call from our zone leaders to let us know about changes this week. we have them tomorrow, and like i figured my comp is leaving, and i`m gonna be training. i don`t know who it is or anything else other than that, but i`m really excited. honestly i`m a little worried too cause i want to make sure i do a good job and train him right and make sure he learns the right things and has an awesome mission, but i think we`ll be good cause usually the newbies don`t know how to be "ponchera," so we`ll just work hard. when he told me that i really got pretty pumped, and i have really high hopes for this change. we honestly don`t have too many to teach right now, cause i can`t really say that we`ve been looking, so i imagine it may be a slow week or two just looking for people and knocking on doors, but i think it`ll be good.

we were super blessed with 2 baptisms on saturday too. honestly, upon reading all those emails, i know that they only happened with the prayers and support of everyone else. so on friday they got married. it was a pretty boring ceremony. we all were just sitting in this room, and the judge read some things from this book, talked a little bit about marriage, shared a few pieces of advice, asked them the typical "do you take this person to be your lawfully wedded husband" and what not, and that was it. we snapped a few pictures and we left. saturday was their baptism then, and of course everyone showed up late. we wanted to start at 2, but it was more at like 3:30 haha. we were in a little bit of a rush cause the stake conference was supposed to start at 4, so we had to go through it kinda fast. everything was fine, until the lady got in the water. i guess she has a fear of water, and when my comp did the prayer and started to lower her, she would just resist, go half way, and then like freak out and come back up. we tried like 8 times, but she just couldn`t do it. so she left and we did her husband, and he did it fine, but she still couldn`t, so her and my comp finally just kneeled in the water so it was up to her chin anyway, and he still had to kinda push her down haha, but she finally did it. they both seemed happy afterward so that was good. it was good to see some fruits after all the labor that has happened.

sunday was pretty cool too. elder amado actually came again and talked to the stake, and i really enjoy when he speaks. he`s very straight forward and i like that. it was a good conference. my comp just spent the day saying bye to people, so it was a quiet day. and now i`m here with my zone just emailing. so it was a tough change, but it`s done. honestly i still feel like i failed somewhere, but i guess i just gotta move on. i have high hopes for this week. again thank you so much to everyone for all the emails and prayers and support. they really are felt, and i know i couldn`t do this without them. and again sorry i can`t reply to everyone, but i appreciate them all. thanks again, i hope everyone has an awesome week, and we`ll talk to you soon!

much love,

elder paskett