Week 34

Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 9:45 AM

Hey family,

Life's going well here.  Well, my new son is a complete stud.  His name is Elder Mickelsen.  He's from Plane City (Ogden), Utah.  He's 18.  He's great already.  :) :)  He's a stud at bearing his testimony.  He's humble, desires to be obedient, and we get along super well.  Definitely someone that I will be good friends with for life.  I can tell that already.  He has a lot of eternal potential.  I can see that :)

We were going to have a baptism this month, but that got bumped back a couple of weeks, but we're pretty sure we should be having a baptism on March 9, which is actually Elder Mickelsen's birthday, so that would be pretty intense. :)  In terms of progressing investigators, we're working on that ;)  I'm not going to lie, missionary work is a lot of brain power.  You have so much responsibility, and you're always thinking of people and lessons etc and how you're going to teach something, or help someone or accomplish something.  It's intense.  In terms of  less actives, we're really trying to help the branch here even figure out who is in their stewardship still.  Our roster needs cleaning up, and about 1/2 of the less actives on there don't have numbers that work or numbers at all.  It's crazy.  

Yesterday, I was asked to speak in church again for a 20 minute talk, but thankfully I remember my fabulous older brother mentioning how on his mission, he always prepared 45 minute talks because you never knew how much time they were going to give you.  Well, one of the other youth speakers, (there were 2 that were supposed to speak for 10 minutes each) got sick.  aka.  mas time.  The one youth speaker spoke for 10 minutes and that left me with about 1/2 hour or so.  But it worked out well :)  I gave a talk on the Lorenzo Snow teachings book and his background a little bit and how we can use the book and allow it to help us in our lives, how we can incorporate it into reality.  It went pretty well, but I'll tell you what.  Before my mission, the prospect of someone asking me to give a 30 minute talk would have blown my mind.  But now, it's not really that big of a deal.  The Lord has definitely blessed me greatly in many many ways.  

I got letters from Ricky and Chuck and Grandma last week.  I don't remember any others but there may have been some.  I don't think so though.  ps. Happy Valentine’s day.  And soon happy birthday Ryan.   :)  

Anyways, the work is moving along.  There is a lot about myself that I need to try and perfect (and I mean A LOT ;) ) That sometimes it's a little overwhelming.  I guess I just take it one bite at a time (that’s how you eat the elephant, right mom?? ;) )  I absolutely love this gospel though.  Everything about it is so perfect and wonderful.  It just makes so much sense.  My testimony and love of the Book of Mormon continue to grow and deepen.  I know it is literally the word of God, revealed by Joseph Smith to help us in our progression back to our Father in Heaven.  Our Father loves us SOOOOOOOOOOOO much.  It's amazing.  I am so eternally grateful for families.  Something I've begun to notice more since being on my mission is how absolutely wonderful it is to have such miraculous knowledge a part of my life.  The importance of families is something that I grew up with, so I never quite realized it, but our relationships are so much stronger and lasting and magnificent because we KNOW that they have an eternal purpose, that they are divinely inspired and designed.  I can't imagine being without any of you.  I love y'all so much.  

Take care of yourselves.  

Love with a ridiculous amount of love,

Elder Patty Thornton (member of the best family in the entire universe!!)