Practical/Doctrinal response to Opa Passing Away (5 weeks worth-sorry!)

March 26, 2018

Big fan of that spiritual thought (forward Elder Cameron's thoughts on prayer...warrior prayer or farmer prayer). Going to apply it more. Word on the street is that my new comp has a lot of urgency and I have already seen it in how he walks. They even compare him to a young Elder D (you don't know who that is, but he's a really hard working missionary in our mission). His name is Elder P (not my trainer but Elder P 2.0). He´s from Guatemala and has the same amount of time in the mission as Ana (he said he met her in the MTC). Very excited to be here. He is going to be the district leader now and I am going to be the junior companion! First time since my training and I am very excited! I´m going to be able to eat dinner at night, read Jesus the Christ (wanted to do that since my training but never had time), and maybe even go to bed early! President Nelson is getting the young guns ready with experience so that the mission can have good leaders when the new president arrives. So that means I am supposed to train Elder P to be a good district leader and hopefully a good zone leader or AP as well. He has the potential :)

This week we had a ton of success. We received a call from a member that we didn't know on Thursday and she said she had a referral. We went and met him, and he accepted to be baptised in the first lesson! He went to church all 3 hours on Sunday and really liked it. His name in A and he is a doctor, an x-professional basketball player, he's been to 180 countries, and he will soon be a Mormon! A few months ago he had a serious car crash and survived. He is recovering now and can't go to work, so he is taking it as a second chance to get closer to God and he really wants to do what's right! Kinda crazy and sounds like it's from a movie or something, but that's really his story! The ward is hyped on him and the elders quorum is going to play basketball this Thursday and he's going to go!

This week, I and Y were also baptised! We were going to wait another week with I, but we decided he was super ready so we asked him if he felt ready, he said yes, and he did it! There were like 40 people in his baptism, including like 15 investigators (mostly from the 2 families). They both looked so happy! Y, is the little guy in the wheelchair, but his baptism went way smoother than my last wheelchair baptism haha. 

Happy that I will be staying here, I have loved this area so far, and I am very excited about this companion. God loves us! 

Have a good week,

Love,

Elder Lethaby

April 2, 2018

(in response to hearing that Opa died)

I have a very strong testimony that President Nelson is called of God. I remember the first time I did a baptismal interview with him as the prophet, I felt inspired to share my testimony with the investigator that he is a prophet of God and I had it confirmed in that moment that it's true. This weekend confirmed it that much more. 

I will keep Oma in my prayers. I know it was time, and I hadn't heard about a release blessing either, but it sounds like the right thing to do. I love her, and I know Opa is already working on the other side. 

Love Elder Lethaby

Hi mom!

This week was a good week, love the general conference, President Nelson (prophet not mission president) keeping it fresh with some new changes out of nowhere. How do you say "maestro ministrante" in English (the new home teacher thing)? 

Liked President Nelsons talk about that and the stories that Elder Holland shared about home teachers that really ministered, and I agree that if we only do home teaching like a checklist, it doesn't really help much. A little over a year ago they made a similar change in the mission by getting rid of some key indicators like the number of lessons we teach and the number of people we contact, etc... and it has a made it so that the number of baptisms has gone up in our mission even though we have way less missionaries now. So I think it will help. The difference between administer and minister is actually a topic that Elder S and I studied about once a few months ago, very excited to apply it! 

In terms of our area, my new comp and I are working really well together, he's super super hard working. We have an investigator named G who is older, and suffers from anxiety and it affects her a lot. She likes the church a lot and has potential to be baptised this month, but sometimes she can't get out of bed in the mornings because of her sickness so please pray for her :) 

We also have an investigator named I who wants to get baptised and finally came to church for the first time after like a month of trying to come, she is excited but her dad doesn't let her go sometimes even though he's a member, pray for her too! 

Lots of good investigators, but we need the power of heaven to make it happen! 

This week was super catholic, so all of our investigators were out of town and we had a few days where we didn't have a single appointment, but the Lord blesses us with miracles and we found a few new investigatros and an awesome new family.

Have a good week!

Elder Lethaby

April 9, 2018

Hi mom :)

This week was really rewarding because almost all of the recent converts came to church with their families and we had like 20 people in the gospel principles class. There were about 5 who went to the class when we got here. Didn't have much luck with investigators, but I was able to see a much bigger picture than just the numbers we send to the ZLs on Sunday nights. Our first convert in this area (R) who´s dad has been working in the states pretty much her whole life went to church with the whole family, her dad finally came back! He seems like a very humble man who really wants to get as active in the church as he can because he knows his family needs it. I, another convert came to church with his girlfriend who he fully intends on marrying in the temple :) He also said that he got a job offer in Canada and accepted! So I might get to visit him more often and see him grow and serve in the church! 

My companion is doing awesome and teaching me a lot, I think I have talked to more people in these last 2 weeks than I had in the last 3 months haha which is saying a lot! He is pretty new in the mission and still needs to learn a lot but I have never seen someone with such a strong desire to do his best. He only gets sad when he feels like he didn't give his all that day. I like it because even though sometimes we have a hard day or week, there is always hope for tomorrow :) 

All good here, have a good week and I will send pics next week,

Love

Elder Lethaby

April 16, 2018

Hi Mom!

Gonna start with an awesome experience that we had this week:

A young man in our ward (the same one who gave the reference of K) called us and said that he had a referral. We went and visited her and had one of the most spiritual lessons of my mission. She told us that her mom is Christian, her dad is Catholic and that she sees both of them very happy in their religions and wants that happiness but hasn't felt it in any church yet. She obviously related very well with the Joseph Smith story and at the end of the lesson we invited her to pray and ask God. She received an answer right then and there. She started to cry and then accepted a baptismal date in 3 weeks. She went to a YSA activity and even though she had to work on Sunday, she went to church in Totolac and already asked her boss to get work off on Sundays. Huge miracle! Very strong YSA group in our ward too so she will fit right in. 

L (an investigator that we have been teaching for like 3 months but is finally progressing) came to church with her granddaughter this week and said she has even started to share the gospel with her family!

Crazy to hear about the new bishopric, is there a new young men's president then? We haven't heard about a new elders quorum president yet either but the stake president came to train us about how we are going to work as a quorum. 

I love my mission and all the people I have met here. I have learned, and keep learning a lot from all of them. My companions will be life long friends :) Big fan of Elder P. 

Love you and I'm happy your activity went so well!

Elder Lethaby

P.S. I bought 2 suits and a belt today. I know I don't need two suits but they were really cheap and nice (I paid a total of about $280 CAD I think for a Calvin Klein suit and another one as well and a very needed belt, you should see my current belt).

April 22, 2018

Hi MOM! 

This week the Lord kept it coming with the miracles. I´s (who got baptised like a month ago) mom called us up and pretty much said "I'm ready now". We went and taught her (she hadn't really accepted us much before) and she felt the spirit so strong that she cried in the prayer at the end. We taught her about the Atonement and how it can help her to overcome not only her sins but also her sickness, sadness, etc... and she has a sickness that the doctors have said she will never cure of, so it hit her hard. We then taught her that the atonement comes into play when we have faith, we repent, we are baptised, etc... so she accepted to be baptised! Doctrine that saves, lesson 3. Textbook.

Got to go work with Elder V (my son) this week in his new area where he is now senior companion and seems to be killing it. They opened area which can be kinda hard, but he already knows his area super well and had a backup plan right away for every appointment that fell through. They have people lined up to be baptised every week for the next month and a half. The young gun´s killing it. We also helped an investigator move from our area to their area (like an hour long trip) so he's into serving as well. Proud dad. 

I've been translating conference talks in my language study and I recommend one from Elder Uchtdorf called The Greatest Among You. Teaches a lesson I have been learning over the last 2 years. 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/04/the-greatest-among-you?lang=eng

Loving the mission, all good here, should be a great week. 

Love

Elder Lethaby 

Questions Answered

Do you ever speak English anymore?!

I speak English sometimes when I call an American elder or in intercambios, but maybe like once a day I speak English. 

How are your shoes holding up? Lots of walking in this area right now?

My shoes all have different kinds of holes and stuff. Lots of walking. I think I will be able to make it to the end with my current shoes though. 

Have you written down emails, etc. for companions, families, etc.? You won’t always have their LDS mail.

Not much honestly, trusting a lot in facebook for after the mission. 

Transfer?

I´m staying! Elder P 2.0 is here with me now, stay tuned in the big email. 

Have a spiritual moment you can share from this week?

I think it would be when Elder V was packing his bags for the transfer, he left a nice quad (scriptures) out, and when I asked him if he wanted to bring it with him, he said "no, I want to give it to A (a new investigator that went to church for the first time this week that we have only taught twice so far)". He felt a lot of love towards him and it didn't matter that he may never see him again. Great guy.

How much does disobedience affect a mission?

Interesting question. Sometimes there are disobedient missionaries that baptise a ton, and obedient missionaries that never baptise. The difference I think, is more in the personal progress of the missionary. Disobedient missionaries are never happy, they are prideful, and have no lasting change from their missions. 

Did people ask you to compare what your church does with Easter over what the Catholics do?

Ya they asked if we celebrate semana santa and I didn't remember how to say Easter in Spanish until they said it in conference so it was kinda hard to explain. 

How are the members helping you right now?

Lots of them have been giving us referral's without even asking this week which was awesome! The ones that are helping the most are the recent converts :) 2 YSA leaders who are converts of the last 4 months. 

Do you think President has high expectations of you?

Yes. He told me when he sent me to this area that he expects me to be baptising every week :O

Best moment of the week?

When I (convert from 2 weeks ago) told me he's probably going to move to Canada for his work in January! 

Did you get your Easter box? Oma sent liquorice and socks in it for you, along with all the other stuff from me.

No, but I did get dad's letter and a postcard fro Oma! Thanks a lot!

We get to Skype on Mother’s day - the 13th of May…just a heads-up! Will you be in a members home?

I don't know where I will be on the 13th, but I will keep you posted :)

Did the box arrive?

Not yet

Are you bringing your waffle iron home with you? You can probably gift that to the ward or something!! Just be sure to give them your secret recipe!

No I don't think so, if we have one at home I will leave it with someone

Did you try anything new this week? Teaching? Approach? Food?

We tried this one style of tacos called "Alambre" which I like a lot. It's like the meat is all fried up with peppers and cheese and spices. Big fan

Tell us about someone in the ward that you admire/look up to.

The O family. It's a family that some members had told us rumours about when we got to the area, but they have been the complete opposite. The dad went with us like 4 times this week to visit L who's his neighbour that is going to get baptised in 2 weeks and he brought us with some other less active families as well. Just super willing to help out whenever he can and never complains even though she wasn't there and we had to wait for her a couple of times.