LOTS OF GREAT COUNSEL AND TEACHING

November 16, 2010 Letter
Dear Family,
How is life treating you? It is great for me. Although time is just flying by so fast! It feels like I've been writing home every other day! Not that that's bad but I just can't believe how fast a week goes by!
Emma, I was glad to hear that you're in the habit of writing me every Sunday! I do know Hugoton and Ulysses pretty well now! In fact, I know it better than some people who have lived here a while.
Thanks for your letter Sam. You are welcome for your b-day letter. I'm glad you enjoyed the confetti! Don't even ask how I got the m&m's into your jar from Kansas. Just know that I am that good! Congrats on the drivers license! I had to read that over a few times before it sunk in! That is awesome!
Thank you for your letter mom. It was interesting as I read the pattern that you found as you studied about Ruth. That same pattern has been covered quite a bit in my recent meetings. I've been working on making that pattern a part of who I am too!
I liked that phase you shared, "Fear not, fret not." I may put that on the front of one of my planners!
Man, that's cool about Derric. Not my cup of tea but I think he'll do great. That's neat. So how long will he be gone before he can communicate with home?
Well, you wanted to hear about what I got out of all my meetings I've had recently. Zone Conference was great. President spent quite a bit of time talking to those of us that go home after July...which is when the Pfiles go home and we get a new Mission President. He told us we need to step it up because we are the future leaders of this mission.
The assistants (AP's) talked about how our mind set and attitude affect others. We both need to be positive or they will cancel each other out.
Elder Nelsons meeting was really good. That was the second time that I got to listen to him and shake his hand on my mission. The first time was at a Pueblo Stake Conference. Elder Jensen and Elder Hilliard also came on Sunday. It was awesome. Elder Nelson walks very fast! That's one thing I noticed!
Sister Pfile spoke first. She focused on the fact that it's the small choices that we make that determine the great outcome of who we are. Something else that she said that I liked was, "The Atonement makes the world make sense." It's true. Without the Atonement none of this would make sense at all.
President Pfile talked about how we need to step outside of our comfort zone a little more. We should never be comfortable or content. Those feelings don't promote gorwth.
Elder Hilliard spoke about how because of our setting apart as missionaries we have the right and responsibility to represent Jesus Christ. He also talked to us about how the scriptures have a depth, height and width that we don't realize. That is why we get something new every time we read them.
Something he suggested we do to appreciate the "word" better is to read Alma 31-34 and completely ignore the verses. Treat it like a conference talk. Also replace the word seed with word. I'm excited to see what I get out of it.
Elder Nelson spoke on a few things. He also spoke about how prayer and hymns are an important combination. He said, "We forfeit strength when we doubt."
And, " When you get direction from your leaders don't put a question mark behind it, put an exclamation point behind it and the go get to work."
Also, "If you love the Lord first then your capacity to love increases. Love is vertical first."
He also told us not to be homesick. He said that he knew our parents love and miss us but he said, "Trust me, the last place they want you right now is home." Then he read D&C 31. Don't worry. I'm not homesick. I love my mission!
So no for leadership training. It was good as well. One of the first things President said was, "You haven't seen anything yet." He was referring to our missions. He said that this mission is going to see greater things than it's ever seen.
We talked about a lot of things but we seemed to talk about the word 'believe' alot. President kept asking, "Do you believe?" He said we limit ourselves too often by our unbelief.
Here are a few President Pfile quotes:
1) If we love the Lord then we will conform to His will. We will not seek to conform His will to ours.
2) I don't care how tough it gets. Dog on it...don't give up.
3) All the blessings of the Atonement can only come when we are living all of the principles of the gospel.
4) Give the Holy Ghost time to speak.
5) Be grateful for hard things...they cause you to call upon God.
6) Where there is no challenge there is no backbone.
7) There's nothing that makes you happier than work.
Those are just a few. He told us that the time is coming in this mission when we will be so busy we won't be able to keep up! He said that we'll have to ask God to magnify our time. That will be exciting!
The coolest thing about the Leadership Training was the fact that Kurtis Pugh was there! (That young man that Elder Oakes and I baptized my first transfer.) He is getting ready to go on his mission around the first of the year so he got permission to come to the training. He was answering questions, doing role plays, teaching people, and other stuff. It was so awesome. I got to talk with him for a little bit. He is doing so good.
Well, we tracted into a couple the other day in Hugoton. They are Baptists, both really nice. We taught them the Restoration and they agreed to read a pray about the Book of Mormon. We're going back to see them this Friday. I hope all goes well.
We had dinner with a less active family a couple days ago. It was a crazy dinner. The husband is anti-Mormon and the wife and daughter are Mormon. When we showed up the husband was watching Transformers and he didn't turn it off when they asked us to sit down on the couch. Luckily the daughter had two friends over so we talked to them instead of watching the movie. One of the friends was pretty quiet but the other was crazy! She was only about 12 or 13 but she could speak English, Spanish, German, Vietnamese and Cherokee! She could also very accurately mimik the sound of a dog, cat, elephant, monkey and newborn baby. She can also play the cell, piano, flute and she can sing very well. She was so smart! And very funny as well.
So one of the young women in the Hugoton ward gave us a referral. Her boyfriend. We're going to meet with him this Friday. We're super excited. She can't wait for us to talk to her boyfriend. Should be good.
Well, I better get this in the mail to you all.
Love you!
Love Elder Cryer