A TIME OF GROWTH AND A CHALLENGE TO EVERYONE

Dear Fams~
Hey, so we had a baptism last Saturday. I told you that story I think. It was awesome.
Thanks for the pics too. I do like getting pictures.
Have you heard about The Incline here in Colorado. I guess it's a trail up this really steep part of a hill and it's exactly one mile long. If you're really good you can do it in about 15-25 minutes. I want to do it but you have to be serving in the Mountain Shadows area. I hope I get to serve there and see what my time is.
Wow, thanks for that quote by Parley P. Pratt. That is an awesome quote. I'm already making copies of it for other Elders. They all love it. It's crazy how the spirit can even affect our physical selves. It's pretty amazing. It's an awesome gift that we've been given.
"The gift of the Holy Spirit adapts itself to all these organs or attributes. It quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections; and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation and social feeling. It develops and invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, invigorates, and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being." Parley P Pratt
So, guess what! A few days ago I went on team-ups with Elder Halladay. As we were talking and getting to know each other I found out that he is 19 years old [me too]
(he came out one transfer after me) and he was born in Chico California [me too] AND he knows the Keables! [me too] He said he used to play violin with Jordan. [me too, play the violin] Isn't that crazy? Such a small world. It was awesome!
Elder Torres and I were out tracting in Falcon the other day and we found this one guy who said that we could come back. So today we sacrificed some of our P-day to go and teach him. He is awesome! We taught him the first lesson and asked him, when he came to know that this church is true, through prayer, if he would be baptized on the 25th of February. He said he would, if he knew it is true. We promised him that if he really wanted to know then he would receive an answer.
He told us that he didn't like how a lot of churches baptized babies. He said that he thought that people should wait until they're old enough to choose for themselves. We said, "Hey! Us too!"
We're going back over there on Thursday and he's going to try and get his wife and three sons to sit in too! I'm really looking forward to it.
Also, today we cleaned our apartment. I know, fun huh! I swept and mopped and Elder Torres vacuumed. Now our apartment is all nice and clean.
I've had some challenging times lately and your right mom, they really do help to make us grow stronger and to put our trust with the Lord. Missions really do give us plenty of opportunities to learn and I am doing everything I can to be humble and learn from these experiences. But I'm still loving my mission...Don't mistake that!
So, Emma, in your last letter you asked me about how to remember your goals as you go throughout the day. To be honest, that is one of the hardest things for me. I'm still trying to work on it. There are a couple of things you can try though.
The first, of course, is prayer. Ask Heavenly Father to help you remember the goals you have set as you go through the day. Another thing that you could try is setting an alarm on your watch to go off about halfway through the day to remind you to look at your goals and see how you're doing so far. It can be hard though...I know what you mean!
That's cool what you learned about testimonies in seminary. It's true. When you have a true testimony you can't help but share it, whether it be in word or deeed, because it's not just something you have...it's who you are. It's pretty amazing. But yeah, I know what you mean about Fast Sunday. In fact, looking back, I was a horrible example of bearing my testimony. I was always to chicken to get up and share it. But being a missionary I have to do it every month (well, alot more than that, but once a month in Fast and Testimony meeting) and guess what?! It's not that bad at all! In fact, I have a great idea! We get a lot of practice committing people as missionaries and so what do you think about this...(And this goes for everyone who wants to take the challenge)...Will you bear your testimony every Fast Sunday until I get home? That comes out to be 19 times. Let me know what you think in your next letter.
So that's crazy about that pizza place downtown. Twenty-four bucks for four people to eat and leave a tip. What's it called? That sounds tastey. And yes, I do remember those Costco Ice-cream bars! That was funny how we switched driving right on the side of Beltline Hwy, or was it the on ramp? Either way, good times!
That's neat about Enoch and Cain. Goes to show you how important it is to pay attention to and follow the words of Christ. We'll be safe if we do.
Well, I'm so glad to hear that you are all doing well and seeing such great blessings. Thanks again for your prayers for me. I can sure see the results of your faith and prayers here in Calhan Colorado right now! We have so much work to do! It's awesome. I feel blessed to be a part of it.
Well, I guess I'll stop blabbing now! I'll keep you posted on the person we are teaching.
Love you all a ton~
Ben