And no I did
not say that I was 145 I said that I was 175 when I started and now I am 185.
You think I was THAT skinny when I left for the mission? Is my accent that hard
to understand on the voice recording? haha. I have another voice recording and
if you have any questions just ask,
becasue sometimes I talk about stuff without elaborating,and I can imagine it
might be hard to follow without being properly informed about certain things. I
also am not very good about remembering things in the week without being
questioned, or having my memory jogged. You will probably hear about many parts
of the mission after I get back because I am so bad at remembering details
during email time. But any way , Iove you and hope your week has been awesome.
Dad,---That sounds like it was a good 5th sunday lesson. And yes I am familiar
with the karate kid, notwithstanding my lack of age and wisdom. It is very true
that we must be obedient as a result for our love and gratitude towards God,
instead of following a commandment because of the temporal blessing or
consequence. For example, most people will not follow the Word of Wisdom just
because you tell them that it is a commandment of God. What people want and
expect is some sort of temporal incentive. The fact is, it doesnt matter
whether studies show that a cup of coffee a day is good for your health, or
that a cup of wine per day betters heart health. What matters is that our
abstaining from those substances is something that God requires of us.
Sometimes we must do things that we dont understand fully because they are
commandments of the Lord. Nothing (from God) that is required of us will not
lead to our well being. It is easy to rationalize our deviance from a
commandment because our lack of understanding of it, but I know that if we
follow the orders of the Lord we will be blessed. This last week we found out
that we are no longer allowed to have MP3 devices, Ipods Etc. As devastating
that is to me, I know that I must comply, so I had to say goodbye to my Ipod
until August of next year.
AUG 5, 2012 Well
to answer your last question first the next transfer date is today, and well, I
was transferred to Santa Maria to be in the Santa Marta zone. Im a bit excited
but I really wanted to stay here in Ijuí to help all of the awesome people we
have met get baptized. But I know that Elder Glazier will do well here without
me. That little trip to the lake house sounded like a lot of fun, but thats too
bad that you left your books and stuff. Just study as best you can the material
really gets easier the more you go. Theres also one more thing I would like in that
package if it is not too much. It is a book by Truman G. Madsen Called ´´Joseph
Smith the Prophet´´. I would like to have that if it is at all possible. They
have it in paperback. Dont get it confused with ´´The life and teachings of
Joseph Smith´´, by the same author. Your talk looks pretty good as well, I wish
I could have been there to hear it. But I sent most of the stuff about the week
in an email to Rachel, so you can read that one, sorry! Im kind of pressed for
time. But oh, I am so happy for Brant! He is going to LOVE serving in the
states. It may not seem as exotic or as cool serving in the US but there are
many many elders who would like to have the nice and cushy life in a stateside
mission haha. But I can deal without AC for the next little bit. But also he is
going to love being a missionary and everything. Also I want his adress ASAP
Aug 13, 2012 Dear Dad,----Thats good to get a new
family in the ward, to help strengthen things up and get some new candidates
for the church callings. That investigator sounds like she is pretty golden,
which means that she is the kind of investigator that every missionary wants to
have. I have met a few investigators like that. She seems to really have a
broken heart and a contrite spirit and has real intent as it says in Moroni
10:4. Im sure the Elders are super Excited with that family. Hows the rest of
the ward doing? My new ward in the mission is one of the best in the mission!
there are about 150 active members that comprehend clearly the gospel and all
of its principles and how the church is supposed to work. The bishop here is
really awesome as well and the ward members and ward mision leader have already
helped us a ton. Im really excited to be here in the Santa Marta ward and hope that I will be here
for much much more time. Thats very probable. We are also working with a part
member/less active family at the moment.
It has been many many years since the mom was baptised. She came to
church yesterday and really liked it, so did her son. She is almost like a
nonmember because she doesnt remember anything about the church so we have to
teach her everything all over again. This gospel is truly marvelous. It was no
joke when Joseph Smith was told that a marvelous work and a wonder was about to
come forth. I love being here serving the lord, although it is a bit difficult.
Dear Mom,I know how you feel, my week was also quite rushed
and difficult. Right when I got into Santa Maria we had to head out to teach
lessons, etc. My companion is a fairly newbie american and so he didnt really
know what was going on or much about the ward, investigators, etc, but we found
our way around pretty well. Because my companion is not familiar with the
availability of the inveswtgators/ members and such we were running around the
area quite a bit, but we ended up being able to get a lot of lessons in. To add
to that I have to worry about the rest of my district and how they are doing
etc, so I had to call and advise them every once in a while to make sure that
they are doing well. I went to bed everynight thinking about how I can help my
district and our investigators etc and woke up thinking about the same thing.
Lots to think about here on the mission , but it isnt too bad. Im really
excited to be able to fly the Cherokee. And does this mean that I will be able
to take the Citabria up to BYU with me after I get current on my liscence? Im
sure you will do fine on your test, but make sure you study and fly a ton,
because if not it gets really annoying trying to get the liscence with a due
date. like I had to do before the
mission. Do you think that Kortney is
going to end up getting married to that guy? Tell her to wait until at least
august 13 of next year to get married. I might actually wear Red skinny jeans. Well
burgundy probably, I think red is a little too conspicuous. And I wouldnt fit
into skinny jeans so it would have to be regular looking jeans for a normal
person that would fit me like skinny jeans.
Santa Maria is awesome and I am
really liking it a ton. It is the biggest city on our mission with 300,000
people or so. The ward, like I said is really awesome here and this is always
an area that the Elders want to pass through. There wernt a ton of
investigators when I got here and we lost a few more because we challenged them
to baptism and they refused, and of course, when that happens he have to stop
visiting them, at least for the moment. We do have some pretty good people that
we are working with though. My companion is Elder Jensen, he is from California
and has like 3 months on the mission. He has a bit of trouble with the language,
but he is learning very quickly. Well I hope that you are all well and I love
you! -Elder Eskildsen p.s. I am
opening a P.O. box for my district here in a few days, so if you want to send
me anything wait until next monday and I will tell the new adress. ThanksSanta Maria as seen from my area
