Missions and Mantles

Monday, February 25, 2013

I hope my next companion loves studying as much as Elder T and I do.  This morning I finished up my study on Mosiah chapter 2.  It took me 2 and a half days haha, but I learned so much!  I love King Benjamin.  Our studies always correlate super well, so we have awesome companion studies, it's sweet, we never have time to finish all we want to do.

We had some awesome miracles this week!

 

Mitch was baptized!  Everything about this man is a miracle, he's awesome.  His baptism was really special, the spirit was so strong.  When I get home, remind me to tell you about his new sweater and kicks :)  He has one of the purest hearts I've ever met, he is so excited about his baptism, I wish you could all meet him

(sometimes I pretend I write this email only to Mom, other times I pretend I write it to a few hundred people haha)

Chris got baptized as well, he's a great kid.  He loves the gospel, and knows it a whole lot better than I did at his age. Actually a whole lot better than I did until I went on a mission haha.  But he is NOT looking forward to primary.  Poor kid is 11, turns 12 soon, and thinks Primary is for babies :)

I only have a couple minutes left, I want to talk real fast about something. definitely don't have time to add the scripture references or go in depth or anything, but maybe some missionaries entering the field soon might want to hear this. 

 

Being a missionary is AMAZING for a lot of reasons, but one of my favorites is you get the mantle of a missionary.  It's an awesome, and frequently misunderstood, concept.  One way I like to think about it is like a huge, oversized breastplate.  When you first become a missionary, you have a lot of added responsibility because of your mantle, but the truth is you dont have the muscle (teaching skills, scripture knowledge, etc) to fill it out.  On your mission, your mantle gives you a lot of added grace to become more than what you were.  After your mission, you hand back the breastplate, and keep all the muscle you built while wearing it. Build all the muscle you can, it's priceless.

 

Missions are the absolute best.  Elder T and I talk all the time about it, and our consensus is the same.  My mission is the best thing that's ever happened to me, it's the best thing I've ever done, and I'm so glad I have 10 months left.  Poor Elder T only has 6.