Sanderson
Family, 01/02/2013
Happy New
Years! Hope everyone's Holiday season was wonderful! Thank you for the awesome
Christmas presents. I love my new quad, and all the other Elders love the
basketball hoop...not sure the people below us are too fond of it though. Thank
you all so much.
For New
Years we had what we called a "Celestial P-Day". The Laredo Zone met
at the church and spent the entire afternoon playing basketball and volleyball.
It was a nice break from soccer...don't get me wrong, soccer is awesome but its
way out of my element. Everyone makes fun of me because while playing I always
guard people like I would in basketball. So yeah it was fun to actually play
something I was familiar with. Later
that night we watched the movie "Forever Strong" and then went
straight home. President wanted us inside at all times because it gets pretty
crazy. To celebrate the Hispanics here love to shot bullets up in the air. From
inside our apartment it sounded like a war was going on outside haha.
Since it
was the Holiday season many of our investigators spent the festivities over in
Mexico. It sorta sucks because we had to drop them because we have lost contact
with them for over a week. They said that they would get back sometime this
week so hopefully we can pick them back up and start of the New Year with some
baptisms. This week we found a sweet
Part-member family that we are now working with. Brother Medrano's (forgot his
first name haha) Family are all very active members and we finally got him to
commit to a baptismal date on February 3rd. Keep him in your prayers please. He
is an awesome guy and wants an eternal family but struggles at times with the
Word of Wisdom. Many missionaries have tried in the past but have given up on
him because he keeps relapsing. He made
us promise that we wouldn't give up on him we are all praying for some divine
help.
Lately I
have been studying some of Elder Maxwell's talks and here are some of my
favorite quotations from him. Andele!
“God does not begin by asking
us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our
dependability, he will increase our capability.”
“The submission of one's will
is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God's altar. The
many other things we 'give' are actually the things He has already given or
loaned to us.”
“Each of us is an innkeeper who
decides if there is room for Jesus!”
"If
we are serious about our discipleship, Jesus will eventually request each of us
to do those very things which are most difficult for us to do.”
“If, in the end, you have not
chosen Jesus Christ it will not matter what you have chosen.”
“If the kingdom of God is not
first, it doesn't matter what's second.”
“In the economy of Heaven, God does
not send thunder if a still, small voice is enough, or a prophet if a priest
can do the job.”
“Discouragement is not the
absence of adequacy but the absence of courage.”
“God, as a loving Father, will
stretch our souls at times. The soul is like a violin string: it makes music
only when it is stretched. . . . God will tutor us by trying us because He
loves us, not because of indifference!”
Hopefully
some of these have helped you focus on what is truly important... I wish you
all the best! In the spirit of "New Years resolutions" let us resolve
to deepen our own conviction and conversion of this wonderful restored gospel
and our Savior Jesus Christ. Let us heed the council of Helaman when he reminds
them to fortify themselves. "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it
is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must
build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds,
yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm
shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the
gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built,
which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot
fall." The word “shall” is mandatory. At
one time or another, each of us experiences the winds of adversity. Some, when faced with adversity and darkening
clouds, end up in the “gulf of misery and endless wo,” while others choose to stand and endure. There they encounter the beautiful sunshine
of a more abundant life, full of sunshine, joy, and personal growth. The challenge for each is essentially the
same, but the final destination is so different. What makes the difference?
Attitude
affects destiny.
When all
else seems to fail, we can take comfort that He will not. He will support
us...but we must let him. Let us come unto him in this great year of 2013. We
live in a time and land full of miracles! Now let us be worthy and prepared to
receive them.
con amor
Elder Craig
Sanderson
Texas
McAllen Mission
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