Workin

Hello Friends and Family!

I apologize for this email, but it is going to be a short one. We have been working hard this week and that's really all I have to share! We work, work, work, and work. We are super excited this week because we will finally be able to move up to our area! That should allow us to teach for another 3 hours in the evening and not have to leave so early in the morning. We should hopefully be able to start teaching more families and focusing on finding people to build up the church!

I have been reading the Bible lately to try and refresh myself on all of the proselyting skills I've kinda lost lately. I really enjoy it because I realized that I have been taught so much doctrine over the years as I have gone to church, but never know where to find it. I keep coming across things in the Bible that ring a bell in my mind and connect that doctrine to the verses I am reading. It's so cool! It's actually really hard for me to study lately, most likely a mix of me just wanting to go out and talk to people and because of all the little tasks buzzing around in my head; but every time I can get my mind isolated enough to learn from the scriptures, I feel that the "eyes of my understanding were opened," and I can understand the things of God so clearly. I get a very similar feeling when I can write and explain my thoughts on paper and share those things that are in my mind, but it is slightly different when we are partaking of the words that someone else has written with that same Spirit. It's so wonderful that we have these things available to us.

I read a few verses in Mormon the other day that really interested me. In the last chapter of Mormon, chapter 9, Mormon finishes his record by explaining the way they wrote their records.

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30 Behold, I speak unto you as though I spake from the dead; for I know that ye shall have my words.

 31 Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been.

 32 And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.

 33 And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record.

 34 But the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof.

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Having learned a second language, I can understand exactly what Mormon is concerned about. Seeing how things work here, many people write in English rather than write in lengthy Ilonggo or Tagalog. So as the language of Lehi and his family developed, they started using that shorter language, egyptian, to write easier. He probably wasn't confident in his Egyptian writing, seeing as they spoke mostly Hebrew. It's so wonderful to know that even these great men had their insecurities and difficulties, just like us. And I think it's more amazing that, just as Mormon said, "he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof." God know what he meant when he wrote and allowed that spirit to be preserved across translations. I am so grateful that they wrote for us even though he wasn't confident.

I invite you all to read that passage! I don't have any more time so I hope you all learn what I learned!

Take care!

Elder Welton