Dear family and friends,

 

Well I just read the emails and heard the news about grandpa. I am sad to hear that he has passed on but it is a happy sad, one full of joy and of love and of hope. I am happy because I know that grandpa endured to the end, and he showed each one of us how to keep fighting and to enjoy life even through all of the times of adversity. I love that man, and I am going to miss him and his always happy and giving attitude. The great thing is though, is that I know I will see him again, I know that we will all see him again. Like it says in Alma 40 11 and 12 that in between the time of death and the Resurrection all men are taking up to the same God that gave them life, to be in His presence, I know that grandpa has been taking up and has been in the presence of God. And then it says all of those spirits that were righteous will receive a state of happiness, which they call paradise, a state of rest and of peace, a place where men will rest from all of there afflictions, their pains and their worries. I know that grandpa was righteous man and that right now he is in the spirit paradise, doing the work that continues after this life. He was a great example for us and I hope the we all can live worthily that when it comes our time to go to the other side we will able to be there with him in the spirit paradise and we can wait for the resurrection and the final judgement and live for eternity with him and with all of the family in the celestial kingdom. We've just got to keep living the gospel and fulfil with our covenants and with the commandments of God. So I am going to miss him a lot but I know that I am going to see him again and that grandpa is doing just fine over there, and I am going to keep on working as hard as i can to help some more families learn this same knowledge that we have as members of the church, and to help them become a forever family.

 Also, congratulations Heather and Chase on the marriage. I hope that everything went well at the wedding and that you guys enjoyed the day. Sounds like it was a great spiritual experience at the temple and that everything after went well too, so congratualions! Also, mom happy birthday! I hope you have a great birthday today and that you guys do something fun, like maybe go cross country skiing or something ok? But seriously happy birthday mom. Well I will just give you a quick update on whats going on here. Yesterday we had a lesson with Ana, she is the one that will be getting baptized this month, she is super awesome. We taught her tithing and fast offerings yesterday, and when we started the lesson I asked her what she had learned from reading the pamphlet, she basically explained the whole thing and told us that she was going to pay her tithing and fast offerings. And all of that happened before we had even explained what tithing and fast offerings are. After we got done teaching the lesson she said the prayer and she thanked God for sending us her way to help her get on the right path. She said that before when her son was on the mission, he would always invite her to come to church and she would always say to him that Sunday was her only day to wash and that she needed to cook and stuff so she never went. And then she told us that when we passed by a couple weeks ago she decided that this was her time that she needed to put her whole heart into the gospel and get baptized. She started tearing up and was basically thanking us for finding her and getting her on the path that leads back to God and it made me cry because I felt the Spirit and I knew that it was the Spirit had led us to her. It was probably one of the greatest experiences that I have had on the mission. Anyways, I hope that everyone is doing good back home with the news, know that I love you all and I hope that we can draw closer to the Savior through this experience. Have a good week.

 

Elder Wadman