Spike's Letter 3/20

Hey well i know that it is Thursday, but we got permission to write a QUICK note today to our families cause the internet church service was not working yesterday for like half of the missionaries in the world, so that was horrible and depressing. I was not able to respond to dads or jons or brynnes or moms e mails. I have to do it all in one but I will try to write more to each of you this next week. I am so sorry I feel bad. But I am glad that everyone is doing way awesome. This weekend is the big horn show so that should be a blast also. Tell dad if it is not to late to bring in my duck mount there and show it off if he can. I think it is to late cause it is Thursday and it usually starts today but it would just be cool. I am jealous I am missing it. Mike wrote me and it sounded like he loved the hunters party and loved the seminars also. Sounds like everyone has been getting the flu this last week. That is horrible. Remember dad and mom when I got the flu this same week last year and I was in mikins old room and could not move and katelyn came over and stuff and I missed the big horn show? It is hard to believe that it has already been a year. Crazy. I hope this year passes that fast also. But I hope that everyone is getting better and I hope that asa did not get it! That would not be good at all. It must have been a bad one if dad got it. Holy smokes. He never gets sick…..only now that he is getting up´there. Just joking dad. Well how are the other pregnant girls doing. Liz and cassie. I hope that they are doing well and they are in my prayers. It will be weird to see these kids when I get back. They will be walking and talking. But anyways. I GOT YOUR PACKAGES A WEEK AGO. After I got off the internet I had a branch missionary meeting with the pres and he had three packages for me. Two of them were from you guys and the other was from lori. It had some of the jenny Phillips cd´s that I like that I can listen to..(I love the new jack Johnson cd, he he) but I love the stuff you sent. I cut my own hair that night and have already cut like 6 other missionaries hair here in the boa vista zone. It is going to good use. I even oil the thing. Ya I know I am good. It is amazing how much more things mean to you when you do not have a lot. I love the watere bottle filled with skitltles and reeces pieces too. It is so good. My comp is in love with them cause they do not have that kind of candy here. They have like no candy here as a matter of fact. Lots of fruit and fish. But anyways thank you for the thngs that you sent. It could not have come at a better time. I was going to by soap and bar of soap and just everything that day but I got your package. Ilove the dial soap. It is the best and is already clearing up some zits. Thank you so much. Well it is starting winter here. It is raining a lot more and is still hot though. I actually think that it is hotter when it rains cause the water evaporates like instantly and makes it hot on the asphalt. But things are good here. The zone conference went awesome. We learned about the 3 dindoms of glory and the things that are required for them. It was good. My interview went awesome also. I did really good. Like I could just speak in portugues. Like my pres asked about some of the families that we have been teaching and baptized and I was just able to talk to him like normal and explain the situations and make up plans for the families to help them progress and such. He said I am really close to being fluent. And I said thanks but I have to keep studying and working and learning everyday like I am doing. It was a good thing to hear though that he thinks I am doing really well. The baptisms went really well also. We had baptisms for two 12 and 13 year old girls. The friends of some girls that we have previously baptized. It was awesome. I don’t know if I can send all of my baptisimal pics cause it will be really expensive but I can try to develp some cool ones and send them sometime during the week. I will try. Oh happy b day brynne. I wrote you a letter and sent it like last week I think so I hope you get it soon. It may be after your b day but it is the thought that counts I think. I tried. You know how much you mean to me. Love you sis. Well I have some more interviews from 3 baptisms we have this week. Maybe 5 I have to see if some of the people are home or in Guyana this week on a vacation. But it should be awesome either way. The lord is really blessing me here. Blessing the work. Like jon said in his e mail to me. It is the work of our father in heaven. No matter how homesick I may get and everything I will miss the mission that much more cause the impact that I make everyday on peoples lives is truly amazing. It is totally in the effort to gather isreal. It is such a blessing to see peoples lives change. Especially families. How greatful they are for you and how happy they become it is so beautiful. It is so hard to explain. I guess you have to be the one who teaches them and see them come up straight way out of the water and see their faces glow and their eyes twinckle. It is something that I would not pay anything for or trade for anything in the world. I love the work. It can be hard, but without a sacrifice there is no reward. It requires sacrifice. I love this gospel. I love it and I live it. So many people I notice are two faced and ùtah mormons´but just how great the gospel it and how much more it means to you when you live it. There may be some things that are hard to live, some law or something that you have had some trouble with your whole life, but when we humble ourselves and we follow his plan-then is when we receive the greatest happiness, then is when we find true joy and show our faith in him. We need to do these things. Like I always tell the investigators, god gives us commandment to bless us. When we follow them we are blessed in this life more than we know, and we are also blessed in the
world to follow. For the ETERNITIES. How mind boggling is that. Just think of that. Everything that we do on this earth will be reflected for forever. How much greater sense of urgency is there to do good to choose the right than this. We need to choose the right, we need to humble ourselves(READ MOSIAH 2) and we need to take advantage of the atonement of jesus Christ everyday!!! we need to water our pillows at night as do the phrophets of god , in thanks to our heavenly father for the lives that we have the lives that we live. He has given us everything. The least we can do is live his gospel and be a profitable servant. As we do so we will be blessed, our familys, our friends, and who knows how many generations down the line. It all started somewhere, with once choice, when someone decied to follow the straight way of jesus Christ(2Nephi31) that we have the gospel in our family. That we have the truth that we have the true and everliving gospels in ouir homes. We have the priesthood in our homes. Let us all be missionaries. Lets be profitable servants of our heavenly father, lets make a covenant with our heavenly father to do so and strive to do so continually. As we do this we will be blessed and we will secure our spot with our brother jesus Christ in the mansions of our father for eternity. Let us choose the right. Lets us make a commitment everyday to read the scriptures and live our lives in accordance to his gospel is my prayer for us. I love you all so much. Sorry I was not able to write more to you guys this week. My heart is just so full. I am just wanting to tear into the streets and to share the gospel with everyone in my path, because everyone NEEDS what message we have. The people there in cda likewise. I am In love with the gospel. I am in love with living it. I am in love with being a servant of him who blesses me and gives me the opportunity to participate in this great work. I love the gospel. I know and testify of its velitity. I love it and I love the message of the restauration also. How could someone deny it? Joseph smith did suffer bleed and die for what he believed to be true and knew was right as so did our redeemer. He saw god the father and the son, he saw peter james and jon, Elijah and many administering angles. I know this. The spirit has born witness of it to me as I have searched for an answer. Know and ye shall receive. If we want to know, we must knock, otherwise there is no reason for our father in heaven to tell us. We must show our faith first. Okay I have to stop I am rambling and just am so full. I love you guys and just have an awesome week. I am jealous that your going claming. I would love that. I will go when I get back. Ps I want to go to utah valley state college. Kate is working on it some I guess she is the bestat all that kind of stuff. Its in good hands. I want to get going right when I get back. I love you so much and god bless. My thoughts and prayers are with you always.

Elder gatten

Hey little nieces and nephews I love you guys!!!