Spike's Letter 5/28 "Wud up World"

Where to start....it seems like so much happens week in and week out there is an endless supply of things to talk about, and to mention! Everyone is caught up in what we call life huh?! Craziness. Life if so full of highs and lows, but somehow, no matter what happens, it keeps on keeping on. It gives me comfort knowing that no matter what happens, no matter what challenges we face in this life, as we put our trust in the lord and exercise our faith, we will make it threw whatever! He is there, he is by our side. He answers our prayers; he opens the heavens and blesses us. His hands catch our tears, and his arms are open to catch us when we fall. That is true comfort. I love the light that the gospel brings into our lives. The happiness, joy, affection, perspective, and so much more. That’s why I guess it’s perfect huh? How blessed we are now, and how eternally blessed we will be as we live our lives in accordance with its precepts, doctrines, principles, and make the covenants essential to receive our promised blessings. I love the gospel. I love my heavenly father, and our savior Jesus Christ. I love the book of Mormon, the fruit of the prophets of the American continents. I love Joseph smith, and those who not only sacrificed but suffered pains, even death, to bring to the knowledge the restoration of the true gospel of Jesus Christ once again on the earth. with the authority of god, and yet another prophet to open the last of 7 or so dispensations of the fullness of the gospel again on the earth. I love the prophet today. He speaks with god, and receives revelations for the world in our last days. You know the scripture that says that god will not reveal anything without his servants the prophets. How blessed we are to have that connection with the heavens. I love everyone. I love you all I love the opportunity that I have today, in this probationary state, to prepare to meet my father in heaven. I faith, that someday my preparation will pay off as I will be able to look at him face to face and have a clean conscience, clean hands, and a pure heart. And who knows bathe his feet with my tears?! It will be a joyous day. It should be and can be for everyone. Lately I have had some trouble…I don’t know what but I have. Just feeling weird. I have been praying for comfort, and asking my heavenly father to calm my nerves. What I have learned though, and it hit me today as I have been talking to mom is that I need not ask my father and heaven not to comfort me, but to give me the strength to forget myself and to enthrall myself into the service of others. That is where you find true happiness, and where you find yourself. I need to exercise my faith that he will calm me, but faith without works is dead. So I need to get out there and just teach like teach a BILLION TRILLION lessons and commit a thousand people to baptism. That is what makes me feel better. That is what brings me to an ultimate state of humility and happiness. To feel the spirit work through me and bear witness of the truthfulness of the gospel to hearts of others. Literally sometimes just seeing the spirit light up the investigators eyes and know that the spirit carried the message into the hearts of the children of god. I have a testimony that the spirit can truly guide our lives, the literal path we take, and fill our mouths with what needs to be said, as we live worthy of its companionship. We need to live worthy of it always, because you never know when you will run into someone who will accept or reject the gospel based upon your preparation and your personal testimony and worthiness. It is so easy. Just live the gospel. Forget the things of the world. Turn your hearth might and mind to the lord. Teach your family every Monday night, go to church, be examples, read the scriptures, refrain from the temptations from the devil. Do not put your self into the position to be tempted. Be prepared for it and have it already made up in your mind that you will not fall victim to his enticing. Like the scriptures say many times, as you commit little sins that seem like nothing, he is gradually binding you his until the day where you will become subject to his loveless command. I know that we can become greater than we know. We have the help of a celestial being…all we have to do is put our live on the straight and narrow and follow the enticing of the spirit. Heavenly father has a plan for each of us, but we have to live worthy for it to come to pass. Example: our patriarcle blessings. They are totally based on our worthiness. I know that our heavenly father loves us. I know families can be together forever. I know that my family is one chosen for this last dispensation because we are strong. Everyone of us. We are leaders. He has a plan for us. Lets be instruments in his hands, tools in his work. Put your trust in god!
I love you guys so much. I want our family to be together for forever. How awesome is that? Seriously? Anyways, it sounds like everyone had an incredible weekend at the St. Jizzoe!!!! Yeah! Your all studs. Bearing the FREEZING water to get a little rush, and being crazy! Ha ha. Sounded like the water level was perfect after it had dropped a little bit. Lucky river rates! Sounds like some people fell out and jon went solo in a raft for a bit. Ha ha. He is getting initiated. Made some good runs anyways it sounds like. I’m glad all I have to do is miss one more then ill be back! Yeah! But it sounded like nice weather for the most part too. Only rained a day or so. That is totally unusual. I remember last year it rained like the whole entire time. Ha. I freaking loved it too. I love being crazy and putting my life on the line. Its all about the rush. We need another little red. Ha. Old times. I heard that brett bought another big wall tent. That is ridiculously sweet. Like I cannot even explain it. He knows how to spend his money baby! The Montana trip will be out of this world no joke. Like 3 wall tents and just nuts! Look like a real outfit! Ha ha. Gosh I have an awesome family. Lots of people made it up there too. Some newbies too. That’s cool. Gramps also. Sounded like everyone enjoyed it. Mom spent some time on the 4 wheeler with the grand kids, as did brynne and dad. Zoey even found a nice white tail shed. That is our of this world huh. That’s a good shed huntin dog. I have heard of them goin for big money. That’s a cool journal entry to write about. I heard that lots went to the St. Maries branch on the Sabbath also. That is cool. I love going to other smaller branchs and such. It gives you a real shout out that the church is not the same everywhere. It varies a lot ya know. It is interesting. The message is the same though, and the people are as giving as ever. Then everyone went and shot some and brett got a ton of wood for the house and the camp. You guys were busy! Ha. Did anyone get to go bear hunting at all with Jamie? Did you guys see him? How is he, the family, and the kids there? Hows his coffee shop going? Miss that son of a gun. How was the pot luk on Sunday? I remember that we always had one and I loved the pineapple upside down cake. Trust me I was thinking of it all the way down here on Sunday cause I knew you all were having it! Ha! MEMORIES. When you think of memories they are so awesome in a way….they save my life sometimes, but also they can haunt you. Make you uneasy. Overall though, way to go family, you made it our alive yet again. You survive the ST. JOE!!!
So it sounds like mom and dad are super busy with the trek coming up here in a couple weeks now. Time has flown, the preparations made, and now it’s just waiting lift off huh. It is a big deal. I hope that Scotty will be able to go as he has been sick with the shingles as of late. That is horrible. That stupid kid that gave him it should have never come to school with chicken pox. What a freaking num skull. Some people are retarded. No common sense. But I hope that everything goes awesome. Lots of work and sacrifice has gone into it. Dad is going to spend this whole weekend getting ready for the thing. Talk about dedication. He is so dedicated and mom as well. They never seem to burn out. They are my super heroes!!!! I love them! They are so talented and blessed when they work together like they are doing!
We are having a garage sale this weekend too huh? That is super cool! What are you guys cleaning out? Have a lot of spring cleaning stuff to give away? That is cool. We have not had one of those since I was like 12. I remember making Christmas colored rice krispes and selling them too. That is so awesome. More memories what do ya know. Ha. I love them. Where are you guys going to end up having it and everything? At our house or what? That is sweet. You got to take some pictures and send them via internet. And send some actual pictures of the raft trip in the mail for me. I don’t have any. I try to explain it to people but it is way above their heads! Ha. Good luck with that. And I am praying that it does not rain and there is some good weather. You should have brynne and mikin make some sweet fatty signs for it! They are artists!
So tomorrow Is the baby shower for Carlee Shirts I heard. They are home at the parks right now. They just got there. So that is cool, everyone there is super excited and freaking out! I wish I was there, what do ya know! It sounds like that is the story of my life. I am busy doing my thing though. The new little girl is the best. Mikinsey CaroLyn Shirts! She is a stinkin cutie. I am an UNCLE ha ha. Seriously though. As they say. That is super awesome. You guys heading there or what? That will be out of this world fun. Nothing like having your first child. It blows my mind that someday that willl be me. Who knows though. Ha. Babies are the cutest ever. Especially when they do not have a cone head! I miss the parks so much. I love them like my second family. Throw a shout out for them and tell them how much I love them. They are always there for me and are the best influence on me, and are my best friends. Ha. Yes.
As for things here…..this Sunday is the dedication for the temple in Curitiba, Brazil. Way far south. We get to take part in the dedication via satellite. That is sweet! It is at eight in the morning here and at one too. So I will be doing that. They have a big celebration too on Saturday but we don’t get to see it. Then also they announced the ground breaking for the Manaus, Amazonas temple for the 20th of june. That will be sweet. We do not get to take part in it though. Only the pres. Itnoise. Sucks but whatever. And no one is even coming down to do it. Its just the area presidency of brazil doing it. For the recife one pres Hinckley came. I guess the manaus one sucks. Whatever. You know what would be sweet is if I got married in that temple. Wouldn’t that be a story? Crazy. Way out of the question though. But also the baptisms that we had this week were awesome. We had a couple young men we baptized. We had it on Saturday and then Sunday they were ordained with the arronic priesthood. Quick. They will pass the sacrament and stuff this week. Is that not the best or what. Then another man we baptized is going to receive the higher priesthood on the 1st as we have a district priesthood meeting. That will be cool also. Things are progressing is the moral of the story. The church is growing and things have a bright future. To answer dads question, no not many people get to go to the temple here. Only a select rich few. They go by boat. Its nuts. But with the temple in manaus. They can take a lond 24 hour windy bus ride on a dirt mountain road to get there. What an awesome blessing huh?! Ya. But as for the missionary who is coming home from the mission and we are baptizing his family. He gets home tomorrow! That is awesome. The bad news is that we are planning the baptism for not this Sunday but the Sunday after cause of the dedications and stuff. It sucks. I am so bumped out over it. I will probably be transferred on Tuesday. This sucks cause elder saucedo and I found that family when I first got here. I have been teaching them for like 4 months and a little bit and now I wont be able to baptize them. Sad. Atleast they will be baptized though. That is the positive side of it. It does not matter who does it. It’s the same ordinance and they make the same covenants. But this week we worked out little butts off. We found this older 40 year old lady. We taught her the first couple lessons and she totally wants to be baptized. She was catholic. I love the work. I love the gospel. Its so freakin aweome and true. That’s all there is to it. We have a baptism on this Saturday though. A 12 year old boy Douglas. He is the man and is all stoked. Hes my little buddy. Things are going awesome here. We have had a ton of baptisms and the lord s really guiding his work here. Things are going awesome and things are just falling into place. So many blessings. I feel so inadequate too, but the lord qualifies his servants. I have a testimony of that. Its is so awesome. But transfers are this Tuesday and Wednesday. Pretty sure I am a goner. Headed for ol manaus. Boa Vista has been good to me though. I love it here and it will always have a special place in my heart. Like dad says your first area is always sweet and has a soft spot….it is cool to see how much I have grown here. When I got here I could not even speak. Now look where I am. It is so so soooooooooooooo NUTS! I cant explain it . but I will be talking to you all from a new location next week. Hope I get a good area. Keep on the baptizing. The work is awesome!
Funny little story. So this week when we had lunch at a members house I had the opportunity to bless the food and so ya. I was praying and I said please bless this food that it will …..faz mal por nossas corpos…….it will be bad for our bodies…ha ha! Everyone started laughing and stuff and they could not hold it in. I just waited a little while and finally finished. It was so funny. I felt like a retard. Ha ha. I guess that is part of learning a language though. The food was good though and I am still alive so I think he heard my prayer. Ha. Anyways as for other things. I am doing good. I have a pretty bad cold. I have ran out of the vitamin C tablets so that’s weird I got sick as soon as I ran out. But I am fine. I am still working out everyday. I run like atleast a mile every morning super early like 5 in the morning. Then do lunges and tons and tons of abs and push ups and such. I get a good work out in. good enough for me. I am still at like 94 kilos with my clothes. I am healthy, just have to loose my fat. It takes for forever. I am finding that out. Working out though and have a routine. I cant wait to get the push up bars and such. Jump rope too that mom and dad sent. That will help. Trying to make some what of a difference here. I loved that letter dad sent me of that sportsmans warehouse fishing story. I love it. I eat the fish they are talking about all the time. Piraducú and tucunaré. I love them. I had it today actually. Way tastey. Good thing I like fish huh? We got to go fishing when you guys come and pick me up. Who knows if you will though. There really is not much to show you down here. Seriously. Like I would maybe just come home. Who knows. Long time to think of it..
So it sounds like you guys are all doing well. Mom and dad will be going to dust’s graduation from dental school in a couple weeks. That will be sweet. It seems like tim just did that. Man how time flies. I miss seattle. You guys should hit up a mariners game. That would be a blast. I love it. Sounds like they are doing crappy though. Never as good as they are on paper. I love you dusty good luck with everything.
So we have some BIRTHDAY GIRLS the 30th. Angie and kiah. Happy birthday girls. Hope you guys get my letters. I sent them. You two are some sweet little women and you are loved so much. How blessed we are to have you both in our family. I love you girls. Happy birthdays!!
So I think that is quite it for this week. I know that I am forgetting something for sure, but if it was important I would have mentioned it. I am super busy and have a crazy weekend and such ahead of me. I am not good with change, but like dad always says change is good for us. I love it. I will grow even more and change more lives. I love the gospel you guys. I know that it is true. I know that this is the only true church, and that it is lead by a prophet of god. He is our father in heaven. He loves us more than we know. EVERY SOUL IS GREAT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. Each of us. That is why we have to remember that we have invisible name tags on our chest as members. We have the responsibility to share the gospel just like I do. We have taken upon ourselves the name of Jesus Cristo at baptism. Represent him. Make him proud. I love you all. Choose the right. You are all in my prayers, in my thoughts, in my dreams. Keep it real gattengang!
Your crazy bro, brother in law, son in law, uncle and friend in disguise:

Elder gatten