Hey mom,
I'm so so glad everyone had such a good weekend and everything went so well. Brittany sent me all the details too and it sounds like it was amazing. Wish i coulda been there but that's alright.
We got another new companion sigh ha His name is elder Aulick (ah-lik). He's from missouri and has been out for 21 months. Him and elder prusse switched places so he's now in kanab. Or orderville to be exact. Crazy crazy. This is our third new companion in a month ha and my 5th comp in this area. Elder Aulick is good though. He likes to work and has been around so we all get along good.
Elder booher and I have been praying and pondering and praying and "fretting" over what we can do to lift our zone. It's really been weighing heavy on my mind lately and i've spent alot of time taking it to the Lord in prayer. Our zone if doin great and we have great sisters and elders but i know we can do better. I know it. And as i told the Lord i would continue to try and figure it out on my own and prayed for his help i called President Leonard to ask his advice and we decided to have a personal sanctification week and a standards of excellence week. ( the standards of excellence are number including, inv. on date, new inv, lessons, etc set by the mission which all areas should strive to reach ) Isn't that cool? Cause as i had been praying the thing that came to my mind was to teach them the Doctrine. In a talk by elder Bednar in the MTC he talked about the difference between doctrine and principle and how we always teach the Doctrine. We have to ingrain in everyone the docrtine of obedience. Why we keep every single little rule. Because the standards of excellence have been set forth by revelation. EVERY AREA is capable of achieving it. We just have to be worthy of the Lord's blessing. So we're gonna have a personal sanctification week in which we "cleanse the inner vessel". And it's gonna be awesome. We hope to see alot of things learned throughout the zone. I'll let you know how it goes.
Also, something else cool. We had zone leader council last week and we got to talk to Elder Oaks on the phone haha President was talking to him and threw it on speaker and we talked to him. It was neat. But that's not the cool part.
I want to express to everyone the excitement and anticipation that's accompanying missionary work not just in this mission but throughout the missions of the world. Things are happening that are huge. Missionary work is changing and we have the opportunity to lay the foundation for that. Missionaries are becoming better. But as we st with President he talked about how it's becoming the "Moment of the Mormon". Because of the media and mormon.org and the publicity the church is getting, it's becoming an "in" thing to be a mormon. From the musical on broadway about the book of Mormon to mormon.org in time square to a popular comedian doing a favorable spill on being a mormon, people are seeking out the church. President Leaonard was in a training with a bunch of other mission presidents where Elder Nelson was in attendance. One of the mission presidents asked Elder Nelson what he could do to lift his mission and long story short elder Nelson said this, " The time will soon come when people not of our faith will flock to our church because it's a last bastion of light and hope." he used the words flock, light and hope specifically. "and it will happen in your lifetime". To that the mission president responded, "well i get released in nine months then my life is pretty much over. ( Said jokingly) And elder Nelson propheticaly said, "Yes, well it will happen in my lifetime." ..... Elder Nelson is 86 years old. How cool is that? The world is changing and it's happening fast!
I want to express to everyone the excitement and anticipation that's accompanying missionary work not just in this mission but throughout the missions of the world. Things are happening that are huge. Missionary work is changing and we have the opportunity to lay the foundation for that. Missionaries are becoming better. But as we st with President he talked about how it's becoming the "Moment of the Mormon". Because of the media and mormon.org and the publicity the church is getting, it's becoming an "in" thing to be a mormon. From the musical on broadway about the book of Mormon to mormon.org in time square to a popular comedian doing a favorable spill on being a mormon, people are seeking out the church. President Leaonard was in a training with a bunch of other mission presidents where Elder Nelson was in attendance. One of the mission presidents asked Elder Nelson what he could do to lift his mission and long story short elder Nelson said this, " The time will soon come when people not of our faith will flock to our church because it's a last bastion of light and hope." he used the words flock, light and hope specifically. "and it will happen in your lifetime". To that the mission president responded, "well i get released in nine months then my life is pretty much over. ( Said jokingly) And elder Nelson propheticaly said, "Yes, well it will happen in my lifetime." ..... Elder Nelson is 86 years old. How cool is that? The world is changing and it's happening fast!
I'm jealous of the missionaries who are preparing to serve right now. It's gonna be different for them. The missionaries of the future will be more prepared to teach people the Gospel affectively then almost any missionary out right now. The whole curriculum and training is changing. It's no longer centered on Preach My Gospel. There are other things they'll be trained on. President said that preach my gospel is the "what", and the new program is the "how". Exciting. So tell coley and tyler and ben to be excited. They get to be a part of the gathering of israel in exciting ways never seen before.
Anyways, sorry i wrote you a book but i'm very excited about it ha Amazing things are happening.
We're gonna go get a hair cut. I love you all very much.
Elder Spurlin
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