좋은 데이 Mates!!
Well this was eventful well that is starting off eventful too. So let's start!
Bush fires... If you heard news of fires in Australia, that was us! The area I'm in is not quite Outback but is more wilderness but with a lot of trees. It was windy and a fallen over power line sparked a decent size fire. It was a couple miles away from our apartment and cut us off from some of our areas in Nelson Bay and Lemon Tree Passage, ruining our plans for the day. Helicopters and planes were flying over our area for 2 days straight trying to put out the fire. Some people were evacuated, but fortunately no severe damage was done. We just had to deal with the thick smoke that covered the town. All is well though.
My companion, Elder Scott, is the district leader and we have had the opportunity to do trade-offs with the other Elders in the district. So I've had the opportunity to do companion exchanges with Elder Hirst in the Charlestown area and once of our zone leaders, Elder Tobler. These were some of the best days, to see other ways missionary work is done. These Elders are great missionaries. From them I learned a lot about planning, goal setting, effective study and their experience in working with Australian people. These days were productive and felt truly Spiritually driven. It was inspiring and gave me hope that even after a full day of appointments falling through, unavailable friends we're teaching, hours of door knocking that result in "no thanks, we're good" or "that's cool, good for you everyone needs something to get them through" or "what do you have to say about what is said in Revelations about not adding anything more to these things. I've got a Bible I'm good." Then after a full day of what may seem like no progress or good was done, with 10-20 minutes left to make one last inspired visit. We could've called it a day, we had done a lot of work. It was Thanksgiving night and we had plans for a makeshift feast. We said a quick prayer to know where to go or who to visit because we had set goals for the day and we were determined to achieve those goals. Together we thought what type of person to visit and my companion for the day was able to think of someone to visit (since we were in his area).
Then finally, after a full day of what one may see as a failed day, we were blessed with the opportunity to share a message with a struggling recent convert. Before going in, we made a brief plan of what message we were gonna share after my companion briefed me on his situation. We went in and as we began sharing the message, the Holy Ghost began shaping our lesson into something completely different than we intended. We didn't even share what we planned, but we identified this good Brother's concern and struggle and were able to offer a message of hope and sincere testimony because I could relate to him with personal experience. He was struggling with feeling very inadequate compared to the other members who seemed perfect. We bore testimony to him that if church was only for perfect people, no one would be able to go. Church is a hospital for the spiritually sick, which is everyone. We all struggle with our own personal issues and no one is perfect. We told him to NEVER feel too inadequate to come to church. That church is exactly where he needed to be to overcome his issues. We encouraged him also with my favorite thing I've realized through my studies.
Who did Jesus Christ call to be His apostles? He could've called the Pharisees or Saduccess, they were knowledgeable of the scriptures and such. He could've called the rich to find His church and members. No, He called the fishermen. Even if we feel inadequate or small, think of how the apostles felt. However they went on to change the world. A couple of fishermen. Who knew. We are all fishermen in our own way, but Christ will work through our weaknesses as we realize that we need Him and rely wholly on Him. Then as we do this, He will work miracles through us. So my prayer for one opportunity to teach someone throughout the day was answered during this lesson, and it was even better as the Spirit was our companion during the lesson. He was touched immensely and we offered a prayer of gratitude for the opportunity that day.
Then the adventures continue as we make our way to our next trade off in Tamworth which is further inland and more bush/outback. Should be fun as we spend 2 days there. Then to top off the next 2 days, we hit a kangaroo on our way over. All alright, just took out one of our headlights and shook up Elder Scott a little. So stay tuned for our next adventures in Tamworth and in Australia. Strange land for sure. Love you all, take care.
Elder Escamilla
Australia Sydney Mission
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호주 스다니 선교부
P.S. We have a baptism on Saturday! First one in our area in a couple years. So everyone's excited. My companion's first baptism
Our makeshift Thanksgiving dinner with our Zone Leaders
the view of the smoke from our flat as we were studying. The smoke and fire was much worse the day before.
the remains of the fire in our area. Ton of smoke afterwards completely covering everything
In our area, instead of pigeons being the normal everyday bird, it's these beautiful parrots!!! I feel like I'm in the zoo because of the wildlife
Weird to drive on the opposite side of the road.
We hit a kangaroo but we are all alright, just took out one of our headlights and shook up Elder Scott a little.
안녕하세요!!
So this week our Mission President gave us permission to go to the temple, so our P-Day changed to today which is why I'm emailing today.
So 2 Aussie Culture... Tips... Lessons... Something...
- So Aussies call flip flops, "thongs"... Yeah I'm sure you can already guess. While we were visiting with Angela, a lady from the Jehovah Witness faith, talking with her. Her daughter walks in and says she's going to the store and asks if she could borrow her thongs... Fortunately I was already exposed to this, but it was still very weird and very... yeah...
- So in Aussie Land, Land of the Bajillion Spiders and Spider Webs in your Face, words that would be deemed as curse words in America in church are actually fine and casual. Nothing over the top, but enough to surprise you when it comes from the mouth of a member. The words I'm talking about are the upgraded versions of "darn" or "darn it". So when a member drops something at church and says "dang it" (their version), my eyes would pop open, ears perk up and kind of just look at them and see if anyone else heard it. Turns out it's doesn't have the same right in America. Don't worry Mom, I'm not gonna come back with this habit, hopefully...
So this week we finally launched an idea that I had during my first time knocking on doors. That first experience was SO GREAT that I immediately thought of a different way to do door knocking that would help us to get to know the people slamming doors in our faces (hope you heard the sarcasm). I'll be honest, that first experience really sucked. Yes part of it was because of how unkeen Aussies are of religion. Second is that I disliked how salesman like it came off as, and just felt insensitive. Contrary to our message, which is most sincere and personal message in the world. Where we are invited to find out truth for ourselves. So while we were getting yelled at for scaring kids by standing still, I noticed how unkept a lot of the lawns were. Usually, before people close the doors we tell them that we offer service, anything that they may need. Of course, we're in our white shirt and tie so I'm sure they're thinking "In those clothes?" Then since Aussie's are really turned off when talking about religion, but the closest we've got to bring lessons with people and connecting with them (like Corinne from last weeks email) came because our service would soften their hearts. So this is where the idea was born.
We've been working the past couple weeks to attain a lawn mower (which we found in a junk pile of the side of the road), getting fixed by a wizard in our ward, and fine tuning our mowing skills. We finally put everything together and put our idea to the test. As a result, the hearts are much more softened. If they are willing to keep listening after we say "We're missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", and hear that we're offering free service. Then the responses have been a complete 180. People usually respond saying how nice that is and how they wish they had something to do but theyre ok at the moment. However the 2 lawns we've mowed, we were invited inside and able to share a quick message and make a personal connection with the family and we leave our numbers with them. As a result we learn about the many horror experiences that many Aussies have with religion in the past, which had deterred them from seeking religion. As we share our experiences, explain or church and bear testimony, you could see how they notice something different about us and our religion. Then we have a new friendship and a foot in the door.
At another door, we met a guy named, Matt. Matt is an aspiring NBA player, going to college and hoping for a shot in the States. Well he opens the door, appreciates our desires to do some service, briefly get to know him then give him our phone number on a Book of Mormon pass along card. He sees the card and starts asking questions. He's Roman Catholic and had been active with it for awhile being raised in it, but had differing views with the religion. He says he's curious and is wanting to learn more about more religions. So we give him a Book of Mormon and briefly teach about what the Book of Mormon is. He takes it and agrees to look at it. We have a lot of hope for him and he seems very promising. Maybe the next Utah Jazz player. But hearts are being softened by a lawn mowing idea that people would chuckle at. Best idea? Probably not, a lot of tome devoted to a lawn, but we've seen more results from it than the classic door knocking.
So a scripture that I read this week that I couldn't relate to more than now is found in Alma 26:36-37 "... blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land..."
I'm truly a wanderer in this strange land of Australia. People from all walks of life and with some of the strangest life situations that I've never seen or heard of before. However, Good is mindful of these people in this strange land.
"... we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen"
The fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is for everyone. Not just Americans or the Gentiles.but for everyone. The Book of Mormon (taken place in the early Americas before and after the life of Jesus Christ) and the Bible (life in Jerusalem) combined show that God is not just the God of Israel, but of the entire world. He is mindful of all His children and wants nothing more than for them to be happy. I testify that these things are true, with every fiber of my being, I know it's true. How do I know?
Alma 5:46 "I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit..."
I love you all, our Heavenly Father loves you. You can find out for yourself and feel this love through prayer and reading the Book of Mormon. Try it out. You wont regret it.
Also, I got a phone call this week that my Cheii (grandpa in Navajo) just passed on. We'll miss you Cheii. Until we see you again, I'll do my best to take care of mom and dad. To take care of Paige and Mia. To take care of grandma. To not make mom or dad repeat themselves. I'll study hard and work hard (these are the things he'd always tell me before we said good bye to him. Every single time). I'll try to make you proud. Until I see you again, see you later Cheii. Love you.
Elder Escamilla
Australia Sydney Mission
에스카미야 장로
호주 스다니 선교부
Temple p-day at Sydney Australia Temple
My companion and I after church with the leftover sandwiches, we'll take all the free foods we can get!!
Our lawn mower idea in the working
Dinner with Branch President and his family
So the family history consultant of our branch is deaf, so when we visit with her we use a white board in order to be able to communicate with her. So as I was translating our discussion for her. I played a prank on her by writing in Korean asking "do you understand Korean?" In Korean. Luckily she has a good sense of humor so we had a good laugh about it.
G'Day Mates from the Land Down Unda!
Well I've survived a 2nd week in good ole Aussie land! So how is the work in Australia? Well it's difficult. Not many people are just religious or very comfortable with their lives. Some of the towns that we work in are a little rougher areas that I would compare to a Highland Falls just outside of West Point, and a lot of government housing. Then we also are right next to the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) base and there a lot of members who are in the Air Force, so I've been able to connect to them very closely because of my time at West Point. Surprisingly, every Aussie, I've told that I went to West Point, knows about West Point. Then the town we live in is like the part of Mesa that have bigger lots and properties.
So a lot of variety, but still not many Aussies are not too keen of talking about religion. So we'll either get frustrated, meet angry people or just no answer at all. So in order to change things up and hopefully get people to actually talk with us, we came up with an new idea. So usually before people close the door we tell people that we do service, whatever people need. Usually we say this while wearing our white shirt and tie, and I'm sure they're curious as to what kind of service we can offer in our white shirt and tie. So as we were walking from door to door one day, I noticed how unkept many of the lawns were and how badly they need a good lawn mowing. Sooo.... Instead of showing up door to door like a salesman, we are gonna show up with a lawn mower ready to do service! We searched all week and eventually found a broken up lawn mower, got it fixed by a genius in our branch and are all set to do some service this week. We figured this would be a good approach because most of all our people we are working with have only continued meeting the missionaries because of the service they offer and have actually had their hearts softened from the service and we've been able to share messages with them.
One example is Corinne. She's mom with 3 daughters, her husband and an absolute love for gardening. Missionaries have been going over to help with her beautiful yard and gardens for awhile now, and almost got the door slammed in their face until they offered too chop wood and have been coming over ever since. I met her for the first time this week and I don't think I've ever met anyone so perfect for the Gospel. She has got everything figured out about how to live the Gospel, strengthen your testimony, find out truth for yourself, having faith, one step at a time, just keep working, to not get frustrated from setbacks, and so forth... Except in the shape of gardening. When we got her talking about her garden, I just kept asking leading questions that would perfectly answer concerns about the Gospel or how to find out truth for themselves. Like:
- "Did you ever expect your garden would become something this beautiful when you started?"
"Oh no, never would've guessed."
- "So you're glad you started your first little garden?"
"Oh yes, if I never started I would've never been able to have any of this!"
- "It took time right? It didn't come all at once right?"
"Yes absolutely, it took a lot of time. Just one step at a time. A little here a little there."
- "So you had to continually work on it right?"
"Oh yes, if I didn't do anything then it wouldn't grow. Nothing would happen"
Basically the conversation continued like this. When talking about how life nowadays can be stressful and overwhelming with all of life's influences, I said "it was like a big mist of darkness that surrounded us and we need just something like a rod to hold onto to help us get through the fog, right?" Then she said "YES, absolutely like that." It was funny because I had just described the tree of life vision that Lehi had in the Book of Mormon, and she totally agreed with it without us saying it was from the Book of Mormon. She later took great interest in my Native American heritage (every Aussie seems to just absolutely love and are fascinated by Natives, super crazy). When trying to figure out how to transition our conversion from Native Americans to us sharing a quick Gospel message, the thought came to my mind to share the "Music of the Gospel" Mormon Message video and said, "Hey I've actually got a video on my phone of Navajo dancing and music, would you like to see it?" She was like absolutely! So we watched the video and it was the smoothest transition into a Gospel discussion I've ever seen. Not by my own abilities, but the Holy Ghost reminded me of this video that I hadn't seen in a long time but ended up being the perfect transition and we could tell that she was touched somehow by it. Her and her family are so absolutely ready. Her daughters are good and try to live good lives, she tries to instill good values on them, her and her husband are trying to give up coffee because she said it was bad for you. So perfect. Just a tiny string is keeping them back, but once it's cut they will just absolutely soak everything up and will be wonderful. I had a vision of them hosting Branch events or parties in their beautiful backyard. Kids running around and their family joining and becoming a part of the Branch family. They'll get there, I can feel it.
I know this Gospel is true. It can bless our lives in so many ways we don't even understand. But we have to let it and CHOOSE to let it bless our lives. We never force anyone, that is not the plan. We must choose for ourselves, we cannot force anyone to join. We experienced this one dinner with a good Brother of the Branch who's wife wasn't a member, but his impatience and immense desire for her to be a member was very visibly driving her away. Her entire family were members - husband, children (served missions), grandchildren (singing in Primary and preparing to serve a mission), except her. She was content with her life and thought she was doing her best to live a good life. However, we could see that the pressures from her family were affecting her and staying to drive her away and she was defensive of her beliefs. We tried sympathizing with her and told her we don't force anyone to believe our beliefs and apologized if it seemed that way. Unfortunately her husband was more impatient and aggressive of trying to get her to believe. We left the house saddened by this situation, that she was pushed away from the church, not because of the doctrine but the people. Don't be the stumbling block that keep people away from the church. Love people for who they are, whether they share beliefs or not. That's what Christ would do. Dont be a good companion friend, sibling or spouse. Be a Christlike companion, friend, sibling or spouse (cite my sources: Bro. Bartholomew, cant take credit for this).
When people ask us what we believe be firm and talk about it as if it is a fact, because it is isnt it? When people ask who is God? Dont say he's like our Father but in Heaven. Say He IS our Heavenly Father. Who is this Russel M. Nelson guy? Not: we believe or he's a cool guy who's like a prophet. No, he IS the prophet on the earth today called of God to lead and guide His church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints IS God's kingdom and church. If people disagree then that's ok but Alma grasped this idea in Alma 5:58, "And now my brethren, what have ye to say against this? I say unto you, if ye speak against it, it matters not, for the word of God must he fulfilled." Be bold, not rude or forceful, but have confidence and faith that the things you know are true. If you don't know then you can find out. Begin with a prayer then start searching the scriptures and find out if it's true for yourselves. We often tell people that sure maybe you could prove, by cross referencing the Bible and Book of Mormon and doing historical research, that The Book of Mormon is true. But there is no power in that. Instead our invitation and the invitation at the end of The Book of Mormon is to read it and study it for yourself, then "ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall all with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost."
I've done this and it has made the greatest impact on me than anything else in the world. Enough for this Navajo, Mexican, Filipino and Chinese looking, identity crisis having boy (me) to put everything on hold, sacrifice a pretty decent future, go halfway around the world to teach people he has absolutely no family ties to or any personal connections to in order to share a message about some Book. Spend 10 weeks studying Korean for an English speaking country, in a mission that has been trying to tell Salt Lake to stop sending Korean missionaries because there isn't a need for them, but they keep getting sent. Where the previous mission president has literally said that he doesn't know why Korean missionaries are here. Where my companion has only seen 3 Korean families as members of the church during his entire year of being on his mission, and the other Korean missionaries are guessing that I'm the last Korean missionary to be sent to Australia... Many people would immediately question why they were even here. But I know it is because God loves every single one of His children. Enough to send one person who speaks their language half way around the world in order to deliver the message of the Gospel personally to them. I know this is God's work. Why else would there be Korean speakers be sent to Australia? These calls aren't mistakes, but by divine inspiration. Am I having faith and hope because that's all I have to hold on to? Absolutely, but I can't wait to meet the person or people whom I was specifically called to deliver God's message to. Until then we'll keep studying and preparing for that day. Love you all, have a beautiful week.
Elder Escamilla
에스카미야 장로
WILD KANGAROOS!!
Spider of the week
Our Branch's chapel
These Aussies, just absolutely love Natives...
Elder Scott and I trying to bring some Korean in our non Korean area.
Elder Scott and I eating some Korean food.
Change of pace, tried some bike riding rather than the car
Well, self explanatory...
안녕하세요 Mates!!
If you're getting this email, then you know that I survived my first week in Australia! It has been very eventful, well where to begin...
My trainer is Elder Scott. He's 19yrs old from Utah, and has been on the mission for 1 yr & 2 months. Great guy, very knowledgeable of the area, good relations with the members, and also a Korean speaker like me!
Unfortunately, our level is about the same... and we are placed in an area with basically no Koreans. I haven't found any yet. The closest thing is a Sister in our Branch who served her mission in Korea. So a little concerning, but that's' ok. I like challenges anyways. I can't understand the accent anyways so there's my language immersion.
We have 2 potential baptisms coming up, which is great. We have Brodie, a baptismal date at the end of the month. Then I taught Jacob during Sunday School about the Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation. Then after the lesson he asked me about baptism. I shared with him my experience, what baptism was, why it's important, and the blessings that come from it. I asked him if this was something he was interested in learning more about and pursuing and he said yes. Later in the meetings I overheard him say that the Gospel just makes sense. So I'm excited to work with him and help him along the path.
Next, I've come to learn a very important lesson of missionary life.... We are poor. We live pretty frugally. Haven't eaten out yet since I've been out. We've have had ghetto lunches of whatever Elder Scott has had in the trunk of the car, like half bag of chips and chocolate... But that was more of a result of bad planning... I've never felt this poor before... So throughout the day I'll end up feeling starved, which isn't the best combination with the terrible feelings of jet lag I've had. I try to keep a good attitude but sometimes I think about it too much, and then we get blessed by someone offering us food and a member feeds us a wonderful meal and I am oh so grateful. Then I'm reminded of Alma 32:37-38.
So this missionary work is a very heart wrenching work. We were visiting one lady, we call her Grandma Jack. An older lady who absolutely loves the Bible. Loves reading pieces from intellectuals regarding the Bible that provide a different perspective and further analyzes the symbolism which she just gets so excited about. The approach I guess the missionaries have been taking in our area is more of being a friend and buddy buddies with the people they visit rather than... I guess being missionaries... who would want that, crazy... anyways, our visit with her was more like us checking up on our grandma as if we were in the area and seeing if she were ok... So no real lesson was prepared... more like did you read the Book of Mormon? No? Ok, cool all good, just get to it if you can.... I'm playing Junior companion and the Greenie and trusting and following my trainer and just following his lead... lets just say that we need to change some things. Anyways, as we were visiting and listening to her absolute love for the Bible I started tearing up a little. Because this was a daughter of our Heavenly Father who was lost. I could see the veil blocking her vision. She had done fantastic by loving the Bible, but was missing the full truth. She loved the intellectual men's words, but oh how she would lose it if she realized that I had the very word of God in my hand. I could see her in a temple session and she would probably die from excitement and absolute joy as she found the full truth. The Bible had given her this much joy, can you imagine how much more joy she would have if she realized what the Book of Mormon was and that Jesus Christ's true church was on the earth?!? She'd probably have a heart attack in front of us and beg for us to do her temple work or to baptize her.
I've been having these "visions" of the families we visit. Non-member like member. These visions are of their potential. When we visit with a broken family that we do service for pretty regularly, when we were with the family together in the kitchen chatting. I have this vision of them in the kitchen but on a Sunday morning getting ready for church and eating breakfast together. The family is no longer broken, but filled with absolute love for each other. Then I snapped out of it when they ask us where the church originated. This is it. This is the moment where we would get the ball rolling to fulfill this vision I've just seen about their potential. I look to my companion waiting to just follow his lead since he's seasoned and I'm think he's thinking the same thing. This family who have never received a lesson before and are about to receive the lesson of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ after several months of receiving gardening service from the missionaries. My companion opens his mouth and merely says that the church started in New York and then moved to Utah. I just sit there, absolutely shocked that this is all he could muster to get out... then before i could save and get something useful out, the moment is gone and the family needs to leave... It was a moment given to us on a golden platter and we did nothing with it.... There seems to be no spirit of urgency to get this message, the greatest message ever known to mankind, out to these people. The missionaries have been content with just making friends and visiting grandma and grandpa checking on them to see how bingo night went or how their grandkids are doing. Well don't get me wrong that's great and i think it's very important, but on the other hand, we're missionaries who are supposed to be bringing people closer to Christ. Additionally I understand every case is different and sometimes thats all we can do is be the grandkids or just offer service. But the other day we tried switching it up and actually asking if we could share a quick message and they were more than willing to listen. I don't want to make the other missionaries seem like their bad missionaries because they put on a good image for the Church and did a lot of service. But if these people are ever gonna reach their potential that God intended for them to achieve, we need to be bold and open our mouths and not be wishy washy. My companion has trouble with this. Rather than using church terms like companion or Apostle, he'll call me his "buddy or friend" when meeting other people, or call the Apostles these "good, cool, nice guys." His reasoning is that people would often get confused and ask what he meant or what those things meant. He got tired of trying to explain... I looked at him and told him, well isn't that the perfect opportunity for a missionary? To quickly and simply explain a lesson, and also to see if the people actually are listening? If they ask what is that, that's great because it shows that they're actually listening and trying to understand. 2nd it's the perfect opportunity to teach a quick overview of the Restoration or about Prophets and Apostles. Boom, easy. I think a lot of these missionaries think that they need a formal setting to teach a lesson where we're in a quiet place, free time and sitting down together. Well, as i look back we don't get very many of those opportunities because the rest of our time is spent getting yelled at by ladies who have to calm her frightened, scared to death daughter down from us merely knocking on the door and standing there, perfectly still.... So we need to take every single small opportunity we can get where people will even let us spit out that we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To let those small moments be led by the Spirit and allow these people to feel the special Spirit we carry with us, if we are worthy of it. This is done by having a bit of urgency and fire in your pants to share this message to every single person, the same desire that the Sons of Mosiah had in Mosiah 28:3-4. So it breaks my heart when we get to a door and they say their husband isn't home (because we can't enter a house with just the wife alone) and we say well we'll try again next week. NEXT WEEK!! Is this not the greatest blessing that anyone could possibly receive? Why not a quick scripture or video to watch later? Is this not the same fruit that Lehi desired of his sons to have that was described in Alma 32:42?! I just guess we'll let them wait to have this fruit for another week, they made it this far right? No, we can't wait. These people can't wait. They don't know it yet, but they are so desperately needing the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. We all do. We must share it, or else we'll be held accountable for it later. Can you imagine their response when they realize this incredible gift and find out that you've been keeping it from them this entire time? Can you hear them say "I suffered for days because of the loss of my family, because I thought I would never see them again. But you knew all along that this wasn't the case? You've known me for years but never thought to share this incredible knowledge?" We need to treat this Gospel like Gold, because it is far greater than that. Please open your mouth.
We are gonna change the atmosphere in this mission. Miracles are gonna take place and our little branch of 30 is gonna be a booming ward. You know why? Because God loves every. Single. One. Of. HIS. CHILDREN. He wants every SINGLE ONE OF US TO COME BACK HOME TO HIM. HE WANTS EVERYONE TO FIND TRUE, PURE JOY THAT MAKES OUR HEART WANT TO BURST OUT OF OUR CHEST. Have you felt this? I have. It is the greatest thing in the world. I testify that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints IS GODS KINGDOM ON EARTH. If you don't know it, then study the Book of Mormon and Heavenly Father will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost. Please find out for yourselves, "for ye may" Jacob 3:2. And even all this ye can do if ye will Alma 33:23.
Long email, if you made it this far thank you. Not bad missionaries here. Its just good, better, best. They are in between good and better. Getting around doing some good. But i want best, and I think Heavenly Father and His Children deserve the best. I love you all, but more importantly Heavenly Father loves you. Have great week.
Elder Escamilla
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One less door to knock on during our rounds
This dinner with a part member family was a huge blessing
One of the many millions of spiders in Australia
Sharing some live oysters fresh from the ocean with Frank
Our small branch of 30 after church
