That is so fun that you guys are all there at the house just enjoying yourselves. It feels so good to stay busy all the time doesn’t it? I hate having nothing to do, I always have to be moving, or out and about and doing at least something. It is the only way that I can stay somewhat sane. I too am incredibly happy for the opportunity president has given me to work alongside with Elder Walker. He is a great elder and I have a lot of learning to do from him.
Is Eric still living there at the house or has he moved out?
We will have to have a couple parties for when I get home. Send me a link to the video of Elder Rasmussen coming home; I would like to see that. I was able to work with Elder Rasmussen one day, but that was all, he truly was a great elder too. It sure is strange to think of myself as the oldest in the mission now. I sure do not feel it at all, and I definitely still don’t feel like any Assistant to the President, but I have learned a great deal. It just goes to show me that the Lord truly can take someone who is small and weak and make them become whatever He wants them to become.
So this past week we had our District Leader Trainings and it went really well. On Tuesday we left the capital and we headed towards a place called Chiquimula. We stayed with President and Sister Danielson, Sister Danielson is President Stay´s sister, and President Danielson is the 1st counselor in the mission. We had a fun visit with them and we got there pretty late so we weren’t able to go out and work with the zone leaders like we originally planned. Wednesday morning we headed over to Zacapa where we had a conference with the District leaders of the 2 zones Zacapa and Portagua, then that night we drove out to Jalapa and we stayed in the hotel Puente Viejo, it was such a funny night. Then we had our meeting Thursday morning in Jutiapa with zones Jalapa, and Cuilapa. Then we drove home that night and we had our last meeting Friday morning with the 5 zones from the Capital. It was fun because we took the secretaries with us and so they were able to take care of all the small stuff for us. It was nice. We did a lot of trainings about filling out paperwork for the mission and what exactly it is that we do. Then Elder Walker and I did the training on the stuff that they will be doing. It was great, we were able to give them some suggestions and teach them from our wisdom, the stuff that we have learned here in the mission. We talked to them about some new training programs that we have here in the mission. I was to train them on the new program we were following for district meetings, and how to have them really effective and impacting. Then we talked about divisions and how to do them effectively and lastly we talked about the importance of their calling. We talked about what it means to be a judge of Israel. After all that is what we are. One blessing that I have seen here in my mission is that I think I have become really good at presenting plans to people and getting them to think my way immediately. I bet you will be excited to see how I do that when I get home won't ya? Ha, just kidding, but it really is a blessing that will help me in the future. The Lord has blessed me in so many things though. I am going to need it though because we have zone conferences coming up these next couple weeks. For the next 2 weeks we will be doing our mission tour with President Stay and teaching all the missionaries. It will be great, I love this time and being able to share my knowledge. I was talking to the District leaders about how they need to start thinking in the future and thinking where they want things to go. If we think in the lessons always, I want this person to be at this point at the end of us teaching them. Then we can plan things a lot easier. So I invited them, if we all have the same vision and we all want to baptize. What do we need to do to baptize. We need to find, and we need to teach and then we can baptize. So we need to find people, and have patience with them and help them move along to go where they need to get to. So we committed all the district leaders to look and find a family to baptize for the next month of august. That they would start to find a family this next week then put the fecha for baptism and be BOLDER. I love that word. If we were all bolder in what we do every day, we would be able to have more success and more confidence in what we do. We could win people to our way of thinking and we could help people truly come unto Christ.
So something that I liked that President Stay taught us recently was this. There is a family in the Book of Mormon who is just like any ordinary family from this world. In this family there are 4 kids, and they all know exactly what it is that they need to do. They all had the same commandments and the same responsibilities, but they were all very distinct. Two of them followed the counsel of their father and of their brother, but did it with the worst attitude possible. One of them followed their brother who was obedient and followed his example because he knew what his brother did was right. Lastly, the last brother, the most obedient, he knew exactly what he needed to not because he trusted his dad, or himself, but because he had the courage to go and ask the Father, if what his earthly father was saying is true. Every time that he would go ask, the Father would confirm it to him, and he would then know without a doubt that whatever he did, he would have Heavenly help because the Father told him to go and do. They had to go back to the evil city of Jerusalem, but only one knew for what purposes and who was protecting them. If we are all going to go to the same place, why not go with a good attitude and just do that which is right. If we are all going to go to church, why not go with a good attitude and get something out of it, instead of thinking, ah golly, what is this crazy guy going to talk to us about. When we are confident that what we are doing is true, and truly from God, nothing else matters.
We truly are blessed. The Lord always looks after us and he knows what is best. He wants to make our lives so great, and it is us that complicates things and makes things not right. We allow Satan to enter in and take control of our hearts, but we must remember that Satan will never know what the thoughts are of us. He can never know how to truly defeat us, but he can convince us that we are beaten by him, but we will always have that power to crush his skull.
I love you all so much, and I can’t believe that I have such little time left as a missionary. I love this work and I am so thankful for the great people that we are meeting still every day. We have a couple families that are just so amazing and I am so happy to see them moving along making small commitments with God, so one day they can arrive at the day of making a Covenant with God. Anyways, I love you and I will talk to all next week.
With Love,
Elder Shipley
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