An Apostle of the Lord

Dear fo fo family,

First off HUZZAH!!!! Go Highland volleyball and way to go Collin! That is pretty dang impressive how well you are doing along with the rest of your team. Haha It's also funny picturing all those kids who probably don’t have too much of a social life who work really hard to attend those golden scholar awards ceremonies, and laugh as they see two WEIRDOS walk across the stage with old people clothes and a walker and think... What Geeks! And Dad, all those volleyball updates are sweet with me. It's good to hear how the good ole Highland team is doing. You forgot to add in your cool insight of something you learned throughout the week though. I always appreciate it when you do that.

Mom, I think I would rather call on my Sunday—your Saturday—just because I think that it would be hard to email you on Monday and then talk right after... I don’t know. It’s hard to say. If I were to call at 11 o clock am on Sunday what time would that make for you? Or I could maybe do anything from after 4 on Sunday.... Then if anybody would not be able to be there then we could just do my Monday your Sunday, but the only problem would be that I could probably only do it after 5... Mondays are busy helping the rest of the zone get everything they need. All sweet though. You can discuss as a family what would be best and I am keen to do whatever. I AM EXCITED TO TALK WITH YOUZE!

So YES the Work is going great!!!!!!!!!! But I need to start by telling you how totally flippin awesome it was meeting Dallin H. Oaks, Elder Rasband and OH MAN, I forgot his name but he is in the presiding bishopric [we think it’s Bishop Gérald Caussé]. Wednesday was a big hassle getting everything shifted out and making sure all the missionaries had transport and what not... We had a crazy awesome transfer meeting with the whole mission where it sure was fun to sing “Called to Serve” in the Readoubt stake center. After that we had a short break while President Lekias had a meeting with all the new trainers and all of the new sister missionary leader trainer people on the new assignment given to sisters throughout missions. Anyway, I got to catch up with a lot of my old companions including Elder Denham, Elder Manewell, and Elder Loffhagen. I don’t know if I already wrote this but I have a GRANDSON!!! He is Kidabus too and Elder Loffhagen is doing a great job training him. He is also a district leader now, and when I talked to him he was a completely different person. I sure am proud of that boy. Also, Elder Denham and Elder Manewell are finishing their missions in 6 weeks so we kind of had our last goodbyes, but now to the Good Stuff!!! We all crammed back into the stake center and waited super anxiously to see Elder Oaks. When he came in I said a quick prayer that the Spirit would confirm and let me know that he was an apostle of the Lord. Luckily enough they asked the whole mission to stand to shake their hands and sure enough we did... When I got around to shaking his hand I passed everyone, told Elder Rasband that he looked good and shook Elder Oaks’ hands and looked him straight in the eyes. Now I won’t try to overdramatize things, but time kinda froze for a bit, and it was a little hard to let go. But as I walked back down to my seat the Spirit definitely confirmed to me that I had most definitely shaken hands with an apostle.... So I popped open my notebook to take notes for the mission conference and traced my hand as my first note. Some other missionaries saw that and kinda laughed a little, and a lot of them did the same exact thing. Anywho, it was awesome! They spoke to us all and left Elder Oaks an hour at the end... Everyone was great, especially Sister Oaks. She was HILARIOUS and it was funny to see a side of Elder Oaks that you don’t normally get to see in general conference. He sure was proud of our mission and the missionaries in it. Then after I got to take a picture of Elder Verierras and the presiding bishopric guy... because they were both from the same ward and we got called up last second before we were about to head home so I got to talk to him up close and thank them for the wonderful talks that they gave.

Elder Lamb and I are doing great... I loved Elder Hatch and was able to keep a good relationship with him. I think we both kind of knew that we wouldn't be the best friends outside the mission, but as Elder Bednar said it best, it is a great sign of spiritual maturity to see past the flaws, weaknesses, and offensive gestures that come from other people. I was reading through my journal and I realized how terribly immature I was with a lot of my first few companions, so that is something I learned this week... The importance of loving those around you... Because me and Elder Hatch actually had a good time together. Anyway, Elder Lamb and I are already off to a great start. We set two people with a baptism date within three days of him arriving... and are starting to help the zone reach a new level of spiritual missionary growth. We have a few challenge missionaries in our zone, and I had the privilege to go out with one earlier in the week... He has been out for a long time and knows how to be a great missionary, but really doesn't want to be the best and maybe doesn't exactly have his desires in the right place. I had a great chat with him letting him know exactly what I thought of him; that he IS GREAT, but that he could be doing so much more.

Anyway, sorry I’m running out of time... Not the best letter but I will get you a better one next week. The Church is true. I know for sure without a doubt that the Prophet, his counselors and the 12 apostles are called of God and speak to him directly face to face, and they are what make and keep this Church true! Listen to their words and find something from General Conference that you want to apply!

Love,

Elder Ward

P.S.- G and R received the Priesthood yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOOOOOO! Oh and another quick story… We went to their house the day before and G couldn't walk because his foot hurt so much. We went to the story in Acts where Peter goes to the man lame from birth at the temple and when the man asked for alms, Peter said, “gold and silver have I none, but this I do give, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand and walk..." something along those lines. So we read that to him and gave him a blessing. He then told us that his foot, before the blessing, in his own words was, “Very Pain,” but when we put our hands on his head it stopped, but that he was still scared to walk. We asked him if he believed that God would help him and he said yes, so he got up and walked... He was so excited and said OOOOOHHHHHHHHH YESS! Then he walked from one side of the room to the other and then walked to the bathroom... It was pretty funny. That is my week. Ka kite ano (probably poorly mispelled) but it means “see you again” in Maori.