January 6, 2014 - Letter Home from Elder Bryen North

Date:  January 6, 2014
Area:  West Memphis
Companion:  Elder Fredette

Dear Earthlings,

I now have a new companion, his name is Elder Fredette, and he is from Gilbert Arizona.  He has been out one transfer longer than me.  He is tall and has red hair, and works tirelessly and loves cars.  Elder Bell is my District leader, I was with him for a couple days as I waited for a new companion.

The package has not arrived still.  I did get the pillow case though!  Now I'll just need to get a pillow.

Does that mean he needs another pillow to go in that pillow case or he doesn't have a pillow at all???  Hmmm..Did find out that they post office has his package.  After getting the run around for two weeks I finally got someone that asked more questions and was able to figure it all out.  So they will redeliver it.

I figured a commitment to missionary work would function well enough as a resolution and didn't make any others.  Aim for 100% and your failure will be greater than the failure to achieve any lesser goal.

Elder Fredette immediate wanted to try working with less active members in the area and we've been going around.  A lot have moved away, we set some return appointments with the new residents of those homes. One though we found has moved and he lived nearby.  We found him and he came back to church on Sunday, as did another less active couple!  It was fantastic.  The blessings of church attendance are so obvious to me now that I'm shocked I was blind before.  Later Sunday we met with a man who many become an excellent investigator.  He has problems with the idea of organized religion and the necessity of it, thinking Christ never really endorsed it and we were to just follow his example of doing good.  We reminded him of how Christ himself established a church meant to organize people and that organization allows people to work together so that they can accomplish more good than individual agents can.  I shared a powerful lesson I learned in the MTC from Brother Elton.  He severely chastised all of us for mistaking what exactly the purpose of church is.  That it is first and foremost a place for us to get answers from God.  He agreed very much with that viewpoint and he set our return appointment.  I hope that we can help him see the blessings of church attendance.

Don't miss your meetings, or find a building near you if you don't know where to go.  God promises blessings and it is up to us to prove him.

- Elder North