Hi, How are ya?
Another solid week in the State of Arizona. There were some excessive heat warnings this week and with the monsoon season beginning its crazy with the humidity as well. I wouldn't mind sweating so profusely if it wasn't so gross when we entered people's homes. While riding the bike it's no big deal cause it's just like a constant hair dryer on your face and all the sweat evaporates immediately off of your skin. But as soon as you enter an air conditioned home, the sweat begins to pour. And by pour I mean like a bucket of salt, sunscreen, and water just got dumped on your head and soaks everything. It's all part of the experience though! Transfers were this week and nothing came out of it for me and Elder Cichy. We're still stayin' together. Our district got split though and our new District Leader is Elder Otto, Elder Henrie's companion. He's hilarious. There are only four companionships in our district now.
Last week Chris Baird dropped $120 bucks at Deseret Book on a quad (scriptures), scripture bag, and the $25 ten percent off deal for any future purchases. The man isn't even a member yet! haha. That shows some dedication. He knows he has so much to learn and we try to answer all his questions to the best of our ability. He is constantly reading and as of right now he is in the bible dictionary where he is reading it like a book. I never knew there was so much information and good stuff to read in there. We set a date for his baptism and as of right now it is August 28th, four days after the next transfer so hopefully I'll be here! After we committed him to a date, we asked him if he would want to go to the Mesa temple and see the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie on Saturday. He said he would love to so we did just that! We had to have a member come with us so Brother Justice, his wife, and her son Ryan came with us. It was a great time and they had an art exhibit going on there that had a bunch of different types of art that were trying to make the museums in Salt Lake. It was so weird to think that I live in the place where all the paintings and sculptures originated! haha And after we got done they had us vote on our favorite one and the winner would be in the museum. Chris fed us dinner that night and we made some "Sonoran Dogs." Amazing, I'll never forget them and we'll be making them as a family for years to come! What they are: hot dog, wrapped in long strips of peppered bacon and pinned at the ends of the hot dogs. They are then grilled. He also cooked up some caramelized onions, peppers, and other goodies from his garden that tasted pretty good!
A few other cool things happened this week. A young man named Ramiro stopped us in an apartment complex parking lot while he was on his way to work and he was crying very hard. He said that his girlfriend is serious about leaving him and he doesn't know what he's going to do. They also have a daughter together. A few days later we stopped by and he was home alone in an apartment that was a mess. We talked to him for awhile and gave him what advice we could but then we came to the conclusion that what she would love the most is if she came home to a spotless clean house. We frantically began cleaning. While cleaning he went on to tell us that they have been fighting (literally fighting, like violence, punching, slapping, yelling fighting) for the past three years and it just hasn't gotten any better. I noticed that they had a very nice flat screen high def TV and a PS3 but the TV was shattered! He told us that one day he was so mad that he just slammed the TV and has never regretted something so much. haha. Anyway, we got to cleaning. I got the kitchen and I don't think those dishes had been cleaned in months. They were all over the counter with standing water and chunks of food still inside. Mom, at that moment I realized why you had me do the dishes each and every monday night because it taught me how to hold my stomach and keep from throwing up. haha! jk I couldn't stop thinking about that though and I have the feeling that I wouldn't have known how to properly do dishes if it wasn't for you harping on me all the time! Thanks so much I appreciate all you did/do! So I got done with the oodles and oodles of dishes and cleaned and organized the rest of the kitchen. It all looked great. Elder Cichy cleaned up the little girl's room and then we moved into Ramiro's room.... HECK NO! He said he was going to finish that cause it was atrocious. We helped him make the bed though. We knew she would probably love that. On the way out I told him that if she asks who cleaned the house, to tell him that we had nothing to do with it and he did it all himself. We were never there. We're going back over sometime this week to check up and see how things went.
A man from the bishopric in Sedona named Ellis Hyde talked to us while we were at Chris Baird's house on Wednesday (he's Chris Baird's step father-in-law) and he told us a cool story. He said he was on a church tour many years ago in Jerusalem and Legrand Richards was on the tour with him. The man guiding the tour wasn't a member of the church but he held a Book of Mormon in his hands for some reason. They were touring outside the wall of Jerusalem and they came to a "cavity in the rock." Remember where that is? Nephi and his brothers hid in a "cavity of a rock" when they were trying to get the plates back from Laban. The man said that there were some artifacts removed from this cavity which are now in a museum in Jerusalem. They were dated back to around 600 b.c. The man lifted up the Book of Mormon and said, "you don't understand what you have here!" Ellis asked Legrand Richards why that man wasn't a member if he had such a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Brother Richards said that he would lose his job if he joined the church and that he would be a better missionary if he weren't a member and that he'll receive his reward in the life to come.
Do all of us understand, "...What we have here?" Meaning the Book of Mormon? It's amazing to me to think that dozens of years have passed with scholars of MEN trying to disprove the Book of Mormon, but NONE have come up successful. It's true. And because it is true, this Church is true. Joseph Smith was a true prophet. He saw what he said he saw. This book truly changes peoples lives if they will just put it to the test and let its power work through them. It is at the foundation of my testimony and that is where it will stay.
Hope all is going well! I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you again!
Love,
Elder Mouritsen
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