I love the updates on everybody! Softball sounds amazing. I can't dwell on the thought but I'm still going to say it, I can't wait to attend those tournaments! Idaho Falls is one of the best! It's no surprise that Madison is already writing her own songs and singing them... Future T-Swizzle I'm thinkin??? haha That is so cool! Everytime I think back on this past year my mind is blown by how fast it has gone. I can't believe I'm still in the same area, seeing a lot of the same people, with just a little bit different responsibilities. The past two weekends I've attended baptisms in the Country Gables and Campobello wards (my first two wards). I saw people that I worked with almost eight months ago. They came up to me and said, "Man you must be coming to an end pretty soon eh? You've been here forever!" I never thought I would hear someone say that to me. It's fun to know so many people. I hope to stay here my whole mission.
We had some great experiences this week. Thursday we had a lesson with a new investigator named Jacklyn Morehead. We knocked on her door about a week before. At our first lesson, she talked about how previous to us knocking on her door she was walking home from school and was praying about the reality of God and His existence. Probably around the same time, we were praying that the Lord would prepare someone for us to talk to that would be interested in our message. In other words, we set a "Window of Heaven." In our lesson, she was telling us this experience and how it was really weird that less than a half hour after she prayed, we knocked on her door. As she was talking, I thought about how we prayed for her as well. I related our experience to her. It then occurred to me that the Lord had answered her prayer, by answering our prayer. As we talked, she was nearly in tears. It was really cool to talk about how much our Heavenly Father loves us and the way that He answers our prayers. We continued to talk about the Book of Mormon. Previously, we had assigned her to read 2 Nephi 31-33 and she had done so! She had lots of insight and questions that we discussed. The spirit was very strong and we invited her to be baptized. She said that if she came to know it to be true, she would. She is going out of town for a few weeks because school is on break but we see her getting baptized in the not so distant future!
Wednesday they checked my MRI on my shoulder. It turns out that it is a Reverse Bankart (sp?) Lumbar dislocation or something like that. haha That means that it actually dislocated out of the back of my shoulder and it is not as apt to dislocate in the future but it is still going to be painful. He said that I will need surgery but I could wait until the end of my mission. The recovery time would be about a month in some sort of sling and then 2-3 more months of some physical therapy. I'm still debating whether or not I should just do it here because I don't think it would hinder missionary work at all, or just wait till I get home. I just don't want any work to be hindered so that takes out the option of going home for surgery or staying in the apartment while recovering. We will see what happens in the next couple weeks.
Saturday was Nina's baptism! It was so great. I think it was even more important to her because it was also her deceased mother's birthday and she will be able to be baptized for her in the near future. What a cool experience!
So we had a good discussion recently about Helaman chapter 5. Verse 6: Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good. The question from this scripture that came up was, "How are we living up to our family names? What sort of example are we setting for our future families?" When we go up to the bar of God, what will we tell him about how we lived up to our family name? What will we say when He asks us how we lived up to His name? It was kind of an eye opener for me because I know that I have some huge shoes to fill with the family name that I carry. And then I am also a child of God and how will I live up to His name? I just thought it was a cool thought.
Thank you so much for all you do for me. I love you all very much. I'm thankful for your support and for helping me continue to stay absorbed into the mission.
Love,
Elder Mouritsen
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