The Devotional

Como via estou bem? I am getting so excited for the next two weeks, but let me start this letter off right. Ok, so on Tuesday for our weekly devotional we had an apostle of the Lord come and talk to us!!!!!!  I can't describe how that is!  It's something I highly recommend doing is hearing one of their talks in person.  Even before he came in the room, the Spirit was so thick you could cut it with a knife.  I am not kidding!  It was simply amazing and during the talk I don't think I have ever felt the Spirit stronger.  If that was all he did, I wouldn't have a problem in the least knowing that our Heavenly Father loves us.  But he did more.  Not to mention his wife and what she spoke about.  Oh and by the way, it was Elder Neil L. Anderson.  Sorry, I forgot to write that!  ha ha ha   His wife spoke on obedience and for these particular talks I decided to pay attention to what the Spirit was trying to teach me, so I had my spiritual ears on.  When she spoke,  the thought came to me that when we are obedient to the commandments of the Lord, he then can prepare us for greater things. Her talk was very short, but she seemed to have this ability to bring the Spirit so abruptly that it felt like it came out of nowhere, like someone had just simply passed you the ball in a soccer game.  It was really cool.  It was a different feeling when Elder Anderson got up to talk.  You could just feel the love and the Spirit emanating from him (by the way, I was like the third row back from the podium, so that was awesome too).  Also, when he walked in the room, everyone stands at silent attention.  I know I have said this a lot, but you could literally feel the Spirit pressing on you like a wave of air pressure of something.  I just wish you all could have felt it.  It was an experience that will be hard to forget. When he started speaking, rather than write down every word that I thought was important, I tried to focus on the things he was trying to tell me and then listen to the Spirit so I could make the most out of the talk.  It was so easy to hear and listen to the Spirit.  It was like someone was sitting right next to me telling me things and they were just simple things like, "prepare always", "It's all perspective in life", "act with diligence", "become comfortable with things unseen" (Proverbs 3:5-6), "never discount the worth of a soul", " stay humble", and those were just a few.   I have a whole page of things written, but the Spirit was strongest when he bore witness that Jesus is the Christ and gave his testimony.  After he ended and we sang our closing hymn, we all stood up again before he left and the difference in the room after he had left was like someone had turned the lights out again. I think ,if that's how it feels to be in the presence of an apostle, how is it when you're in the presence of the prophet or even the Lord, himself.  Anyway.... things to strive for.

This week in our lessons we are faced with teaching our investigators the law of chastity, which is interesting because if you don't lay it out in it's fullest, people will try to find a way around it.  So you really have to be clear and draw a hard line.  But, I know if we can teach by the Spirit, we can turn that law into a goal that our investigator wants to have.

Oh and yes, sometimes it does feel like I will never get to Africa, but we had some new elders come in on Wednesday and one of them had a brother that went to Mozambique, but he's not really giving us anything useful as far as maybe what we can use.  Most of the information is on how we should take care of ourselves, including how and when to take malaria pills.  Those come from the health clinic here and they are very good at their job.  The mission president hasn't sent me any new letters about how it is down there.  I suppose mostly because he is still trying to figure it out with being new too.  ha ha ha.

  

So I went to the temple today and did some iniatories.  I do those on days when I have a lot of p-day stuff to do and still want to go to the temple. I would love to get letters from Kyle (I kid you not, there are so many Russian- speaking elders and sisters here I think I may have picked up a bit , although I don't know how to spell any of it).  Tell him if I can I will send some peanut butter his way or get someone to do so.

I'm really feeling for Reid and where he is at right now with Scout Camp, but sometimes those camp outs are the best and when you look back you only wish you could have another one like it. Camping really isn't all that fun until something like the weather doesn't quite work out and then you really feel like you're camping. Other than that it just feels like you rolled in the dirt for a day ha ha ha!  On the topic of the sweater...that's a negative.  Honestly, I think you should just cancel it and send me a regular hoodie because the vest you gave will work fine.  I was talking to the doctor a few weeks back (by the way, I now have my malaria pills and I haven't taken any yet, but I'll get to that in a moment) and he said that it doesn't get like bundle up cold down there.  All you will need in the way of a sweater is one for like p- days and stuff so I think it would just be better to us a regular hoodie rather than buy a new sweater. I'm trying to think of things that I might need before I go, but I will keep it in mind.  I don't want to overload my bags though.  We got the malaria pills the other day and they have given us instructions on how to and when to take them.  They also gave us a paper with it and I am guarding it with my life. They said the pills were provided by the mission home, but I am still looking into that just in case.

Anyways, I love you all and hope you are in good health.  

Love your elder,

Elder Proksch