4/28/14

Thought this week I'd share my testimony with you :)

I know that God exists. I know he is our Heavenly Father, and He loves us. He loves us so much, His glory is to bring us back to His presence. He is always by our side in times of trial, and wants nothing more than for us to grow and become better. I know that our Savior, Jesus Christ lives. He rose the third day, and in doing so broke the bands of death, that we might have hope for the future. I know that through the Holy Ghost, we can each individually receive revelation directly from God, and know what things we need to do or change in our lives. The plan of salvation is the plan of happiness. There is no better way to be happy than by living by the principles of the gospel, and most importantly, loving God with all our might, mind, and strength. That is where there is true peace. I know that without God, we are nothing, and how wonderful it is that God is so good! I know that through gratitude, we can be happy in the darkest of times, and as we turn ourselves outward, and think of others needs first, we can become true disciples of Christ. The way that God would have us live is this, "and now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated, full of patience and long suffering; being temperate in all things, being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need; both spiritual and temporal, always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive,

And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works." Alma 7:23 and 24

I know this is the Church of Christ, and that He leads and directs us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

(The picture is of me and Elder Burrola at a dam close to Vallegrande. We went there to go fishing! haha we didn't catch a thing, but it was really beautiful and reminded me a ton of Idaho :) Elder Burrola is from San Diego California :D haha but his parents are from Mexico, and he speaks fluent spanish)

4/14/14

It´s truly quite amazing how the Spirit works in our lives :) I´ve had so many experiences with the conferences with my mission president where I felt prompted to talk about or study a particular topic of the Gospel, and it ends up being the same as others. It´s truly a testimony to me that God really does guide us where He wants to be, granted we are willing to listen :) 

One of my more recent goals is that I can say a prayer right before every lesson I have, so that I will rely on t he Lord that He will fill my mouth with the words I need. If we don´t rely on the Lord for our teachings, we aren´t really helping our investigators, because with the Spirit, He will give us the very things we need to teach or ask! I´ve seen the most remarkable things happen as my companion and I  have relied on the Spirit to help those we teach :) I´ve received new ideas, completely unrelated things that they have needed, and been guided with every word. It´s so cool. :) 

 

I wish so badly for the love that our Heavenly Father has for each of us. I really thought about our Savior´s role as our older brother. I realized that I can really relate because of the love I have for Wade and Mckade. I would do anything to help them understand the importance of the Gospel, to really learn to love our Heavenly Father. Anything. I´ve always felt such a great responsibility to watch out for them physically an d spiritually, I can only imagine how our Savior feels, as he is the oldest brother of billions! I´m sure that helped Him as He atoned for us.. I can´t wait for the day when I can talk to Him again, and see His smile and feel the love and comfort of His arms around me :) I know He loves me so much. :) 

I really love the theme for the youth this year, moroni 10:32. Really that is the purpose of our mortal journey! The way we can be truly happy! When we built upon ´the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ,´ I know that, ¨we shall not fall!¨

We´re are all counseled as missionaries to primarily use the BoM as our primary teaching tool, as it teaches the divine, simple and restored truths of the Gospel. I just love it! I learn so many things from it, and I´ve really come to realize that every single sentence of that book is revelation. It is the best guide we have to come closer to our Heavenly Father like Joseph Smith said. :) 

Vallegrande is just amazing! I love it so much. The weather is great, in the winter, sometimes it snows here! And i´ll be here for that! The ward is great right now, it´s really suffered some challenges the past years, but i´m very lucky to be here in a time where they are finally finding some stability. The people are great though. It´s actually freezing here today! I could barely sleep for the cold. I´m way glad I bought those thermals! I´m wearing them right now :D

4/21/14

I don´t have much to report this week. Turns out that fever I had got a lot worse on Monday right after emailing, and we ended up in our house 7 days! I got a fun disease here called dengue. The mosquitoes pass that fun disease out, and tons of people in Santa Cruz get it. I was there in Santa Cruz two days and one of the them with dengue just happened to get me! So i was just sleeping a lot this week. I did go to a clinic and got a shot and some medicine, but all is well now! So that was my fun of the week. 

 I got to talk in our ward this week for sacrament, and I had the opportunity to talk about the sacrament. I shared about the resurrection of the Savior and the great importance of remembering Him in our lives every week. I really do like giving talks :)

04-07-14

The leadership training was fantastic. I learned so many things. One of the things that impacted me the most is that President Willard talked to us about sacrifice, about how the Lord asks for 100 percent. 80 percent is great. 90 is fantastic. Those missionaries and people are great, but the Lord wants 100. Like with the sacrifices of old, you had to kill all the animal, not just a part of it. The difference between Abel and Cain, is that Abel gave a blood sacrifice; Cain didn´t. The Lord knows that when we give Him our all, we can love Him the way we need to, rely on Him the way we need to, to trust in Him the way we need to. That was just one thing. 

As for wanting to go to BYU, it kinda ties in with what I just said funnily enough, (really though everything in the Gospel is connected) I´ve learned so much on my mission to this point. I´ve changed a ton of who I am and who I want to become. I´ve come so much closer to my Heavenly Father, but I know I have so much more to do. God wants us to live up to our potential. Every one of us is the son or daughter of a Heavenly King. And that is what our potential is. God gives us talents, attributes, and capabilities, so that we can grow them, and then use them to help others reach their potential. God has given me the potential to do a lot of great things with my life, and I want to reach my full potential. So I believe that requires the best of everything that I can get. BYU would give me the chance to grow in so many different ways, and especially spiritually. The greatest men that I´ve ever seen, or met, are rock solid in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They know that they have potential, and that others do as well. And they do everything they can to be the best version of themselves that they can be. God has given me the opportunity to do more, so that´s what I want to do. :) 

Here´s a fun experience that I had this last week :) (I wrote this to the president, but I thought i´d share it with everyone :) )

I do want to share with you in this letter a really cool experience that Elder Burrola and I had this last week. So as you know, our goals for this week were high to say the least, and I believe it was Wednesday, but it was about 630 in the afternoon, and we had a grand total of 0 lessons for the day. I was a panicking to say the least. Elder Burrola said, ¨just three lessons. We can get three.¨ Now we had been working, a lot. We had at that point visited every planned person, talked to more that 20 people in the street, and couldn´t get anything. But I got the determination to find three lessons. So then it was 730, and still, not one lesson. I just knew though, there were three lessons out there for us. We were walking and searching with purpose, and Elder Burrola had the idea to go to one of the older investigators that we had and they let us in! So we taught a short, powerful lesson, and charged out, looking for our last two. We just started walking, and I had the idea to go the main plaza and see if we could find some families enjoying the evening in the park, so we went there. And there were families there! Before our last hour of the night was up, we found two families to teach, now they were horrible lessons and they had no interest, but we got our three lessons. I learned that the Lord always has people for us to teach, it just depends on how much effort we´re willing to give. We did everything to find those lessons, and the Lord blessed us in His time, not ours. :)

Haha really im learning so many things, I can´t always remember what to share :D That´s awesome for Mckade :) And I´m so happy that you guys are reading together! That will help you all more than you can know. All of you should write the thing that impacted you the most from conference and send it to me in an email :) The priesthood session was probably the most powerful session of general conference i´ve ever heard in my lifetime. I didn´t get to see a lot of the sessions, only priesthood and the sunday morning session, but I just loved them. Also study Preach My Gospel as well! Elder Ballard talked about that I believe, Its amazing how inspired that book is. Every single sentence is so important. :) Truly it is scripture of our day! Love you lots!

Elder Evenson

Chile earthquake yesterday

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/04/02/80-magnitude-earthquake-reported-off-chilean-coast/

 

We heard about a giant earthquake near Josh that happened last night right off the Chilean coast - only approximately 200 miles from where he is living right now. We are thinking about him and will be anxious to hear from him next week - wondering if he felt it?! There is a mountain range between him and the coast, so that may have tempered the quake a bit for him.

Fwd: From Josh 3/31/14

Ok so lots changed this week! We had our transfers, and I got transfered. I'm now serving in a little city called Vallegrande. Hahaha very little, there are only 4 missionaries in our area, and we don't belong to a zone because we are so far away. Its about 5 hours from Santa Cruz. I'm serving with Elder Burrola, who is from San Diego. He's the zone/district leader and has been in the mission 15 months. And we are way excited to work. we're ready to go and change all of vallegrande! This last sunday there were a whopping 30 people in the sacrement meeting; we're serving in just a branch. haha the people there are so awesome though. The Lord is really preparing the people there to receive the gospel. haha i keep saying there because we came back to santa cruz today for a leadership training, im only here because my companion is like a zone leader :D Vallegrande is sooooooooooooooo beautiful! I already know it will be my favorite area. It looks like it could be a little town in Italy or something. The weather is like Idaho, just so perfect, and its cold sometimes!! So I'm just way excited, and in our three days, Elder Burrola and I have had a ton of success. We're working our butts off to make miracles happen :)

Tonight and tomorrow morning is the leadership training, normally i wouldnt get to go, but elder burrola talked to President and I think I'll get to go in :) No I wasn't too suprised, we were told this was the cambio of all cambios. (cambio means change in spanish and is also what we say for transfers) I will take tons of pictures of Vallegrande, and send one of my companion next week :)

Well I met a whole bunch of new people this week... tons of them. Well there is this kid named Javet, he is the ward mission leader in a city called Vallegrande, and he's 21 years old. He is about one of the coolest guys. He's a recent convert of about one year, and is just amazing. His testimony is so strong, and he had no fear to share the gospel with all the people that he knows. 

That's what they do all day everyday (taxis back and forth from Vallegrande to Santa Cruz). haha its a shuttle system but yeah, it was expensive. :D

So here was one great thing I learned from Elder Grow last week. He has 8 children, and all are married in the temple. He said that the key was that they always put the Lord first in their lives. They always got up early in the morning to read scriptures and pray together, before all the things of the world got in the way. I want more than anything to raise a family like that :) So that's a goal for my future family, that we'll always put the Lord as the most important thing in our lives. And That is my challenge for you guys right now. :) Study Preach my Gospel together, and the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants and pray together as a family every morning. :)