Missionary Life!

This week I was given the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of life and the plan of Salvation.

Last Wednesday, very unexpectedly, a young father that I had been teaching, who is member, died in a tragic electrical accident. He went out to work at 4 in the morning, and had a visit with us at 11, but never showed up. The hospital contacted his family. The next day we entered him into his grave. I was asked to dedicate the grave. He was dear friend of mine and I could learn many things from him.

Inicially I felt great sorrow, especially for the family he left behind. But as I thought of the plan of salvation, I was conforted. We are eternal beings! Before we came to the earth we lived! Our time here on earth is but a small moment. And we will live after. We came here to earth to be tested, to prove to God and to ourselves that we truly love Him. That we would do His will. He promises us that as we do so, we will grow more than we can possible imagine, and that we shall inherit ¨thrones, prinicipalities, dominions, and kingdoms¨ if we endure to the end. We are all intended to become even as our Heavenly Father! That is His great plan! It is only sometimes hard to see because we are shrouded with the mask of life and death, and we can not see the end. But how grateful I am for an eternal perspective. A perspective that gives meaning to all I do. I know that one day I shall be able to see Jhonny again, and we will rejoice in the time we had to share and grow together.

Have a wonderful week, and be eternally grateful for all the many blessings in your lives. You never know when your time will come. Always show appreciation to those you love most. :)

Elder Evenson

4-06-15

I'm feeling 100% better now and I just loved conference! It was the best! What were your thoughts about it?? I noticed how they talked a TON about families and the relationships within. I loved Elder Ballards talk to the Priesthood, and Pres. Uchtdorfs and and Eryings in the priesthood session. haha you miss out big time!! I also liked Linda K. Burtons talk and Elder Ringwoods talks. and the talks by the two Elder Andersons :D the apostle and the 70! They were all fantastic! :)

bautismo y si confirmado

I have some new news for you. First off, I´ve got a new companion. His name is Elder Marcely, he is from El Salvador, the only elder in the mission from there. He´s got about the same time as me as a missionary.He´s awesome. he´s a spirit akin to Coltin. I´ve had a few of those as companions. :)

But the good news is that we had a baptize and confirmation saturday and sunday :) It was a real miracle. We had a miracle baptism this week. Limberg Añez. He was an investigador that we had actually baptized the14 of february, but he never showed up for his confirmation. One whole month passed that we didn´t see them, but we never ever gave up in looking for him. We found them again and yesterday was confirmed! We believe he had a problem with the law of chastity, and just ran away, but now everything is good. It was a true miracle. Elder Marcely confirmed him, and we both felt the Holy Spirit of Promise confirm to us that the ordenance was confirmed in heaven.

Do I look really skinny in my pictures? Everyone here is telling me that just in the last week I lost a ton of weight, and so I´m kind of worried. My sicknesses haven´t completely left, and I´m not sure what to do.

It´s been another rough week, but we did have a baptism! So that´s good. My sickness just isn´t going away though. It´s rough just to get from one place to the next. Buuuuutttt I have to work!!! I´ve only got a short time left, and I need to use it best as I can! There are miracles to be made! I just love being a missionary. There is no greater love I have than teaching the gospel. I feel such power and energy running through my body as I testify of the truth and teach the gospel! I wish I could just be a gospel teacher all my life :) Maybe I´ll study theology! Honestly if I could, I would make the church my whole life. That´s why I´d love to be a seminary teacher. I love being a missionary, but i only get 2 years to do that. :) I know that it is only by truly living the gospel that we can overcome all things. My family will be a gospel centered family, where the gospel is taught all week long, not just on sunday! That doesn´t work. I´ve seen hundreds of times here in bolivia how that does not work out! The Gospel must be everything! We must love God above all things. That´s the first commandment, and the most difficult, but it´s the secret to all success and happiness in this life. :)

The Mission (March 30th)

This week me and my companion have suffered a bit from sicknesses.
Elder Jones has had stomach issues and I got something called
Chickungunya.

Having Chickungunya gave me an unique experience to reflect upon the
suffering of the Savior. When I woke up Saturday, I arose to such a
pain as I had never before felt in my life. Literally every joint in
my body was in immense pain. I could not even stand or walk without
great pain. It was truly the most painful experience of my entire
life. And feeling such pain, I imagined how could the Savior have
suffered so much more. It was unfathomable to me. But as I reflected
and prayed to the Savior for strength the words of D&C 19:16-19 came
to mind and gave me comfort. The pain that the Lord suffered,
especially in the garden of Gethsemane, was so great that He sweat
great drops of blood. He suffered our pains, afflictions, trials,
sicknesses, doubts, and any other thing that could hurt us. (Luke
22:44, Alma 7:11-13) The Savior suffered all so that in the last day
we wouldn´t have to; if it is that we accept Him and His teachings. I
prayed that my experience would help me have more compassion for
others in the future.

But, I´m so excited for general conference next week!! I hope all of
you are as well! Prepare a question, any question, and Heavenly Father
will help you answer it through the voice of His servants, the
prophets! It´s the best really. :)

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Evenson


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Chikengunya (March 30th emailing session)

Just so you know, I´ll be writing a bit slowly today, I´m recoving from a dreadful sickness I got friday evening called Chickungunya. I´ll write more about that in
a minute. I just finished wrtitng president Willard.

Mom: Did you receive a healing priesthood blessing?

Josh: haha like immediately! I was in so much pain. It was the most pain I had ever felt in all my life saturday morning. It usually lasts an  entire week, and its a miracle that I´m out and about. I´m still not totally better, but its a lot less for sure.

Missionary Life (March 23)

We have been working with a man called Joaquin Barba since about
December of last year, and this last saturday was baptized. He
suffered many many trials even before ever being baptized. He is a
taxi driver, and has 5 small children, age 7-0. His wife, Karin, is a
member, but was less-active. They are very very poor, and during all
this time suffered various health problems with himself, and with his
kids. About two months ago was when all the big trials started to
happen in his life. The car he drove wasn´t his; he paid rent, and one
day he had to take his boss to a meeting and his glove box fell open,
and there was his Book of Mormon that we had given him, and all of a
sudden his boss just started verbally abusing Joaquin for having it
there. ¨What are you thinking?? Why are you wasting your time with
religion?? Do you think God is going to give you money for your
family?? Work is all there is!¨ And other similar things. She ended up
threatening him that if he continued visiting with us that she would
leave him without work. So Joaquin was really concerned. There were a
couple of hard hard weeks for him, and the relationship between him
and his boss only got worse. We continued visiting him, trying to help
him see that this was a test of his faith. And the tests only got
worse! Right at the end of Carnaval, all the taxis of his boss´s line
of vehicles had some sort of party that was obligatory, and there
present was beer and alcohol and every type of horrible thing you
could think of. And they all pressured Joaquin to drink and do drugs
and just bad bad stuff, but Joaquin stayed strong and rejected all of
them, just drinking soda. In the end Joaquin lost his job, but he knew
that the church was true, and decided to be baptised. He now has a
new, and better, job! Yesterday he expressed so much gratitud that we
never left him through all the trials, and told us that he truly felt
peace, and happy now. Elder Jones baptized him, and I confirmed him.
haha i won´t even go into the craziness of this week preparing his
baptism. The Lord opened up all the closed doors and made a miracle
happen. How I love being a missionary!

Elder Evenson

March 23 emails

But hey just so you know, we had a baptism on saturday!!!!! It was such a miracle seriously. It was a crazy crazy saturday and sunday, but so wonderful. :) I´ll send some pictures!!

This week I got a new book, The teachings of the Presidents of the
Church: Ezra Taft Benson, and I have just been loving it. He was such
a great man and did so many great things. Also he´s from Idaho! He
loved the principles of prayer, hard work, humility, and the love of
God. We are studying this manual in Priesthood (elders quorum) this
year. I love studying the lives of the prophets; they inspire me, and
help me to see the vision that the Lord truly has for us in our lives.

As a missionary I have been really focusing on testimony this last
little while, and I have felt such a large change in the way I see
myself as a representative of the Savior. I truly feel like I´m here
to represent Him and His church and I feel great love of the work! So
I´d like to share me testimony with you today. :)

I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know He loves us and sacrificed His
life for each one of us, and that as we go unto Him, He can heal and
comfort us. I couldn´t say that before my mission, but now I know. I
know that He wants us to be happy, and that comes as we follow His
example; in everything. I know God hears and answers our prayers, and
that through faith miracles can be made. I know that this life is all
a great test, and that obedience is what will carry us to the presence
of God once again to live in eternal happiness. Obedience is SO
important! It is the great teacher of our souls. I know that Joseph
Smith was a prophet of God and that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of
God today. I know the Gospel is true! And what happiness and love and
peace it brings.