From Dad 11/25
Hi to the great men in our lives,
How are you all after an awesome BYU/U of U game win for BYU! The last two minutes were so amazing! Electronics and being a senior missionary couple is a different way to live on a mission. It was great!
The young single adults wanted their own version of a “Thanksgiving Dinner” last night. It was a fun time with a good turn out. There was even a non member there to whom the elders were able to teach a first discussion and get to know better. Mom added enough of the good usual ingredients (such as the turkey, potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes) to make it very much an American experience. Afterward we played games and sang songs. There was a gratitude among the youth to be able to just spend time together doing things they would have only good feelings about themselves and about the gospel afterwards. The youth in the Church are leading out toward better and happier times in the Church.
With the adults we teach, sexual purity and obedience to the laws of the land are our two strongest traditions we work to unravel from their lives and to replace them with the light offered in the gospel. It is amazing when you think about the comparison used in the scriptures of being wrapped around by “chains”. There could be no more clear explanation about what is going on in their lives. Joseph Di Dinato and Alicia Antivo are two young parents responding to the light of the restoration. Joseph remarked Friday, “I have never understood the Atonement they way it was taught today”. He saw something in the atonement. He saw the Savior doing what He did solely and only because he wanted to do it. He felt a new attachment to Jesus Christ. This gives us hope. Great effort is required to make changes in our lives. Joe loves his two daughters, April and Katey, ages 4 and 6. He told us the second time we met him his whole life centers around them. This love is what we hope will have enough strength to help he feel in his heart the direction to follow to eliminate the chains that have bound him for so long. Tradition is something when we become used to it, it seems more natural and easier to live with than the truth and its resulting blessings. We have a new appreciation for the great struggle our forefathers experienced breaking free from the chains of 400 years of captivity in Egypt.
Ron Peterson quietly is taking one step at a time to bring the light of the gospel into his home. Martina has had struggles in life we may not ever fully understand. Ron’s love for his family helps him move straight ahead not stepping to the right or to the left. Friday he met with his wife, Martina, and her friends from the Jehovah Witnesses, perhaps for the first time and as far as we know at least for the first time in the past year. He has learned enough about the teachings of the Church as a young priest and they have been sufficiently refreshed in his mind that he is ready to go to work to “reclaim” his family. Their daughter, Jennifer, 23, and their son Erik, 17, and their grandson, Dustin, 2, are worth fighting for in Ron’s eyes. Bless mom’s heart. She is a woman who wants to live without contention of any kind. It has been difficult for her to separate out the contention in other people’s lives and the blessings of bringing the light of the gospel into their homes from the contention to which we contribute by our own thoughts and actions. Light always chases away darkness. It was the light of the gospel, our pure testimonies of its truthfulness and our live for our Father in Heaven that brought Satan and a third of our Father’s children to decide there was no longer a comfortable place for them to be found in our Father’s presence and they wanted to leave. Love was and remains the only thing the adversary does not and cannot understand or fight against.
We are thankful for our family. We are thankful for every member who feels the stirrings in his heart to be or become loyal to the priesthood which we hold. Only good will come from it. It is a privilege to be alive and experience heart ache, loneliness, sickness, setbacks, and all of the other good experiences bringing growth and a reaching out in our hearts to get to know our Father in Heaven better and to learn to follow His ways and taste of His miraculous blessings. He looks forward to bestowing eternal life on all those who want it with all of their hearts and gain sufficient trust in Him to allow Him to guide our lives and family safely home to Him.
We look forward to coming safely home to our family in three more months. Nothing takes the place of family. You are the center of our lives. We will love each one of you forever!
Have a great week.
Love always,
Dad
How are you all after an awesome BYU/U of U game win for BYU! The last two minutes were so amazing! Electronics and being a senior missionary couple is a different way to live on a mission. It was great!
The young single adults wanted their own version of a “Thanksgiving Dinner” last night. It was a fun time with a good turn out. There was even a non member there to whom the elders were able to teach a first discussion and get to know better. Mom added enough of the good usual ingredients (such as the turkey, potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes) to make it very much an American experience. Afterward we played games and sang songs. There was a gratitude among the youth to be able to just spend time together doing things they would have only good feelings about themselves and about the gospel afterwards. The youth in the Church are leading out toward better and happier times in the Church.
With the adults we teach, sexual purity and obedience to the laws of the land are our two strongest traditions we work to unravel from their lives and to replace them with the light offered in the gospel. It is amazing when you think about the comparison used in the scriptures of being wrapped around by “chains”. There could be no more clear explanation about what is going on in their lives. Joseph Di Dinato and Alicia Antivo are two young parents responding to the light of the restoration. Joseph remarked Friday, “I have never understood the Atonement they way it was taught today”. He saw something in the atonement. He saw the Savior doing what He did solely and only because he wanted to do it. He felt a new attachment to Jesus Christ. This gives us hope. Great effort is required to make changes in our lives. Joe loves his two daughters, April and Katey, ages 4 and 6. He told us the second time we met him his whole life centers around them. This love is what we hope will have enough strength to help he feel in his heart the direction to follow to eliminate the chains that have bound him for so long. Tradition is something when we become used to it, it seems more natural and easier to live with than the truth and its resulting blessings. We have a new appreciation for the great struggle our forefathers experienced breaking free from the chains of 400 years of captivity in Egypt.
Ron Peterson quietly is taking one step at a time to bring the light of the gospel into his home. Martina has had struggles in life we may not ever fully understand. Ron’s love for his family helps him move straight ahead not stepping to the right or to the left. Friday he met with his wife, Martina, and her friends from the Jehovah Witnesses, perhaps for the first time and as far as we know at least for the first time in the past year. He has learned enough about the teachings of the Church as a young priest and they have been sufficiently refreshed in his mind that he is ready to go to work to “reclaim” his family. Their daughter, Jennifer, 23, and their son Erik, 17, and their grandson, Dustin, 2, are worth fighting for in Ron’s eyes. Bless mom’s heart. She is a woman who wants to live without contention of any kind. It has been difficult for her to separate out the contention in other people’s lives and the blessings of bringing the light of the gospel into their homes from the contention to which we contribute by our own thoughts and actions. Light always chases away darkness. It was the light of the gospel, our pure testimonies of its truthfulness and our live for our Father in Heaven that brought Satan and a third of our Father’s children to decide there was no longer a comfortable place for them to be found in our Father’s presence and they wanted to leave. Love was and remains the only thing the adversary does not and cannot understand or fight against.
We are thankful for our family. We are thankful for every member who feels the stirrings in his heart to be or become loyal to the priesthood which we hold. Only good will come from it. It is a privilege to be alive and experience heart ache, loneliness, sickness, setbacks, and all of the other good experiences bringing growth and a reaching out in our hearts to get to know our Father in Heaven better and to learn to follow His ways and taste of His miraculous blessings. He looks forward to bestowing eternal life on all those who want it with all of their hearts and gain sufficient trust in Him to allow Him to guide our lives and family safely home to Him.
We look forward to coming safely home to our family in three more months. Nothing takes the place of family. You are the center of our lives. We will love each one of you forever!
Have a great week.
Love always,
Dad
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