Dear Elder DeSantis,
Well it's another Monday and time really is flying by. You are already in your tenth week. I truly think of you every day! I am extremely thankful that are whole family is getting to go through this most unique and thrilling experience of you serving a mission. I know this is a sacrifice for you, that is not always easy, but I promise you it is ALWAYS forth it. There is no greater work that you could possible be doing right now. Your unselfishness is providing opportunities for Heavenly Fathers children to return to Him! We are all so proud of you William!!! We all love you so much! It is really sweet, your sisters always tell me the cute prayers that each of their children pray for you every day. Your mission has been so good for all of us here at home when we find ourself having a little crisis of faith. Your mission helps us to remember our commitment to the Gospel. So not only are you helping to convert new members in Wisconsin but you are helping to recommit your family in Salt Lake City. Did Lizzy send you the video of CoCo teaching? I will send it just in case she didn't. It is the cutest. Also the prayers she prays for you are so sweet, funny and cute! She prays that nobody will scratch you or hurt you everytime she prays. So I believe you will be very protected from physical harm! I bet you don't get scratched even once on your mission. At least not by a person!
I am assuming that you got to watch conference. I truly felt that for me this was the most powerful and amazing General Conference ever!!! I always love conference but for some reason this one was particularly special to me. Grandma, dad, and I got to go to the Saturday morning session. We were in our seats an hour early just visiting with each other and with people around us. Sitting next to us was a cute guy who was recently off his mission from Scotland and Ireland. He was still on his mission high and said it was the greatest experience of his life. Well as you can imagine the conference center was buzzing with noise of happy conversation when all of a sudden it got totally quiet and everybody stood to their feet. I stopped talking and stood up as well. Cute President Monson was being helped into the Conference Center. I was so overcome with emotion and could not hold back the tears!!! The Holy Ghost once again bore a powerful and undeniable witness to me that President Monson was indeed a Prophet of God. His feeble body was worn out with the weight of his many many years of serving the Lord full time as a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator! His physical body was feeble but his mind and spirit were as vibrant as ever! Sunday morning as we watch conference I was completely spellbound by the spirit and I received a witness that the three new apostle that were called to fill the vacancy in the quorum of the twelve, were truly Prophet, Seers, and Revelators! I was so overcome with the Spirit as they spoke!!! They are amazing men who are now Prophets and the will be fantastic! OH I LOVE THIS CHURCH AND I AM SO THANKFUL TO THE MISSIONARIES WHO TAUGHT US!!!! I will forever be in their debt!
School is going well, I can't believe that I am already half way through my last semester! I will be graduated before I know it!!! Pray for me that I will find a job that the Lord wants me to have. I am looking so forward to being able to take care of people physically, mentally, and spiritually and I know there is something that the Lord wants me to do. I just love health care. It makes me happy and I love it! Studying the human body always confirms to me watch an amazing Creator we have!!! The body is a miracle!
I want to share a little parable with you that was shared with me in Adair's ward a few Sundays back. *** Can you remember times when you weren't able to watch an important, critical, and exciting ballgame, whether it be soccer, football, or basketball? So because you were not able to watch it live, you recorded it so you could watch it later. You didn't listen to the radio or watch TV for fear of finding out the score and finding out whether your team won or lost. You told everyone around you, "Please don't tell me the score! I am recording the game and I want to watch it later!" You are just about to sit down to watch this critically important game when you overhear someone announce the score to the game and right then you know that your team won! You are frustrated that you found out the final score but you are also happy that your team won the game. Upset that you know the outcome you sit down to watch it anyway. You find that you cannot help but cheer for your team. You get audibly anger when there is a bad call!! You yell at the TV- "Hey ref, that was a horrible call!" Then you say to yourself, oh ya, but we won! Then later on your team gets scored on so now your team is losing. You yell and get upset and then you say to yourself, "Oh it's OK, because we won!" Then the best player on your team gets ejected from the game for a flagrant foul. You are so mad! You yell at your team member, "What in the heck are you doing? Now you have lost the game for us!" You are now panicked because you know that it will be very difficult to pull off a win with this team member out of the game. But then you remind yourself that your team still wins. You are once again relieved! Then another one of your best team member gets injured and has to be subbed out. OK, now its going to be really tough to win, oh wait, that's right, WE WIN! Then you are scored against and are losing and there is only a matter of minutes before the game is over. You feel yourself getting upset and feeling dejected and think to yourself, "Well, it's over now! We can't possibly pull off a win!" You give up, but then you happily remember and laugh to yourself, "Oh ya, we do pull off a win!" *** Well, life is very much like this! Because of the Savior and what He did for each of us-WE WIN! We are promised that in the end, if we don't give up and if we remain true and faithful we will win the battle of life! We are assured that the grand prize, the best victory, will be ours. During this life of trial and testing we will be knocked down. We will get injured. We may even have to sit out for awhile because we gave into sin (flagrant foul), BUT we still will win the game because of the glorious gift of repentance! There will be times in our life when there are bad calls against us, it won't feel that this is fair! But we remind ourself that we still are going to win the game. There will be times when we want to just give-up and give-in and then we are reminded that it is worth the fight, so we put our cleats back on, pull on our GK gloves and get back out there. WE WILL WIN THIS GAME OF LIFE BECAUSE OF WHAT OUR SAVIOR DID FOR US!!!
In Romans 8:28 we are told, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." The scripture says ALL THINGS": sin, bad calls, unfair situations, flagrant fouls against us, sickness, injury, pain, suffering, joy, good works, righteousness, happiness....everything!!!! Th
I love you William beyond words!!! You are an MVP in this game of life! Many will call your name blessed for what you will and are doing for them. Be patient son! The message and gospel of Jesus Christ will not be accept immediately most of the time. Don't give up! Have faith! Pray for your investigators! And most of all LOVE them with all your heart, might, mind, and strength! Some will turn their backs on you! They did that very thing to the Savior Himself! After Jesus was teaching the multitudes this happened:
I love Peter's response!!! "Lord, to whom shall we go?"
It is true Elder DeSantis! You can do this! You "...can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth..." you!
Philippians 4:14
I LOVE YOU!
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