Week 10 Letter to William from his mom

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!!!! The key to this is repentance, sacrifice, hanging in there in tough times, enduring to the end, and enjoying and being grateful for the good times (there will be many good times!) There may be times when we don't win some small battles, but the important thing is we will win the war! We will win the war over evil!!! And all of this is possible because of Jesus Christ! I love Him will all my heart and I am continually being reconverted to this fact! He Lives! He is the Head of this, His Church! He has once again established His Gospel and His Priesthood power again to the earth! Joseph Smith was the Prophet of the restoration! President Monson is the Prophet today! Oh how grateful I am to know this! How grateful I am that my son, my only son, is serving this God I love. How grateful I am that my son is bringing others to Christ.

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:

           66 ¶From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

           67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

           68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

           69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.      ~John 6:66-69

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!

Week 9, September 28, 2015

Area:  Green Bay, Wisconsin

Companion:  Elder Alldredge

Date:  September 28, 2015

Hi guys,

  How is everyone I hope you are all doing good! Things have been good here in Green Bay the work on the East side of Green Bay is doing really well, the West side not too well right now. I am serving on the East side  and we have 6 baptisms scheduled this month 6! Now these are just some dates for our investigators so they aren't all for sure but if they all work out that would be soo cool! Sadly I don't have any photos this week sorry I always forget. But I will for sure get some of all the baptisms. 

  Fun fact about Hispanics they are so nice and always want to feed you so this Friday we had 4 dinners you know how hard that was to eat the last two man I was struggling. Also its kinda rude to tell them you don't want their food so ya we ate all of it I think I had about 15 tacos no joke but that was only from two of the dinners so ya. I cant complain though cause the Hmong Elders barely get fed once a week by someone. 

  Lets see what has happened funny or exciting oh ya geez I almost forgot about this. So we just got done with an amazing lesson with this family who we got committed to Baptism and we are walking down the street and we see all these kids on their bikes and then we see these two big ladies fighting and one had a big Kitchen knife. The kids ride over to us and say ya that lady is crazy this is like a weekly thing and I was like dang lets try and help but then the cops came and took care of it so its all good. But ya pretty weird but like it says in the bible "its better to dwell in the wilderness then with an angry women" not joking that is in the Bible haha some where in psmals or Proverbs I think. So ya that's that story but that's all now on to the spiritual thought.

  So as I have now found out every single Hispanic says they are Catholic even if they have never been to church they all say they are Catholic. This can become frustrating at times because they think they are ok if they just tell us they are Catholic. But yesterday we got to teach this man who shared an amazing story with us about how pray has helped him get through his wifes recent death, we sat down and taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he told us he is hard core Catholic and he actually is he, unlike the other ones who have never been to church he goes every Sunday and has a good testimony about Christ. We left knowing most likely he wont be baptized, but I thought to my self that's ok because he is living a life around Christ and that's why I am on this mission to get people to have Christ in their lives! Now we thought about the other Hispanics who don't actually practice their religion, how can we help these people see that our church is different then the Catholic church. I didn't realize all the stuff they believed and that some stuff is pretty similar to ours. So we realized we just have to show them charity, they cannot deny how much service we will do for them! Every time even if they don't want to hear from us we will ask how can we help what can we do to help? This is how we will show people that our church is different and obviously teach them about the differences we have but I need to show more charity. That's my message show charity to everyone I love you all!! Talk to you later.

Love Elder DeSantis

Week 8, September 21, 2015

Area:  Green Bay, Wisconsin

Companion:  Elder Alldredge

Date:  September 21, 2015

Hey everyone!

 Well another week down and I am doing so much better this week so thank you anyone who prayed for me or who even thought about me it means a lot and it helps me so much! Well it has been a good week we are teaching a lot of families which is so fun I love having all the little kids around me listening to our message and then after we will play games with them and I just feel so much love for all the little guys and the parents too. We have two Baptismal Dates coming up one is Enrique his is October 10th (my moms birthday) the other is October 17th and this a family so that will be cool. I will for sure take photos of both of them! But we also have this one single mom with 5 kids -ya five kids and single that's crazy- but she said she wanted to baptized and all we did was a door lesson and at the end we invited her to be baptized and she said yes, we were so shocked by that so that was awesome. Um I'm trying to think if anything funny has happened this week oh ya we talked to this guy on the bus and he was like "you all Jehovah Witness" we were like no we are missionaries for the LDS church and he was like "Dats cool" anyways we get talking and he is like " I open to every ones opinion and beliefs as long as it makes some sense in my head" he then said " if I saw a flying dragon I would be like yep knew it, knew that would happen one day" man I was laughing so hard haha loved that guy and he was way cool but he swore a lot and would say oh sorry for my language I'll watch that then usually the next word out of his mouth was a swear word man people are funny. What else happened oh ya I finally became a Packers fan and bought my self a packers sweater its pretty sweet I'm pretty sure a grandpa owned it before cause it looks old and smells like old dude, ya I bought it at a second hand store all it took was 5 dollars to become a fan. I think that's all for this week.

  Now on to the spiritual thought of the week. As I was reading today in my Book of Mormon reading time I was just finishing Mosiah and this is where it talks about Alma the youngers conversion story. I love this chapter a lot so cool to see how one person doing such wicked things can still be forgiven but only through sincere repentance. After his sincere repentance it drives him to serve a mission and so I want to share with you a verse which describes why I am on a mission right now its in Mosiah 28:3 its says "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." I love this so much because I too have felt this dark abyss that Alma felt. I want to give hope to anyone who feels that there is no hope for them, that they feel like they are so alone and that they will always feel this. This is why I am on a Mission because it pains me to think that someone in Wisconsin feels alone that they don't know how to take these pains away. I want to find these people and give them the light they need to lead them to Christ so that he can heal them. When I find this I know I feel such amazing pure joy and happiness. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have about this gospel, so that I can go and teach people about it. If any of you feel alone or helpless please know that prayer is something we all need. That we can turn for help no matter what we have done, we were a teaching a young man yesterday who is trying to stop smoking and he was doing good for a little bit he has been slipping up recently and he told me he feels that he doesn't deserve to pray because he isn't clean. I told him this feeling is coming from Satan he teacheth a man not to pray. I also said the reason we pray is so we can become clean through our savior Jesus Christ. I hope all of you know that I know this is true that I know we have a Savior who suffered all imaginable so we can have someone to turn to. I love you all so much thank you for everything you do for stay close with your Savior and cherish your family!

week 7, September 14, 2015

Area:  Green Bay, Wisconsin

Compannion:  Elder Alldredge

Date:  September 14, 2015

Hey everyone,

  Well I am finally here in Wisconsin! My first area is Green Bay and holy cow everyone here is a HUGE Green Bay fan!  Even there garbage cans and fire hydrants are green and yellow. My new companion is Elder Alldredge he has been out for over a year now so he is training me really well. Its nice to finally be teaching real people now. Spanish is still difficult. For some reason find it easier to talk in Spanish then to understand  but I still don't know Spanish. Also there are a lot of different type of Spanish accents here because of all the diversity. Some don't even sound at all the same so that's fun.

  I will tell you about things that have been going on in Green Bay, we are teaching a couple families and its been way fun to teach them. We are teaching a boy named Enrique he is 14 and is getting Baptized on the tenth of October so I cant wait for that I know that will be a really spiritual time! But we taught his family and did a family home evening with them and it was so fun we had all the kids sit there and they listened to us and answered questions and I don't know it just made me feel at home I guess. After that night I realized how good it is to be a missionary cause I felt such true love and joy in that moment. I would tell all of you if you are not doing family night to do them because they will bless your family so much.

   I want talk to you guys about testimonies, testimonies are not enough and I have found that to be true since I have been here. I say this because while being here I have had a lot of doubts. I am embarrassed to say that but it is true. I will be studying or talking to someone in the street and then a doubt will come into my head wondering if any of this is true. These happen not because I don't know this is true because I do know they are true but because I am not fully converted to my savior. I thought I was but found that I haven't. These doubts are what lead people to become inactive because when a doubt comes into their head they all of a sudden question everything, I am lucky that mine has happened on my mission because I just keep learning and praying to know the truth and asking my Father in Heaven if these things are not true, the Moroni 10:3-5 challenge, I have been receiving answers that they are true whether it be by your guys testimony or a feeling. So what I am saying to all of you is to make sure you are converted to lord. I know I will be fine and these doubts will start to go away and I want to leave you guys with my testimony That I know this church is true. I know this because of everything I have in my life, everything I have gone through, every person I have met has always brought me back to this church. I know that our Savior Jesus Christ died for all of us in hopes that we will come unto him and follow and learn from by him. I love this Gospel for every thing it does for me, for all the joy I feel and love I feel from my Heavenly Father. Thank you all for your prayers and for your support I can feel it and I need it! Nos Vemos everyone!

Amor Elder DeSantis

Week 6 William arrived in Wisconsin!! Letter from the mission president

Area: Green Bay Wisconsin

Companion:  Elder Alldredge

Date:  September 11, 2015

Dear Brother and Sister DeSantis,
I was delighted to meet your son, Elder DeSantis, when he arrived in Wisconsin. We had an interview, training, dinner and a testimony meeting. The next day he met his trainer, Elder Alldredge,  and was assigned to labor in Green Bay.

The first few weeks of a mission are particularly challenging as your son adjusts to the rigors of missionary service.  Your weekly e-mail or letter will be a blessing as you build faith and give encouragement. Please write in a way which will strengthen and spiritually uplift, giving him courage to go forward in this great work. You should receive an e-mail from your son every Monday, which is preparation day.
Missionaries are allowed to call home and speak with family members on Mother's Day and Christmas. Visits from family members, friends, and acquaintances are against Church policy. From time to time, you may enjoy looking at a blog that Sister Cutler maintains. The link is http://wisconsinmilwaukeemission.blogspot.com/.
Letters and packages should be sent directly to your son. His current address is 730 Abrams Street #14, Green Bay, WI  54302.  He will keep you informed as to when transfer dates will be, and when he will be getting a new address.   Letters should be sent USPS First Class Mail, and packages should be sent USPS Priority Mail.  First Class and Priority Mail may be forwarded at no additional cost, should the need arise.  (Standard B, Standard Post, Parcel Post, Parcel Select and Media Mail cannot be forwarded).

Packages or letters sent FED EX or UPS cannot be forwarded.

It will be the responsibility of the missionary to let you know of upcoming transfer dates, so mail will not be sent to an inaccurate address.


Thank you for all you have done to prepare your son for the wonderful service he is giving.
Ministering to God's children brings great joy. While this missionary service will likely be the hardest thing your son has ever done, it will be the most rewarding as he loses himself in the Master's work and feels the power of the Atonement. Thank you for your faith and prayers.

Sincerely,

Raymond A. Cutler, President
Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission

Elder Alldredge and Elder DeSantis to serve in the Green Bay, WI area

Elder DeSAntis' mission President and wife, Brother and Sister Cutler

Week 5, September 1, 2015

Area: MTC Mexico City

Companion:  Elder Whimpey

Date: September 1, 2015

Hey everyone

Ah its crazy 5 more days till I peace out on my mission. I am getting the butterflies again its like i am actually heading out on my mission now! Next one you get from me I will be in Wisconsin! Lets see what happen this week, um so don´t be alarmed but I got a Hemorrhoid haha which most of you know what that is but I am fine, But I do have to put the medicine in an awkward place! On a more spiritual note Elder Christofferson came and spoke to us. Man it was so nice to hear from an Apostle they truly are called by God. I would make my weekly message about that but something else happened that I would rather share. But anyways I will leave you with a quote from Sister Christofferson shared it was about charity, She said "when rejection hurts not because of being rejected but because you love them so much and you know what you have to share with them will make them so happy, that is when you know you are a true missionary." I loved hearing this quote from her and it is so true! I cant wait to experience rejection cause I know it will make me so much stronger!

For my thought of the week now. So you know how every Missionary says he finds out why he was called to where he is, I believe I had mine or at least on of my experiences. So let me tell you about it, There is a kid in our District named Elder Durrling. He is the funniest nicest and cutest kid. He is from Sandy Utah and he went to Brighton High School, he loves playing Video games in fact he played 500 hours of a video game called Skyrim, he also loves watching Anime like a lot haha. He has had a hard life and him and his family have been through so much yet he still pushes through. I asked him one day if he would rather have any girlfriend he wanted or ride a dragon and of course he picked the dragon with no hesitation. Now to the part where I feel like I have been called here for a reason, we were walking back to the casa one night and we were just all talking and I said Elder Durrling I cant wait till your wedding and see you with you smokin hot wife and then he was like you would come and we said of course we would come! So we kept walking and I had my arm around him and all of a sudden I see he is balling and I was so confused and I looked at him and asked him whats up. Then he struggled to get words out but when he did he told us that we are his first real friends he has ever had. When I heard this I felt so overwhelmed with the spirit that we all just hugged him and cried with him. This Elder has the spirit of a Child he is so humble and has the best attitude about everything. He doesn´t know much spanish but yet he still stays so positive.  I was complaining one day about how hard this language was and I was saying it to myself then I hear Elder Durrling look and me and say you can do it man! That was all I needed to just put my head down and keep working! I love this kid so much and he has taught me so much! If I came on this mission just to make one person feel like they have one true friend I would be happy! My challenge to you is to go and just be a friend to everyone cause who knows what they are going through! This gospel really does bring true happiness please learn of it everyday! There is so much there to be learned and shared! I love all of you and can´t wait to share with you about Wisconsin and more about this gospel!

Elder Durrling and Elder DeSantis

Week 4, August 25, 2015

Area:  MTC Mexico City

Companion:  Elder Whimpey

Date:  August 25, 2015

Hi Family and friends.    So another week down and Im getting close to leaving the CCM and going to Wisconsin man I cant wait to get out there and start teaching real investigators! Man these weeks fly by but the days are pretty long, but I am learning a lot so its ok. Im trying to think of what happened this week but honestly all the days are just going into one day. We laugh at every thing and I dont know if that is because things are really funny or if we are just like so surrounded by weirdos but I dont care it helps me get through the day. 

  I forgot to take pictures of the soccer courts here but dont you guys worry I am getting plenty of soccer in also. The Latinos love playing with me I thought they would be a little bit better but oh well. One day I played until my little pinky toes got terrible blisters on them but it was so worth it. One kid tried telling me he was the second best mid feilder in Nevada and I was like dang lets play and then we played and shortly found out that he probably meant the second best mid feilder in his family but its ok I dont care, I just like to play so whoever wants to play with me I will play I dont care if they say they are the best in the world I will believe them and just start playing. 

  Okay enough about soccer onto my spiritual thought! I have this story to share with you guys that we had shared to us the other day Its called "The Day Jesus Kept Silent"

The day Jesus kept silent

I don’t quite understand whether it was real or a dream. I only remember that it was late and I was sitting on my favorite sofa with a good book on my hands. I was tired and I began to nod.

In that world between asleep and awake I found myself in a huge room, it was not a particular room except for a wall full of drawers like you find in a library. The drawers went from the floor to the ceiling and looked like there was no end on sight. Each drawer had a different name. When I got close, one of the titles called my attention:

Without paying much attention I opened it and started to read the cards inside. All of the sudden I realized that I recognized the name on each one of them. They were the

"Girls that I have loved!"

I started to realize where I was. This huge room with its endless drawers represented my existence. There I could find each one of the actions of my life even the small ones that I had forgotten.

I started to feel a sensation of curiosity, expectation, and wonder when I started to open the drawers randomly, to explore what they contain.

Some made me happy and brought me sweet remembrances. Others, on the contrary, gave me a feeling of shame and guilt so intense that I had to turn to see if someone was watching me.

The file “Friends” was next to the “Friends that I have betrayed” and “Friends that I have abandoned when they needed me the most”

The titles went from the ordinary to the ridiculous.

1. “Books that I have read”
2. “Lies that I have told”
3. “Condolences that I have given”
4. “Jokes that I have told”

The titles kept amazing me. In some drawers there were more cards than the ones I thought would be and in others less.

I was amazed by the volume of the information that I have compiled about my life. How could I have the time to write each one of these millions of cards?

But each card confirms the truth. Each card had my signature and was handwritten.

I became dumb founded when I saw the drawer “Songs that I have listened to”, when I discovered that it did not have an end in sight. I felt ashamed not for the quality of the music but because it showed how much time I have wasted.

When I arrived to the drawer “Impure thoughts”, a tremble ran throughout my body.

I only open the drawer a few inches… I was ashamed to discover its depth.

Randomly I took a card out and I read it. I felt sick knowing that “this” moment hidden in obscurity had been recorded.

I didn’t need to see any more… 

An animal instinct came out of me. A thought dominated my mind. No one should ever see these cards. No one should ever enter into this room… I have to destroy it! 

With insane feelings I pulled on a drawer, I had to empty it and burn the cards that it contained. 

But I discovered that I could neither empty nor could I burn the cards. I realized that I could not even dislodge a single one from the drawer. 

I became desperate and tried to yank even harder, only to discover that they were harder than steel when I tried to rip them.

Defeated and completely defenseless, I returned the drawer to its place.

Placing my head against the endless bookcase, invincible witness to my miseries I started to cry. 

Then the title of one of the drawers made me feel a little bit better. “People with whom I have shared the Gospel”. 

The handle shined when I opened it I found less than 10 cards. Once more tears came to my eyes. I was crying from the depth of my being. I could not even take a breath. I fell to the floor crying in shame.

A new thought came to my head: No one should enter this room, I need to find the key and lock it permanently.

While I dried my tears, I saw him. 

Oh no!!, please don’t!!, not Him!!, anyone but Jesus.

Helpless, I saw how Jesus opened the drawers, and read each card. I could not stand to look at his reaction. 

At that moment I didn’t want to meet his eyes. 

Intuitive Jesus drew near the worse drawers. 

Why does he have to read them all? 

With sadness in his eyes he looked into mine, I lowered my head with shame; I put my hands on my face and started to cry once more.

He came near, put his hands on my shoulders. 

He could have said many things. But he did not speak. 

He stood next to me, in silence. 

That was the day that Jesus kept silence… and cried with me.

And returning to the drawers, from one side to the other side of the room, started to open them and one by one and on each card he signed his name over mine. 

Oh NO!!, I screamed running toward HIM. 

The only thing I could say was NO!!, NO!! 

When I ripped the card from his hands. His name didn’t need to be in those cards. Those weren’t his sins they were mine!!. 

But there it was. Written in crimson. His name covered mine, written in his own blood.

He took the card from my hand, he looked at me with a sad smile and continued signing cards. 

I don’t understand how he did it so quickly. 

The next instance I saw him closing the last drawer and come to me.

He gave a tender look and said to me: “It is done, it is finished, I am carrying your shame and guilt. 

At that moment both left the room…Room that still is open… because there are more cards to be filled…

I still don’t know if it was a dream or a reality…but, of what I am convinced, is that the next time that Jesus returns to that room, he will find more cards that will make him happy, less wasted time and less vanity and shameful cards

This story really hit me deep when I read it, I feel we forget sometimes that God knows our thoughts and all of our actions. But God loved us so much he sent is only Begotten Son to Atone for us. Christ gave the Ultimate sacrifice and he now takes the shame and guilt of all of us. It doesnt matter if we decide not to use the Atonement it is already there for us. Now I share this with you not to make you feel guilty but to now remember next time you have that opportunity to brighten someones day or to share this amazing gospel with them you should do it, because when we are in the service of our fellow man we are only in the service of god. God loves all of us so much and all he wants is for us to make it back to him. We can do this I know at times we may feel a lone or feel that things are impossible but just know the Savior is there with out stretched arms. Thank you everyone for your prayers, I have felt them every week. Now my challange to you is to do good every day just go out and make one persons day, doesnt matter what it is just forget yourself for a second and go and find those who are in need of help. I love you all and I cant wait to get on and share next week more with you!

Love Elder DeSantis

Elder DeSantis with his care package from his mama

Thanks Dad for your amazing words, while I have been on this mission I felt the spirit so strong and feel that I have had almost the whole time I have been here! A quote going along with your light email says "Spiritual light doesnt come to those who sit in the dark waiting for someone to turn the light on, It takes an Act of faith." I know this to be true, when we act in faith the lord blesses us. I took the act of faith going on a mission and the lord has taught me more then I would have ever thought in last few weeks. I love you so much dad and thank you for the love you give to everyone, you truly do have the love of Christ in you! I am going to try and gain that attribute that the Christ had cause I believe that is his best attribute. Elder Bednar said if we have a question about anything the best way to receive an answer is by reading. He said to buy a blue soft cover book of mormon and read it all the way through with your question in mind and then mark it up, then once you are done write a paragraph of what you learned. So I am going to do that I am going to read with the question in mind of how to gain the love that Christ had! Love you so much Dad I know the lord has amazing things planned for you and mom! Stay strong Dad Ill be back before you know it!

Love Elder DeSantis