I love the letters that I have been able to read of my friends who are finishing their missions. I am so impressed by their faith and desire to serve God. It makes me want to be a better missionary and reflect on my willingness and desire to serve the Lord... I feel like we can always ask ourselves that question, and even as we come up short have the confidence that our best efforts and full dedication will bring us the blessings of the Lord and make up all the difference.
Training Elder Murillo has been a difficult task. I know that I haven´t mentioned it that often but it truly has. Harder than my time in the mission office or in other leadership positions. In part that has come from a huge desire that I have had for Elder Murillo to be the very best missionary that he can be. I know that he has the same desire even if we both come up short at times. Our progress, however, has been incredible and looking back at our first week here in Santa Ana I come to the realization of just how many things have changed.
I am pleased that I have some good news to report on the people that we are teaching. Niels Holland Basurto is prepared and excited to be baptized this fourteenth of June! The Lord has been to good to us and put many people in our path who were preparred to receive the gospel. Yesterday, as we were teaching Niels two commandments, I was amazed when, after we taught them both and then asked Niels to explain to us in his own words what we had taught, he explained perfectly both commandments and his desire to live them. I thought back on countless investigators that I have taught who have had such trouble understanding or accepting the different gospel principles, and in one moment we find someone who has little or no problem at all in living it.
To finish off, I was thinking a little about the talk that Elder Ballard gave in the last general conference. He talked about how sharing what we learn from Preach my Gospel during our letters home would be a wonderful way to get excited about missionary work and the blessings we can receive as we share the restored gospel with others. This morning I read about our premortal life in Chapter 3 of Preach my Gospel (lesson: The Plan of Salvation). I reflected on the great blessing that we have in this time here on earth to prepare ourselves to be worthy of the blessing that we always wanted, to become like our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ! Anyone is greatly blessed by that knowledge. It brings perhaps most importantly a sense of purpose to our lives that we would be lost without.
I love you all! Thank you for the love and support that you give me every week!
Elder Neff
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