Email from Elder Lofthouse 10/27/14 Serve!

V came to church yesterday with his wife and daughter!! He is super excited about his baptismal date on the 22nd. They had to leave right after but he said that they will stay all three hours next week. We are going to see himTuesday or Wednesday this week. 
Sadly, no one else came to church including recent converts. It was a strange day. Oh, except for one very special sister, P. She's 84 and hasn't been to church for a few months because she's always feeling sick. But she had lost something important and couldn't find it and she told Heavenly Father in a prayer that she would go to church five times if she could find it. And right after that she did! So she's been making a real effort to be able to come. She's so awesome!
We've been really struggling at getting members to lessons with investigators and finding new investigators. Our ward mission leader should be coming with us to visit V this week and we're going to try and find a member to come out with us each day this week. We're also going to make finding time more of a priority in our planning. 
I feel ready for these last three weeks. It's time for a sprint to the finish. I don't want to have any regrets my last day.

I would just like to testify of the principle of repentance.  I also went to share my thoughts on 3 Nephi 11:30-41.  The doctrine of Christ is simple.  Those who have faith in Him, repent, are baptized,  receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end will be saved.  They will receive eternal life.  What is eternal life?  "That they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3).  What does it mean to know them? "That they all may beone; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us" (John 17:21).  The goal is to be completely united with our Father and His Son and then to be united with each other.  To become of one heart and one mind.  Only then will Zion be established (see Moses 7:18).  How is that accomplished?  I believe it is in losing our lives in service.  When we seek to serve others to glorify our Father, we become more like Him and we help others to get closer to him as well.  
So go out and serve someone!  Do good!  Be good.  Let go of your will and seek His.  You will see miracles.  I promise.
I love you all!  I hope you have a wonderful week.
Love,
Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 10/1314 Going Strong!

A got baptized yesterday! It was really good. I can see her serving a mission one day. I love that family. C reset her baptismal date. She wants to shoot for November 16. I think the fact that I'm leaving will help her do everything she can to get her situation worked out so she can get baptized before that. Her boyfriend has been bringing a lot of opposition into her life but for the most part it only seems to be strengthening her resolve. 

We had a good lesson last night with V's wife. Apparently he's been going to his AA classes every day and doesn't get back until nine. Except Thursdays! So we should be seeing him then. In our lesson with N (his wife), we reviewed the importance of the Book of Mormon and read Moroni 10:3-5 with her. She opened up to us and shared all her doubts about how she finds it confusing because it's difficult to leave the Catholic church but believes it's possible that the truth is in this one. She said that all she wants is for her family to be united. She's the only one that goes to Catholic church. She said that if V will commit to our church, going every Sunday and such, that she will follow. We want to talk with them on Thursday about eternal families and being able to be sealed together in the temple.

At random moments it hits me that this is it. This is the end stretch. And maybe I'm crazy, but I've been praying for God to give me experiences to help me grow and progress, "mountains to climb" if you will. They've been coming, I feel like I'm seeing more of my weaknesses than ever, but recognizing that God is just answering my prayers gives me strength to face those trials and weaknesses with determination to rely on the enabling power of Jesus Christ to overcome them. I've noticed that when I struggle most is when I start focusing more on myself. When I'm doing really well it's because I'm focused on the people we're teaching, members, my companion, and other missionaries.

Tomorrow we are going to be having a conference with Elder Nielson from the quorum of the seventy.  He asked us to read a couple talks by Elder Bednar beforehand about the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  I love this topic.  If you can I strongly suggest reading "Bear up their burdens with ease" and "The enabling power of the atonement" both by Elder Bednar.  I know that the Atonement is not just for cleansing us from sin, but strengthening us to bear up our burdens, overcome our weaknesses, and become better disciples of Christ.  

I love you all!  Hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 10/6/14 The Beginning of the End

Wednesday marks the beginning of my last transfer.   I feel very confident as I move into these last six weeks. Sunday morning I woke up and the thought came to me, "Last transfer. Don't mourn. Don't stress. Just give." I felt so much peace and I know that as I focus on simply giving, I will finish with no regrets. 

I LOVED general conference! It's always such a great experience. And we were blessed to have three investigators who were able to see at least one session each. I'm sure it was a great experience for them as well. One of the main things I got out of it is that life is a process of continual revelation and progression. We are here to prepare and it's okay if there are still many promises left in my patriarchal blessings left to be fulfilled and I still have weaknesses to work on and so much left to accomplish. If I had it all done in the next couple years, what would I do the rest of my life?? 

On Friday we got to watch the upcoming movie, "Meet the Mormons."  I strongly encourage everyone to see it this weekend.  It is so great and it will really soften and open the hearts of many, many people who see it around the country.  It's going to be showing here in Visalia and the members have high hopes that it has a lot of success.

A is excited about her baptism on Saturday. She downloaded the gospel library app on her ipad so she can read the friend, the other picture books the church has (she finished the Book of Mormon Stories), and listen to primary songs. She's so great! I think she's really going to be a support to her mom.

As for our other investigators they haven't been making a ton of progress, though C did watch some of conference at a member's house. We're going to follow up with her today to see how she liked it and we're really hoping we can find a ride to the missionary farewell tomorrow so we can show her the temple. I think our focus this week is going to be dropping investigators that aren't progressing and finding new ones (through members ideally). 

Elder Mora is doing really great. It's been such a blessings to see his growing conversion to the gospel. He gave a powerful training on the difference between testimony and conversion in district meeting last week and I know it was powerful because he's experiencing it. A week or two ago he started having really effective studies and now he absolutely loves it, whereas before his mission he didn't read the scriptures very much. He's a good planner, has a powerful testimony, is great at talking with people and I know he's going to do such a great job on his mission. I'm very blessed to have him as my companion.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.  Review often the conference talks we heard this week because they truly are modern revelation.  

Love,

Elder Lofthouse