January 9, 2012

Hello there haha,

So it's been several weeks since I talked to Eddie on Christmas, and I still haven't recieved a letter or an email from him haha. I think I am going to break things off, I don't know if things are working out between us haha. Jk I really miss them! As well as the rest of the family... and yeaaaah. This is that point in the letter where you have to start mentioning specific names of people so they don't feel left out haha. But, yeah... Anyways... the reason I didn't have a long email last week is because we usually email at the library, and my computer shut me down after like 20 or 30 minutes... L.A.M.E....

However, I was very happy to see your emails today, and be able to write you a letter that isn't anything but negative haha. I am a happy person, I am doing great things here (No I do not recite this in front of the mirror every morning... ahhhh, ya caught me.. Anyways... now that the spirit is here haha. That's what Vanhin Nielsen used to say when ever we got off on a tangant during something important haha. It happens a lot!! But it's okay. I miss Vanhin Nielsen! He was so great. Every day I think about something He taught me. Definately the best trainer! How is He doing, what is he up to??

So this week/ change has been one of theeeee hardest of my mission! I have never had such a hard time finding people! But the Lord has been teaching me a very big lesson on whos' work this is. I don't like it when people say I am thankful for my trails, because I am definately not! However I am grateful for what I have learned from them. I definately don't want to re live some things I went through, but I do know that Heavenly Father helped me to grow during those hard times. (Elder Larsen is looking at my computer screen so I am just going to say nice things about him so he'll think I like him...) Okay Elder Perry, let me go grab the worlds smallest violin, while you drown in your pain haha... no life really is good! We have had a lot of really cool experiences this last week!

Our numbers were the lowest that they've ever been on my mission, but I learned an important lesson from my District Leader when i was on the phone with him last night. We were talking and He asked how the week went. I told him that things were going slow, and it was a hard week. He paused, and said really?? Our week was great! He talked about his numbers, and they were exactly the same as ours! He talked about how they helped a bunch of less actives come back to church, and how they did a lot of other really good things, that didn't apply to the numbers. After the phone call, I looked back on the week, and I realized I was focusing more on the numbers than people. No wonder it was a hard week... As I have thought to my happiest times on my mission, it was when I focused on others, and helping them to be happy. That's when the Lord blessed us with so much success.

I had an awesome study today. I studied about prayer. President Rawlings has counseled us to pray always. In everything we do. I studied that today. In the bible dicitonary it talks a lot about what prayer really is. It says something along the lines of, once someone really understands the relationship that we have with God (namely that He is our Father and we are His children) thats when it becomes instinctive, and important for us to prayer. All of the so called problems with prayer, come from forgetting that relationship. When i think about people that say they don't pray, or don't like to pray or pray sometimes, it is exactly because of this principle. They don't understand who they are talking to when they prayer. They don't feel the blessings, because they don't do it. As I continued to study it, I read farther where it says, Prayer is the means whereby the will of the Father and the will of the child come into correspondence with each other. Our objective is not to change the will of God, but rather secure for ourselves the blessings which He is already willing to give us, but are conditional upon our asking for them.

I recieved a humbling renewed testimony of prayer last night, and this morning. At the close of this week, when I stopped complaining inside myself, and truly went to God for Him to help me, that's when I felt that, this week really wasn't so bad haha. I am so grateful for all of your testimonies, and counsel. I know that you love me, and I want you to know how much I love both of you. I think about you both everyday, and I always am so excited to read your letters.
We had a cool experience during our planning meeting last week. We were sitting there, and we felt all of the sudden like we should call our BML for a meeting. We realized that we needed to meet with him. We called, and arranged to meet at the church that night. We walked down, and Elder Larsen forgot the church key haha. We met in His car, and it was pretty hilarious. After wards when we were walking home, we recieved a prompting to go try a potential on the way home. We talked about it and decided to do it. We walked and all of the sudden this girl (that looks like our potential investigatior) walks into her building. I opended the building door, right as she walked into our P.I's room. I went and rang the door bell, and she opened right up. We have a teach on thursday haha. Sooo cool!! It is so cool to see those little things work out.

I can't believe it's 2012 either! So cool! Apparently the world is going to end this year before i go home... I guess this is a pretty good place to die haha! I was thinking this morning as I was getting ready, wow, I will be getting ready to go home next year at this time... that is so weird. One thing I wanted to say, however not focus on. Mom, I don't want to bother you because I know you're really busy, but I was wondering if you could look into some more scholarships for me, and also when the time comes we can talk more about it, but i really want to see my options when it comes to going to school. If I can get a scholarship to go out of state somewhere good, then that would be cool. I don't want to limit my options to just BYU haha or UVU. But I don't want to focus on that until Fall when that stuff is important. But the scholarship thing, I can write the essays on my p- day's and stuff. I really want to look into that Army scholarship from Dad you were talking about, and also a housing scholarship, and also FAFSA. Sorry that I'm babaling, I just need to get it off my mind so I can get back to work.

I love you both very much,
Elder Perry