Monday, August 1, 2011

Letter from Elder Rife~August 1

First off, I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who fasted for my family and especially for my mom this week. Thank you so much! My mom is so amazing and I know that she has felt the love that so many people have for her. It's definitely hard to be so far away from everyone. Especially since my whole family will be going on a Disney cruise here in the next few months. But I wouldn't trade what I'm doing right now for anything. It's so hard to be away from my mom, but I have felt so much comfort and strength from the scriptures and the fact that so many people have been fasting and praying for my family!

This week was pretty good for missionary work. We taught 강사라 the first lesson and it went really well! She's already cruising through the Book of Mormon (read the first 6 chapters!) and is loving it. She hasn't been to church yet; hopefully we can get her out to church this next week. We really love her and are so excited to teach her again.

It rained a lot this week. I didn't get to take too many pictures and I'm really sorry. Next week I promise I will take lots of pictures! But I do have a pretty cool picture that I will send with this email. I hate when it starts to rain cause it really makes doing missionary work hard. No one goes outside so we resort to calling potential investigators and we haven't had much success with it.

This week was pretty hard for me. I still think about my mom's recent diagnosis a lot and it's hard for me to accept it. It makes me so thankful that I have been raised in the church and have been taught the gospel my whole life. We're so lucky to know that we can be with our families forever. It's so comforting to know that no matter what happens in this life I can be with my loved ones for eternity. The Gospel really does bless families. Whenever I teach that principle it's hard to keep myself from crying. I have the most amazing family and the fact that I can be with them forever is the most amazing thing. I have such a strong testimony of the gospel and how amazing it is, especially the Atonement. So many hard things happen to people in this life but ALL things that are unfair about life are swallowed up in Christ's Atonement for His children. I am so thankful for the Gospel and for Christ's Atonement for all of us.

I don't have much time left today. We're gonna go bowling with some other missionaries and try to go to Costco with some other missionaries to buy some food. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches every single day are kinda getting old. haha. I love you all, though, and am so thankful for all of the support I have and for all of the support my mom has. I am so thankful for the prayers of so many people for my family! I know the church is true. With all of my heart! I'm so thankful to be a missionary right now. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world! I'll write more next week. Sorry this email is short. Oh and I'm attempting Zone Leader pass off on Wednesday. Pretty intense! Anyway, I love you all!

-Elder Rife

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