Shawn's Birthday on July 10, 2011

yes, he got your card, thank you very much

 

we also got our anniversary card, and thank you very much for that, too 

Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2010 9:11 AM
To: Kimberly T

Thanks for sharing!!!!! And a happy all day to you, Shawn. I can't tell, but I hope our card was there. I mailed it on Wednesday, so it should have been. Love to you all. Love, M

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From: trauntvein@comcast.net
Subject: Shawn's Father's Day
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2010 08:45:14 -0600

Enter message here...

These photos were sent from Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 3.0. Find out more: http://www.adobe.com/photoshopelementswin

Strange People

This week I have been able to meet and deal with people who are, in my opinion, just bizarre people. I must add a little bit of a preface to this email just so that all may understand: the people here are fantastically warm, charismatic, charitable and overall amazing, yet they are frankly a strange and bizarre race. Now that all of that has been formally anounced, I shall be moving on with the stories.

So all of my baptismal possibilities fell through for this week, and I was rather upset until I received a reference from another missionary. My companion and I went to contact it and we found a really cool, big family, we'll call them Family Grisi. Well, Fam. Grisi was rather interested in the church as their daughter, age 14, was baptized without their knowing about a year-and-a-half ago. They are unmarried and have a total of 5 or 6 kids. I was surprised and super excited. We set a wedding date and a baptismal date and set an appointment for the next day. I ended up going on divisions with one of my zone leaders and we went to go teach the family together, and even though he knew thatthey hadn't been taught very much he did a baptismal interview to see if there were any serious sin-related problems in the family. As it turns out the husband in Fam. Grisi used to be what? A hit man. Yes, and even better....we were asked by our mission president to ask the man what the circumstances of the murders were and if the man felt any sorrow for the sins he had committed. The circumstances were ridiculous, and what was even worse was that the man felt nothing! He said that what he did was justified for the needs of his family and other reasons. In interviews that I've had with men that have killed people they generally cry like little children when I ask them if they feel remorse for what they have done.

We left that lesson/house with a variety of feelings, and the main one was lament. It is sad as a missionary to see how spiritually dead some people are, and how spiritually inept a whole entire race can become if they choose to follow the beliefs and traditions of men rather then the words and wonders of a loving Heavenly Father. The people here trust more in their parents and pastors than the Bible, the very book that they profess to read, believe in and cherish. The most sad thing of all is the attitude of the people when they know that the Church is the Church of Jesus Christ, but because of their fear of their families or pastors they reject the truth and seek the recongnition of men rather than that of  God. As a missionary this makes one reflect and think: what will become of these people, or how can I change this people?

Even in their own language they seem to confuse the very core truths and essentials of the Gospel. I think one of the biggest lessons that I learned this week has been that I truly recognize the power of and the simnpicity of the Restored Gospel. While other churches and pastors may be good, they are not authorized of God, so indicates the Bible. In all reality, our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only most logical church on the face of the earth this day and I know it is the true church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that we have a prophet on the earth today and that he leads us and guides us by revelation and inspiration. Many people do not understand that God loves us and still communicates with his servants...that is a sad fact.

Well, there have been lots of other strange people, like a band of drunk men and a few other random Miskito men who either want to kill us or save our lives depending on the day. I love this people and I love my time here. 

Have a great week! Choose to be happy no matter what happens in life, and choose to be charitable. You never know when you might need help from others, so DISH IT OUT while you can and accept it when it comes.

Love,
Elder B