1.4.15

Ok, so yesterday we found a less-active couple that lives in our ward but goes to Ferrocarril (the other ward that shares a church with us). They were the old young men’s and young women's presidents. They showed us hundreds of pictures of activities that they did with all the youth and E' Rampton and I were like, “where are all of those youth?!” They are all inactive and stopped going when the couple was released. They really love the kids though and have a good relationship with all of them so we asked them if they would go visit the youth with us this week. They were completely down! The wife was like, “I don't work Saturday so we can have an activity in our house!” (We've been trying to get activities going for FOREVER but the leaders think that they have to have money to have an activity) They were both super sad that some of the youth left the church and are now pregnant or in jail or just bums. I talked to them about how my mom was the young women's president for like a million years and how she’s not anymore, but she still loves her girls so much, is having and has had a HUGE impact in their lives. Youth NEVER forget their leaders. I told them about how grateful I am for my leaders. (It made me a little emotional... I started thinking about all of them and TOTALLY LOVE THEM!) And we helped them understand that those bonds that they have with their youth are amazing. They will help them so much, but the bonds that they really need, are bonds with their Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We explained that if we can help the youth feel Christ's love in their lives and trust in His atonement, then they will come back, their lives will be so much better, and they will be on the path to salvation. The couple totally loved it and agreed to go back to church and help us reactivate these youth! It was AMAZING! And it goes with your new goal to find the less active kids who are going through hard times right now.

There are some HUGE changes in the mission this year. I'll probably just write a letter home because I don't have that much time to email. It's insane though! We're going to be strengthening the wards SO MUCH MORE now. Also, when we were in concilio with President, he told us that if we don't work on our Family History, we will be condemned...so yeah, I don't know what I'm going to do, because our family can’t seem to figure out the technology.

I'm glad to hear that so many things are happening. Please tell Jared, Kyle, and DTwiz that I love them oh so much and I can't wait to get back home and waste COUNTLESS HOURS on XBOX with them again! Annnnnnd, that I'd love an email from them. I miss Dontrel (sound how it's spelled?)

 

Thanks so much! I love you all!!!

 

E' McRae