Shalom Shalom

Hello 

You will never guess what I did this morning! In the Hyde Park ward (central Londons family ward) there is a recent convert named Baruch who is a Jew from Jerusalem. So a few years ago he was baptised, disowned, yada yada, now he lives in London and spends all his time helping out missionaries. Any how we meet up with him this morning and he took us to a Jewish Sabbath Day service. It was incredible! I was a bit long for my likeing (3:30 hours) but super intresting. If i could compare it to anything is would be a happy Catholic mass. The only problem was that is was all in Hebrew so I had no idea what was going on. In the Synagoges they view all visitors as angels so we got the seats of honor. (front ro right next to the Holy of Holies) Now supposibly King David was a red head so they esspecially liked Elder Giboin. Because Baruch speaks Hebrew he kept telling us whenever someone would gossip about him. Baruch is a literal decendent of King David so the who time he had to be super secretive about his identity or else he would have had to lead the whole service. I think that the most intresting part of the service was the Torah that they gave us to follow along with their reading. Of course it had the English translation (almost word for word from the Bible), and had commentary and explainations of Hebrew meanings given by various Rabbi. It shed alot of light on different things that I previously didn't understand. I'm sure the temple will make more sense now. I'm going to try to get one for further study. 

The local Rabbi gave a short like five mintues talk about a Hebrew word (I dont remember what it was) that meant 'in the midst of'. H read several different references like the children of Isreal going through the 'Reed Sea' (Red Sea is an Arabic translation), when Moses entered the cloud of the glory of the Lord on mt. Sinai and when Abraham went to the people of his city. Then he expounded the meaning of 'in the midst of'. For instance the children of Isreal did not walk through the Sea by walking in the water but the water rose up like walls on either side. So he likened it to us that we are to be in the midst of the world but not in it. Going through it but not getting wet. I thought that that was cool. 

So earlier this week I had a terrible headache that was keeping me up throught the night and rendering me nearly mentally incapable of doing anything. I got a blessing and as expected the head ache was gone, however in the blessing my companion told me that it was time to start planning and thinking about what will happen after May finishes. Something I have been procrastinating and putting off and denying. Well since then it seems like whenever my attention is not demanded by the work (ie late at night/early mornings) my mind has been pre-occupied with the subject, and possible oppurtunites keep presenting themselves. It is intresting how the Lord works and what impressions I have been receiveing. Like for instance, I have built myself into a shadow of who the Lord wants me to be but when I go home this will be the time that this character will be fortified. Therefore the Lord wants me to place myself in a position and environment where it can best be fortified. I have felt that I need to set my education and eventual career goals much higher then I previously thought. ( funny side note, I also felt 'don't worry about it right now,  marriage will happen in its own time). Ok anyways the point of the matter is that it is crazy that I'm recieving promptings to prepare to go home. I talked with President and he told me that it would be a good idea for me to research study courses!

 

Hickory, Dickory Dock, The Mouse Ran up the Clock

Mum,

You began you're last e-mail assumeing that I had forgotten how to kiss, yes I have been out of practice but I'm such a natural it won't be a problem. Sheldon, well done with your meet bro! I hope you don't have to many problems with epidermis. That's important, keep it healthy. So I would tell you about my week but I've no idea where it has gone, kinda ran away from me before I was ready to start.

Our Monday meeting with President Patch went quite well. They are always insightful and uplifting. I feel really blessed that we get to go to his flat for these meetings rather then in his office. His flat is just like a temple. Super clean, exquisite yet modest and Spirit filled. I really miss the temple, I can't wait to go back. I have learned so much i can't wait to just go and ponder on what I have learned and see what the Lord thinks about it. I'm happy to report that I'm enjoying my mission more then ever. With how the schedual is we don't have any big meetings to prepare for or special reports to do so we have alot of time to work. As it goes we get to go on plenty of companionship exchanges. These are always a highlight for me. Every single missionary who serves the Lord is an exceptional person. Everytime  you come in contact with them is a oppurtunity to experience their greatness. Early this week I went on a companionship exchange with Elder Hinckley. What a great guy. He is currently training an Itallian missionary Elder Rossetti. They are haveing a wonderful time together and doing good work. The next day I was with Elder Barber (Ireland) and Elder Hristov (Bulgaria). Then I finished off the week with Elder Krebs in Watford. It is so excited to see how the Lord is working in their lives and touching there hearts. I'm so grateful that the Lord sends 19 year old boys to serve missions. There is no better investment of time. Let me repeat. THERE IS NO GREATER INVESTMENT OF TIME, then to serve a mission for the Lord. I have seen boys who grew up as drug dealers, womenizars, and partyers be touched by the spirit, and then come on a mission. Then once they got here an amazing transformation takes place. Living in an environment of the Spirit opens their eyes to a whole new dimension of things. They are stretched beyond their limits. They are force to the very limit of their strengths and almost compelled to cry to the Lord 'Help me Lord because without thee I will fail!' And the crazy part of it all is that they are not stuggleing for themselves, they struggle and toil completely for others. Whenever missionarys get frustrated it is because they cannot see that their efforts are helping someone. It is absolutly amazing. Of course I'm taking this from a missionaries view but it is the same with most callings in the Church. A bishop anguishing for those who disqualify for a temple recommend, an Elders quormm president straining to increase hometeaching, a hometeacher forgoing activites and his own to-do list to visit a member. Serveing the Lord is the greatest way to spend time.

While in the middle of writing that last paragraph President and Sister Patch just walked into the office returning from a conference in Germany. Their very presence emminates the Spirit. I really hope to be like that, that when I walk in the room people feel comfortable but feel a desire to improve themselves. They shared some really good stories. Randomly at the conference the mission President for the Finland Mission asked President Patch if he had any missionaries that spoke Myanmar. Just so happens that we have a Sister missionary from Myanmar. So turns out that a 17 year old was baptised in Finland who has no idea what he is doing but wants to serve a mission. Well this boy has 30 other Myanmar FAMILIES that also want to be taught and the Mission president has no idea what to do. He asked if he could use Sister Lwin to teach them over Skype. President Patch said he would probably just let them borrow her. How cool is that?! Also another cool story. In this months Ensign there is a story of a missionary from Armenia who went through the temple in Preston while at the MTC and couldn't spea English. This missionary served in our mission about six months ago. He was and Assitant around the time I moved to Basildon. It is just amazing to see how the Lord works and organizes things for you.

We have an investigator from the Kingdom of Brunei (little country in Maylasia) who we have been teaching for a couple of weeks. Early last week we taught her about baptism. It was a powerful lesson. We read Mosiah 18 and asked her 'what have you against being baptised?' she answered nothing, then came the baptism invitation. She  felt that a few times in her life she was like a trapez artist who got to the top of the swing and when it was time to let go didn't and went swinging back. So she explained that we was at this point again where she was at a cross roads. She felt that it was right but had to much going againt it. So we reschedualed to see her. That weekend she got bad news from home, and we lost contact. Late Monday evening I was standing in a door way one the phone as she walked past. I hung up the phone and stopped her (scaring her in the process...oops) and set up an appointment. the next day Elder Giboin taught her and at the begining of the lesson she told him,

'I have prayed about baptim and I feel that I have gotten an answer.'

'....And'

'I know it is the right thing to do. I'm going to go ahead with it. Even though I now that it will change my life and my family will be opposed I have this feeling that everything is going to be OK.'

How great is that! I was so excited. I love how as you serve a mission you heart expands and envelops so many complete strangers. These wonderful people that you only share limited time with will never be forgotten and become so dear to your heart. The Spirit has that effect. It unifies and builds confidence. It is how we feel Gods love, and Gods love is the greatest thing we will ever feel in this life. It is the strongest adhesive you can use to bind and hold a relationship together. The Patch's are a wonderful example of this. It seems like every time the spirit is manifest in their presence Sister Patch will reach over and grab Presidents hand. I think that the Lord wants it that way.

Any how enough of my waffleing on.

I love you all,

Elder Brighton Solomon

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Daisy's baptism

Us and Bella

Wow what a busy week!

Monday morning started off a bit crazy. Of course we had to do our weekly call-ins which took ages and was especially electric because everyone was anticipating moves call and any kind of hints about what would happen. I had a little bit of fun dropping invalid hints and suggestions. As soon as we were done preparing the report we headed off to Presidents flat. He sat us down we went very quickly over the missions week then he invited us to his study office, to look at the moves board. That was really cool to sit down and listen to him explain about how he was inspired to make this and that move. Elder Hales was released as an assistant and is opening a new area and training. It was a bit expected but really exciting. We had to prepare all of the travel information which was a headache and then we had to prepare for the new missionaries coming in. To say the least we spent alot of time in the office. We had nine new missionaries coming in so we had to open three new areas across the mission.

Oh by the way have i mentioned that Elder Brower is coming back? I'm so excited to pick him up this week. anyways we had a great time orientating them. It was really motivating to spend time around these missionaries full of faith and scared to death. They had such a spirit of energy. Elder Irving (one of the new missionaries) played in Elder Giboins band two years ago and Elder Hales is now training him. It was cool to see them all become immediate friends. Elder Sridar Paramalingam from Switzerland has been assigned as the new assistant to President Patch. He has a great reputation of diligence, creativity and hard work. He definatly lives up to that reputation. He is a great man and I really look forward to learning from him. 

We spent this week working really hard and prepareing for the transfers. Our investigators are all doing really great. Bella has decided that she wants to be baptised as soon as the other building opens..... and we have a handful of other people prepareing. Daisy was baptised on Monday which also happened to be her birthday. It was a powerful service. We had two Chinese speak the first in Manderhin and the second in English. After the ordinance Daisy bore a powerul testimony. She made a firm promise to all present that she would live up to and keep the promise that she had just made with God. She is going to be a great strength to the ward. Because our chapel is closed we had to go across the river to the Centre for the YSA for the baptism. It is in a building for a ward in the London South mission. I saw my old MTC companion. That was super weird. He has grown so much be hadn't seem to change much. It was good to see that he had accomplished so much. 

We had zone leader council this morning. That was great. President Patch talked about a compass and how reliable it is. then of course came the comparison that we are like compasses to the people we teach. He also shared with us his definition of 'expedient' which is 'urgently necessary'. He then lead us on a scripture chase which talked about the expediency of the atonement and the expediency of teaching the plan and principles of salvation. The he read Moroni 7:33 'And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.' Powerful. What a great teaching, through faith in Christ we can have power to do His will. Kinda makes me want to not waste effort in something that is not his will. It will just fail. It would be so much better to just learn His will and recieve power to do it according to our faith.

 

I have never been better or happier then I am now. Thank you for all your support and prayers. I hope this letter finds you all happy and well. 

Love,

Elder Brighton Solomon

Zone Conference X3

What a week! Sunday was great, church went well. Monday was crazy busy trying to get everything done and sorted. We had to do all the reports and then prepared everything for zone conference. Because the Hyde Park Chapel is cloesd for renevation we had to have our zone conferences at three different chapel which adds to the preparation. The night before our zone conference in Wembley, the Elders locked themselves out of the flat and we almost didn't have access to the chapel. Luckily the portly English lad and the lanky Sovenian were able to climb a wall and get in on the upper story. This zone conference was a memorable one. It was my last! My heart dropped straight to the floor when people I was in the MTC with began sharing their 'departing' testimony. Well after hearing zone conference x3 I can now basically quote what was shared. I think ya'll would find that boring so i wont bother you.

Our investigators are doing amazing. Daisy got back from China this week. She had a great time there. She said that living the commandements in China. she completed the Atonement study in PMG (that ususally takes about 12 weeks to do she did it in 1 week). She does alot of blogging and one of her blog entries she shared with us  about love. She talked about how it is wierd that we use the same word to describe how we feel about a sports team or a movie as we do describeing how we feel about our parents or a spouse. Then she testified powerfully about how God's love surpasses all understanding and how we can not accurately compare it to any thing. It was amazing. After she read it to us we all kinda stood their speechless for about five mintues. Every time some one would try to say something it would just kinda die in their mouth. 

We have a few other investigators who are also getting ready for baptism. One is Bella (also from China). Last Sunday we taught her all about polygamy... She asked. So now she is trying to hold onto that as an excuse not to go forward. She also fears that if she joins the church her social life will be seriously limited. She is right on that in England and esspecially in China. Despite all these concerns she is still full of faith and keeping all of her committments. She is crazy every lesson with her is like pulling teeth. She attacks the doctrine at every possible angle and after an hour of close to battling we invite her to do something, ie. live the law of chasity and she says 'ya no problem- i already believe and live it.'  Its crazy. Well transfers are next week. Elder Hales has been here for six months now so we are all pretty convinced that he would be leaving. I'm excited to see who the 'new guy' is going to be. Mostly because I don't want to be the 'new guy' any more. I thought that being so close to President I would get a bit more insights as to what was going to happen. Turns out all the assistants were not lieing when they said they didn't know what was going to happen. 

Well I hope all is well with you all. Dad hang in there. Sheldon give it all you got. Mom thank you for being a great example. Elder Hales and I were just talking today about how gateful we are for our mothers. Particularly how gratefull we are they you would cook dinner for us. We now somewhat can appriceate how much effort it takes to make a good meal.

 

Elder Solomon. I'm so happy that you ran into Elder Hall! He is one of the coolest missionaries I know. We had such a great time with him. Ask him sometime about Chop Stix and chili oil. Hahah poor lad....

 

Good NEWS! Elder Brower, the missionary that I trained, had to go back to the states for almost 4 months for a surgery. Anyways he is comeing back!!! he was suppose to arrive yesterday but he tore a bunch of ligement is his hand playing basketball one last time this week. So now he will be comeing in a couple of week. I'm Still super excited for him.

 

Love ya'll

Hey,

 

Had a cool experience this morning. I was is Basildon yesterday... story for later, we switched back this morning. We dropped off you stuff at the flat and then were going to head to the office to email. On the way we ran into a group of students from Boston University on their way to Hyde Park to play some football. We invited ourselves, changed and joined them. It was so good to throw around the ole pig skin. Very first play, defense picked it off. Second play offense touchdown. i felt really cool. As we were playing with this group of Americans I remember/realized how nice and friendly Americans are. Everyone seemed to be generally happy, positive and complementary. A stark difference to the sarcastic cold shoulders that I have gotten use to and even grown to love. It only got a bit awkward (for me at least) when one of the girls caught the ball and it was just me between her and the endzone..... I timed it perfect and touched her billowing shirt as she passed. Dodged the bullet and saved the day.

 

Any how business items. I would like to spend the day on Sunday in Basildon ( maybe Saturday also) Lizete wants to feed you and I'm sure Bishop Nicholls would as well. One day in Hayes. Dover would be nice to visit for half a day. I would also LOVE to visit the temple and go to family history sites in Cornwall. I have seen all the sights in London (more or less) Ya'll can decide on what you want to see there. Let me know so that I can serve as a tour guide (might need some preparation). I'm so excited for yous to come!

 

Ok we had a great week. We had our interviews with President Patch. They were speed interviews (5-10mins). This came from the mission dept. supposibly they want missionaries to be more self sufficent. Also they cut the number of interviews and Zone Conferences from 17 in a mission to 7-8. anyhow I have found that with President Patch you can make interviews really long if you become the interviewer and ask him good questions. We had a great chat about haveing a change of heart. I learned so much. He is so wise. He is one of those people that when you are around him you just want to be better, even if he doesn't say anything. I want to be like that. 

 

Events this week..... I spent some time in Whitechapel area with Elder Alarcon (from Mexico City) Had a great time, he would make the perfect little brother. Whitechapel is one of the roughest area in London. Although guns are outlawed over here we heard a couple of gun shots at night. At one point we were walking through a subway (pedestrian underpass) and I notices a dried puddle of blood. a few steps latter I saw another one then splatter marks all over the wall next to it...... I was glad that the sun was up and I could get out of there quick. He made me some nice quesadillas, proper Mexican style. (not really we only had sandwich ham, white cheddar cheese, and chinese sweet chilli sauce.) I had some really cool experiences when I went back to Basildon for an exchange. I was there with my replacement (Elder Bierberg from Swenden) On the train ride there I kinda dosed off and this place I went to once flashed into my mind. I was 100% awake and I knew we had to visit it. I then asked 'which house number'. I looked out the window and saw a sign that said 12 and felt really good about it. I thought about it a bit more and realised I didn't know the street name or how to get there. Then the thought came, 'when you look at the map you will know. So we spent the next couple of hours in town centre (put that story on hold). While there we set up 4 potential appointments. which is usually what you can do in about 20-23 hours of finding. With a half hour left to go we said a prayer and asked the Lord to help us find one more person. After the prayer the very next person that we talked to was intrested! How cool is that. Then we saw a Lizete and Geoff (who are doing great) finally we had some time. I told Elder Beirberg about my train revelation. He agreed that we should go. So not knowing where to go I looked at a map. Then I found it Charter House. It was like it was written in red ink it stood out so much to me. Long story short we went by and contacted him. He was cool and wanted us to come by some other time.

 

I know that the Lord directs our paths and was we follow them things work out for the best "Man's going are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?' Proverbs 20:24

 

 Love you all

 

Can't believe I'm 21 feakin years old

 

Elder Brighton Solomon

England London Mission 

64-68 Princes Gate

Exhibition Road

London 

SW7 2PA

07800614419

WOW: speechless

Ok right now I'll have to take a few moments to process  the news I have received. OK first Sister Larson passed away? That's so sad. What a wonderful women. She had an air about her that whenever I was near her I felt like I was standing in a holy place. Paige is engaged?! Going to be married in five weeks? Either that is a super quick engagement or you are just doing really bad at updating me.... Aunt Michelle is pregnant?....   It is a good thing that I have not taken my shoes off yet or else that would have hurt pretty bad when my jaw hit them. I'm just speechless.

 

Brigg! Hey so this is a bit selfish but i hope that you get reassigned to the SLCS Mission and get to serve around Elder Hall. Man he is great guy. I don't know how many times i have heard stories of visa waiters that when the choose to get the most out of it, see some amazing miracles in their temporary mission. I can't wait to see where you will be going.

 

Sheldon with the Mountain View hotties huh? Well let me give you a bit of advice. Listen to whatever dad says about them... He will most likely be right. He was with me at least.

 

So lets get down to the nitty gritty. I had a great week. Its kinda been all over the place. I went on three work overs and was out of London two days in a row. Also I got to spend some time with the oldest elders in the mission. Elder Boysyuk from Cezch Republic and Elder Klobcic from Slovenia. They are 27 and 26 respectively. These Eastern European Saints are studs. I could not imagine growing up in those conditions with such little (if any) outside support.

 

Since I have been on my mission I have become fascinated with psychology and Nero-science. Seems like my interest is captivated whenever it is talked about or explained. On a work over Elder Giboin had a dinner appointment with a hypo-therapist. My days he had some interesting stuff to share. I learned what dream are (at times). OK so as humans often times (most of the time) we suppress emotions and thoughts. These kinda get stored into the subconscious. 'push it to the back of my mind' type things. So dreams are a way for the subconscious to create an imaginative reality where these suppressed emotions will be able to be released. This made so much sense to me as I reflected back on dreams that I have had this week and also experiences that others had shared with me. Like for instance some one I once taught who had bad health because they had a reoccurring dream. This dream would reenact a horrible memory from their childhood. This caused er to only get about 2-3 hours of sleep every night and she was terrified to go to sleep. I was the first person that she felt she could trust to talk about so for nearly 25 years she had suppressed this emotion/memory until it consumed her subconscious. I can see now that the gospel will have a profound influence on her life. It is and will teach her how to find healing through the Saviour. Kind of a testimony to me that we can try to do it all our self but when it really comes down to it we are helpless with out Jesus Christ. OK there was another point that I wanted to make with this..... Oh I got it

 

 

I was thinking that in the end it maybe isn't best to suppress these thoughts or emotions. Rather we should find a way to express or redirect them. Like for instance an impatience person can change from passive frustration to active patience. Diligently working towards the thing they are waiting for. Or a mother who has lost a child, rather then becoming depressed and reclusive cursing God an wishing to die, can get out and express her love for her child by service and helping others. Expressing the pain of the ordeal and being able to emphasize with others. Grant this will not always work. Where ever the is to be true spiritual growth and healing the Saviours is always needed. So this lead me to think about sin. This is where I am now. I have learned good and evil. I have a pretty darn good understanding of what is sin and what it's consequences are. Because of this knowledge (and after many struggles) I have developed self control. Control to the point where when tempted I am able to suppress the desire to sin and choose to walk away. However this is not good enough for me. The time that is spent in that moment to choose, the time where the angel and devil play lawyer and jury is time wasted. The longer we spend in that moment the harder it is to escape. The greater our desire to sin  the harder it is to walk away. So know these points I don't want to suppress the desire to sin and walk away. I just simply don't want to have the desire to sin. I want to be like Nephi and shake at the very appearence of evil. I want to look at sin with Abhorance like the High Priest of Alma. I want to have no desire to do evil like the people of King Benjamin. Like King Lamoni's faithful father, my prayer is that i can have 'this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast'. More then ever this has been one othe strongest goals/desires in my life. But how is it done?! I know that it comes from being born again. Check! Done! I was baptised. I have recieved that Holy Ghost. Time and Time and Time again.  but has this been enough? Have I been 'Spiritually born of God?' Have i received His image in my countenance? Have i experienced this mighty change of heat? I feel that the Lord is happy with what I'm doing and what I have done on my mission, but I seek for deeper conversion. I don't want to be the missionary that was amazing on his mission and then slipped back into the same old mundane carnal person i was two years ago. Boyd K. Packer said that on our mission is when we are to build our strength and faith so that when we go home to the same environment we were in we can face and conquer our Goliths from the past. Struggles that are just waiting impatiently for our return. Am I sufficently strengthened? Am I 'on par' to be the person the Lord wants me to be in four months? What more do I need to be doing?

 

I guess this isn't really a conversation i need to be having with you, but with my Father in Heaven. Hey it was good insight to how I'm feeling.

 

 

Neat experience this week. We have an investigator who is struggleing a bit at the moment for several different reasons. Most of which we didn't know about. I was studying for her (Bella) yesterday morning. Throughout my study Alma 34 kept poping into my head and i kept telling my self, Alma 34 has nothing to do with what you are teaching don't waste your time. finally with five mintues to go I turned to it. As soon as the page fell open I felt that I should quickly scan the page for the words 'Holy Ghost'. Luckily they are capitlized so that made it a bit easier. As was scanning for the verse I thought to myself 'you need to share this with Bella'. Then I found verse 28 'That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that you recieve it, and take upon you the name of Christ...'

Powerful. Bold. Perfectly tailored to her needs. The delivery was great. We had a super inspired lesson (Spiritually Draining but good). Bella is doing great now and we have more to work with. I hope that the Lord will continue to use me to work and speak miracles in Christ name.

 

I know that following the promptings of the Spirit leds us in paths of Righteousnes. I know that spiritual healing comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

 

Love,

 

Elder Solomon

 

 

P.S. Mum have you accepted Natalie Harrisons friend request on facebook? She has questions for you and she could potentially be a great source for advice while planning a trip to come to the UK.

 

 

Letter

Hey for my spiritual thought for the week i thought i would send you a letter i typed our to send to a recent convert

 

Lazy?

Efficient?

 

You choose.

Dear Lizete,

Hey I had a few extra minutes in the office today so I thought that I would write you a quick letter.  I am doing very well.  As you know I am serving in central London in a ward that is strictly young single adults. It is so much fun! (Not to say that serving in your ward was not fun for me). I have kind of been out of the social loop for a while. I have spent most of my time with people that are a bit older than me and I have seemingly forgotten how to interact with people my own age. Naturally it has been a bit awkward adjusting to the new area and interacting with the YSA but now I’m getting the hang of it.  We live in South Kensington just a ten minute walk from the Natural History Museum. Imperial College is also really close to us. We spend most of our time walking around the campus and talking to the students. Imperial College is a very famous college, one of the top five in the world, so they have some of the most brilliant students in the world. They seem to come from all over the world. I have meet people from America to Iraq, China to Norway.  We have very interesting conversations; I have learned a lot of great things form these smart people. It is sad that many of them believe that God cannot exist because science does not give supporting evidence.  I am often reminded of the Lords counsel when he says ‘But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.’ It seems like these students who have no religious beliefs but have tons of brains live a bit of a hollow life. However I have seen how on the flip side having a relationship with God makes life all the more fulfilling.  The other day we stopped a young student from China who did not believe in God but ‘believed in science’ (as if there was some kind of contradiction). We took a few moments with him to discuss how religion and science co-exist. He felt the Spirit testify of truth. He accepted our invitation to pray. We are now teaching Joe on a regular basis and each time I see him his faith is growing in leaps and bounds! Just as yours did as I taught you. Now he is preparing to be baptized. Last time I saw him he testified that if we follow what God tells us we will be happy, and safe. I want to echo Joe’s testimony. I know that as we follow the teachings of God as found in the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and as given by modern day prophets, we will be safe, safe from debilitating doubt, safe from crippling sin, and safe from the ever enticing lures of temptation.  I know that Christ gives us the grace that we need to succeed. I know that through his Atonement we all can be cleansed of our sins and resurrected. I know that families can be together forever and I know that God loves us.

May our Father in Heaven watch over you.

May you ever be diligent in honoring your baptismal covenants.

Love,

Elder Solomon