Herrroo Home,
Finally got time to make it to the library when it was open! I couldn’t make it on Tuesday because Elder Hernandez and I went to the temple and since we didn’t have a car or a ride up there, we had to ride the bus….ALL…THE…WAY….THERE…. so that was a deep 2 ½ hour drive from our apartment all the way up to La Jolla but it was worth it like always and then all this week the library is either closed or it closes early because the city doesn’t have enough money to keep it open… which is kind of weird to me…San Diego not have enough money? I don’t know about that but whatev..
So how has everyone’s week been so far… can’t believe that we are already into May pretty much! Time’s goin to fast if you ask me! Tonight and tomorrow night Gladys Knight is coming into town to put on 4 concert/firesides here in the San Diego area and it just seems like yesterday that we were just planning for that but it was actually last year… it’s true what they say about the time on your mission…. It might just be goin by a little too fast if you ask me. But yea Gladys Knight and the Saints United Choir, the choir that she directs, is going to be here performing in the Stake Center in Sweetwater at 5:30 and 8:30 tonight and 4:30 and 7:30 tomorrow night, I’m really excited it’s gonna be a really good and uplifting experience from what President Donaldson has told us. The only way that people can get tickets is if they’re not a member of the church or if a member does want to come, they have to bring a non-member friend with them…so all-in-all I think the mission department is expecting around 5,000 referrals from these next two days and what happens is; each non-member who comes receives a gift basket delivered by the missionaries in their area and in the basket is a Gladys Knight CD, a Restoration movie, and a Book of Mormon. So this thing is gonna be big time here and keep in mind that all of this is FO FREE and that’s pretty much the first thing that we tell people is that it’s fo frizzle and they’re on the first bus heading over there so we have a lot of people coming with us so it should be a good time! So that’s tonight and tomorrow night and on top of that we have a “Mormon Helping Hands” project in Santee (goin back home for a bit) where pretty much a wave of Mormons overrun an area and do a service project there in their yellow shirts and all. Our service project is we’re going to a place called mission trails up in Santee and we’re gonna clean up the trails and make it all pretty like I guess, I don’t really know but I’m just excited to get out of the city for a bit and get a little call of nature outta me… It’s depressing I haven’t seen a cow or a squirrel in a coon’s age, I’ve seen every part of a cow on my plate for dinner, some still semi-alive I think but not a cow alive and kickin. So it should be a really good weekend but I better peace out now! I love you all I pray for you all and I cherish you all! Thank you so much for your love and support that I know you send each and everyday I can feel it and it goes a long way! Thank you all once again and have a boss week!
Con much amor,
Elder Ryan Lawter
p.s.) GO SPURS GO!!!!!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Happy Birthday to Ryan (Friday!)
Hello everyone!!!
So I’ll make this one real short and sweet seein though I don’t have a whole lot of time but update here….. Awesome! Seriously everything’s awesome; the work’s awesome, the weather’s awesome, I’m awesome ha, but on a real note everything is more than good here! We have about 7 investigators with a date right now and 5 with a date for this Sunday and next Sunday, including the two ladies that I spoke about last week, but President was right the Spanish work down here is just exploding out the yoo-hoo and it’s great to see just the overall progress of the mission. As far as new news…kinda lame but I’ve really got nothing… Everything’s been calm here….Everyday’s an exciting and interesting one but there’s really no stories that I have lately…at least none to top last week’s….and I hope I never have a story to top that one either or else I would have to have Elder Hernandez tuck me into to bed and according to man law number 26, that’s not acceptable….
I’m sorry again that this email’s just a paragraph but we’ve gotta run…we’ve got people to see and a whole lot of things to do! So I hope that everyone’s doin great, I’m doin great and I hope that everyone will enjoy and love whatever comes this week… it’s hard not to love the life you live if you love your life and live your life in accordance to the Lord. I love you all so much and pray for you and wish you the best it whatever way life may take you!
Lots of lovin from SoCal!
Elder Ryan Lawter
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Hey errryone,
I still feel retarded every time I start off my email because I don’t know how to start it without sounding retarded… So I guess I feel retarded either way so it’s a lose lose... but it’s been….well… an interesting week I guess you could say… It’s been the type of week that has made me very thankful for the gospel, the priesthood, the love of our Savior and everything…. I’ll tell the story a little bit later on…
But overall everything’s everything here…. Workin so hard that I’m losin track of the days… it feels just like yesterday that it was the beginning of the year…. It’s amazing how fast the time literally goes.. sometimes it’s good and then again sometimes it’s bad… I feel like 24 hours in a day is not enough to get everything accomplished but I guess it’s not the time that’s given you but what you do in that space of time that really counts. It’s all good; the work’s good, the work’s hard, but the work is fun… There’s people who are in need of what we got and that’s the fun part, finding those people who are ready and it need and at the same time helping those other people who don’t think they are in need, see that they’re in need…because they are. I had an interesting experience to say the least last Sunday at church… It was something that I never in a million years would have thought that I would see or experience. So Elder Hernandez and I had a few investigators at church last Sunday and we were sitting reverently as the Sacrament was being passed and we look back to see how our investigators are doing (They were sitting with some members) and we saw that one of our investigators was crying and crying and crying.. and I was thinking to myself oh french is she crying because she doesn’t like it? Is she crying because she feels the Spirit? Is she crying because she broke a nail? You know what was it? So we kept looking back and looking back and each time she was crying harder and harder and she was starting to shake by this point so I thought then it could be a medical issue… So by this point the Sacrament was almost done so we just waded it out until it was over and when it was we got up to see what was the matter… So we walked up to her and she was sobbing so hard that she couldn’t even speak so then we stood her up to and walked with her and some of the priesthood holders into a room to settle her down and give her a blessing if she needed it… When we got into the room it just felt dark and cold… not the same room that it was a few minutes ago… so anyways we asked her if she wanted a blessing of health or comfort and she kinda blurted out los dos or both. When we anointed her with oil she started to shake a little more and raise up her hands… I thought it was a little weird at the time but whatev…people have their own beliefs…. So after the anointing was done, there was me, my companion, 3 endowed brothers, a sister friend from the branch, and another investigator that we are teaching that is the friend of the lady who is getting the blessing. So we put our hands upon her head and one of the brothers began to give her the blessing and at that moment things started feeling eerie and during the blessing her whole body started to shake uncontrollably and right at that moment we knew it wasn’t gonna be a blessing of health anymore but something bigger than that. It was terrifying…literally bone chilling the things that it was saying inside of her. After many times of the one brother commanding the spirit so to say inside of her to leave we had everyone give the lady a blessing, commanding the evil force in the name of the Savior to leave and it kept saying to us…”you don’t have the authority, you don’t have the power to do so…this is my body and I’m not leaving.” So with all of our energy and faith we told it to leave and finally…it did… I could feel it go through my body from head to toe just chills going through my body until it left. I haven’t been able to sleep real well the past few nights but I definitely took something from it…and that is the power of the Priesthood and the will of God. Afterwards we looked at our investigator and she opened her eyes clearer and bigger and brighter than I’ve ever seen them before…she spoke clearer, without the nasal sound that she had before…She was a different person someone that we haven’t met before, after that. When we spoke to her right after she told us… “I haven’t felt this happy and this peaceful in a long long time… You men are angels..who were sent to come rescue me.” Then she told us later that she knew that the Priesthood and the authority in which we hold is true and that the church of Jesus Christ is on the earth again and then she told us that she wanted to be baptized soon! I have never felt so close to both forces beyond the veil than I did that day. I can honestly testify now that Satan is so ever present in this world and can take control of our lives in so many different ways both spiritual and physical if we are not careful and yet on the other hand…. I can so honestly testify that God lives….He loves us, He cares about us, and He knows our wants and needs before we even do. He has restored His everlasting gospel among this earth one last time to bring His children back home… and with the restoration of His gospel came also the restoration of the very same Priesthood that existed in the time when Christ set-up His church… The very same church that we have today and that is guided by a living Prophet just like His church of old and the Priesthood, or the authority to act in God’s name, just like His church of old. It’s all the same, just different time. I saw in that room, the manifestation of God among one of his children that was in need…and it was through the Priesthood power and the faith that was in that room, that she was able to be healed. I know it to be true God bearing witness of it…with all of my heart I know this gospel to be the true gospel of Jesus Christ…believe me or not but it is the Lord’s kingdom among the earth to guide and direct us in these trying latter days and I’m so grateful for the blessing it is in my life and the blessing that I have to help touch others lives and bring them the same happiness.
I love you all and I am as well grateful for you in my life too! It’s a great time to be alive! This life was intended to be enjoyed so do it and live it up! I hope that you all have a great week and take care whatever may come…and whatever does come…love it.
Same time same place next week peeps!
With all my love,
Elder Ryan Lawter
I still feel retarded every time I start off my email because I don’t know how to start it without sounding retarded… So I guess I feel retarded either way so it’s a lose lose... but it’s been….well… an interesting week I guess you could say… It’s been the type of week that has made me very thankful for the gospel, the priesthood, the love of our Savior and everything…. I’ll tell the story a little bit later on…
But overall everything’s everything here…. Workin so hard that I’m losin track of the days… it feels just like yesterday that it was the beginning of the year…. It’s amazing how fast the time literally goes.. sometimes it’s good and then again sometimes it’s bad… I feel like 24 hours in a day is not enough to get everything accomplished but I guess it’s not the time that’s given you but what you do in that space of time that really counts. It’s all good; the work’s good, the work’s hard, but the work is fun… There’s people who are in need of what we got and that’s the fun part, finding those people who are ready and it need and at the same time helping those other people who don’t think they are in need, see that they’re in need…because they are. I had an interesting experience to say the least last Sunday at church… It was something that I never in a million years would have thought that I would see or experience. So Elder Hernandez and I had a few investigators at church last Sunday and we were sitting reverently as the Sacrament was being passed and we look back to see how our investigators are doing (They were sitting with some members) and we saw that one of our investigators was crying and crying and crying.. and I was thinking to myself oh french is she crying because she doesn’t like it? Is she crying because she feels the Spirit? Is she crying because she broke a nail? You know what was it? So we kept looking back and looking back and each time she was crying harder and harder and she was starting to shake by this point so I thought then it could be a medical issue… So by this point the Sacrament was almost done so we just waded it out until it was over and when it was we got up to see what was the matter… So we walked up to her and she was sobbing so hard that she couldn’t even speak so then we stood her up to and walked with her and some of the priesthood holders into a room to settle her down and give her a blessing if she needed it… When we got into the room it just felt dark and cold… not the same room that it was a few minutes ago… so anyways we asked her if she wanted a blessing of health or comfort and she kinda blurted out los dos or both. When we anointed her with oil she started to shake a little more and raise up her hands… I thought it was a little weird at the time but whatev…people have their own beliefs…. So after the anointing was done, there was me, my companion, 3 endowed brothers, a sister friend from the branch, and another investigator that we are teaching that is the friend of the lady who is getting the blessing. So we put our hands upon her head and one of the brothers began to give her the blessing and at that moment things started feeling eerie and during the blessing her whole body started to shake uncontrollably and right at that moment we knew it wasn’t gonna be a blessing of health anymore but something bigger than that. It was terrifying…literally bone chilling the things that it was saying inside of her. After many times of the one brother commanding the spirit so to say inside of her to leave we had everyone give the lady a blessing, commanding the evil force in the name of the Savior to leave and it kept saying to us…”you don’t have the authority, you don’t have the power to do so…this is my body and I’m not leaving.” So with all of our energy and faith we told it to leave and finally…it did… I could feel it go through my body from head to toe just chills going through my body until it left. I haven’t been able to sleep real well the past few nights but I definitely took something from it…and that is the power of the Priesthood and the will of God. Afterwards we looked at our investigator and she opened her eyes clearer and bigger and brighter than I’ve ever seen them before…she spoke clearer, without the nasal sound that she had before…She was a different person someone that we haven’t met before, after that. When we spoke to her right after she told us… “I haven’t felt this happy and this peaceful in a long long time… You men are angels..who were sent to come rescue me.” Then she told us later that she knew that the Priesthood and the authority in which we hold is true and that the church of Jesus Christ is on the earth again and then she told us that she wanted to be baptized soon! I have never felt so close to both forces beyond the veil than I did that day. I can honestly testify now that Satan is so ever present in this world and can take control of our lives in so many different ways both spiritual and physical if we are not careful and yet on the other hand…. I can so honestly testify that God lives….He loves us, He cares about us, and He knows our wants and needs before we even do. He has restored His everlasting gospel among this earth one last time to bring His children back home… and with the restoration of His gospel came also the restoration of the very same Priesthood that existed in the time when Christ set-up His church… The very same church that we have today and that is guided by a living Prophet just like His church of old and the Priesthood, or the authority to act in God’s name, just like His church of old. It’s all the same, just different time. I saw in that room, the manifestation of God among one of his children that was in need…and it was through the Priesthood power and the faith that was in that room, that she was able to be healed. I know it to be true God bearing witness of it…with all of my heart I know this gospel to be the true gospel of Jesus Christ…believe me or not but it is the Lord’s kingdom among the earth to guide and direct us in these trying latter days and I’m so grateful for the blessing it is in my life and the blessing that I have to help touch others lives and bring them the same happiness.
I love you all and I am as well grateful for you in my life too! It’s a great time to be alive! This life was intended to be enjoyed so do it and live it up! I hope that you all have a great week and take care whatever may come…and whatever does come…love it.
Same time same place next week peeps!
With all my love,
Elder Ryan Lawter
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Oh. My. Conferenceness
What’s up!
Well here we are, already in spring time! Can you believe it!? Things are going great here! Weathers perfect, work’s going great, that’s all you can pretty much ask for right? It seems like a lot of things have went on this past week… part of it probably for me is because it’s all the same everyday; preach, teach, and reach out to peeps so if it doesn’t seem like a whole lot of news it’s probably just me then… let’s see um transfers were last wed…not much change… I’m still down in tamale-town with my same companion, Elder Hernandez, he’s a really good guy... I asked president in my president’s letter if we could stay together because we’re getting a lot of work done here and I only seeing the work picking up for us…we’ve got 3 with a baptismal date and we’ll have a few more hopefully getting baptized here in the near future…so we’re doin big things and I think that it’s only gonna get on getting bigger..the only change from transfers was that President switched me back to District Leader…Don’t really know why he’s switchin back and forth but he but me back as the district leader so whatev…when in rome… other than that transfers for the missionaries in my district were uneventful..which is a good thing…our district’s pretty sweet and there’s a lot of good things happening for each of the companionships so I’m glad President kept us all together to keep the ball rolling…
Um second round of news… I felt an earthquake for the first time in my life!!! 4 of em actually! The first one hit Sunday afternoon, while we were at a members house eating dinner…it was before dinner and I started rocking back and forth and I was like hmmm… I must be really hungry… then I look at everyone else and they’re rocking too so I thought hmmm… they must be really hungry too.... but then all the cabinets were shaking and stuff so we darted until it was over… It was a whimpy one here though… I think when it hit here in San Diego it fizzed out to only a 1.2 or something like that but then Sunday night and last night too there were a few more little dinkers only strong enough to wake you up and rattle the cabinets a little bit…but still..the massage was good… I think it was a lot bigger like a 7.2 in Mexico or something… I don’t know… I don’t know a lot of the details or anything if it was real bad but I’m pretty sure a 7.2 size earthquake can take out its fair share of taco stands.
Ok 3rd round… CONFERENCE! OH. MY. CONFERENCENESS. It was amazing! To sit there apostle after apostle, sweet talk after sweet. It was kind of like after I got out of the meeting with Elder Holland, I was just spirit drained and tired… Conference just took it out of me…and my hand too…I wrote like a book of notes over conference…I don’t have time to write everything down but from the vibe that I got from the Brethren is that now’s the time to start preparing our families and make sure that they are truly rooted in the Gospel… things are happening…earthquakes (just like here), tsunamis, wars, diseases….and that’s just the physical side…families are being attacked by the world, sex, drugs, violence, cheating, lying… It’s no lie that the adversary is taking his last breath and unleashing his final blow before Christ comes again… So it’s now more than ever that we need to protect our families from these both ever present physical and spiritual dangers that are occurring on every corner, every commercial, every movie….it’s everywhere and we all see but when the storms rage it’s “upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” It’s Christ that needs to be our rock, our foundation, our place of comfort and security. That’s the foundation that we need to have our families on and if they are built upon the foundation of our Lord, it’s like Helaman says…we will not and cannot fall. President Uchtdorf (whoops I almost called him Uchtdork…that wouldn’t have been good haha) but it’s just like President Uchtdorf said “The Lord does not need us…but oh how we need Him.” And how true it is…. He knows. He knows what’s happened, what is happening, and what will happen…. I think that He knows the direction that we need to go and if we listen to Him, His prophets’, and His writings in the scriptures…. I think that we’ll be just fine and our spiritual and physical foundation will never crumble or fall.
I want you all to know that I love you, I care about you all, and I pray for you every day and night…. It’s a wild world and it’s hard to get by just upon a smile girl… but if we are firm in our foundation… we’ll be solid in all the things that are yet ahead.
Have a great week, be safe, and I’ll talk at cha next week!
Peace!
Elder Ryan Lawter
Well here we are, already in spring time! Can you believe it!? Things are going great here! Weathers perfect, work’s going great, that’s all you can pretty much ask for right? It seems like a lot of things have went on this past week… part of it probably for me is because it’s all the same everyday; preach, teach, and reach out to peeps so if it doesn’t seem like a whole lot of news it’s probably just me then… let’s see um transfers were last wed…not much change… I’m still down in tamale-town with my same companion, Elder Hernandez, he’s a really good guy... I asked president in my president’s letter if we could stay together because we’re getting a lot of work done here and I only seeing the work picking up for us…we’ve got 3 with a baptismal date and we’ll have a few more hopefully getting baptized here in the near future…so we’re doin big things and I think that it’s only gonna get on getting bigger..the only change from transfers was that President switched me back to District Leader…Don’t really know why he’s switchin back and forth but he but me back as the district leader so whatev…when in rome… other than that transfers for the missionaries in my district were uneventful..which is a good thing…our district’s pretty sweet and there’s a lot of good things happening for each of the companionships so I’m glad President kept us all together to keep the ball rolling…
Um second round of news… I felt an earthquake for the first time in my life!!! 4 of em actually! The first one hit Sunday afternoon, while we were at a members house eating dinner…it was before dinner and I started rocking back and forth and I was like hmmm… I must be really hungry… then I look at everyone else and they’re rocking too so I thought hmmm… they must be really hungry too.... but then all the cabinets were shaking and stuff so we darted until it was over… It was a whimpy one here though… I think when it hit here in San Diego it fizzed out to only a 1.2 or something like that but then Sunday night and last night too there were a few more little dinkers only strong enough to wake you up and rattle the cabinets a little bit…but still..the massage was good… I think it was a lot bigger like a 7.2 in Mexico or something… I don’t know… I don’t know a lot of the details or anything if it was real bad but I’m pretty sure a 7.2 size earthquake can take out its fair share of taco stands.
Ok 3rd round… CONFERENCE! OH. MY. CONFERENCENESS. It was amazing! To sit there apostle after apostle, sweet talk after sweet. It was kind of like after I got out of the meeting with Elder Holland, I was just spirit drained and tired… Conference just took it out of me…and my hand too…I wrote like a book of notes over conference…I don’t have time to write everything down but from the vibe that I got from the Brethren is that now’s the time to start preparing our families and make sure that they are truly rooted in the Gospel… things are happening…earthquakes (just like here), tsunamis, wars, diseases….and that’s just the physical side…families are being attacked by the world, sex, drugs, violence, cheating, lying… It’s no lie that the adversary is taking his last breath and unleashing his final blow before Christ comes again… So it’s now more than ever that we need to protect our families from these both ever present physical and spiritual dangers that are occurring on every corner, every commercial, every movie….it’s everywhere and we all see but when the storms rage it’s “upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” It’s Christ that needs to be our rock, our foundation, our place of comfort and security. That’s the foundation that we need to have our families on and if they are built upon the foundation of our Lord, it’s like Helaman says…we will not and cannot fall. President Uchtdorf (whoops I almost called him Uchtdork…that wouldn’t have been good haha) but it’s just like President Uchtdorf said “The Lord does not need us…but oh how we need Him.” And how true it is…. He knows. He knows what’s happened, what is happening, and what will happen…. I think that He knows the direction that we need to go and if we listen to Him, His prophets’, and His writings in the scriptures…. I think that we’ll be just fine and our spiritual and physical foundation will never crumble or fall.
I want you all to know that I love you, I care about you all, and I pray for you every day and night…. It’s a wild world and it’s hard to get by just upon a smile girl… but if we are firm in our foundation… we’ll be solid in all the things that are yet ahead.
Have a great week, be safe, and I’ll talk at cha next week!
Peace!
Elder Ryan Lawter
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)