This letter was written by Tyler's companion, Elder Roberts. Tyler's email somehow got deleted before he was able to send it, so Elder Roberts allowed Tyler to send his own family email. Tyler failed to mention that fact at the beginning of the letter, so as I read it (and my mom as well) we thought that Tyler was the one that was writing it. I was blown away by his depth and I kept thinking "this is Tyler, MY Tyler?" At the end of the letter I realized that no indeed it was not my Tyler. But its a GREAT letter nonetheless! It is so interesting to see the contrast between a greenie and a seasoned missionary about to come home!
"Hey family, life is wonderful! I'm gonna kinda go through the week and mention some of the highlights."
- "Saturday - Elder Clayton Christensen came and we had a Mini Mission Conference. We did a case study and Sister Susan Fulcher and discussed how we as missionaries and more effectively use and involve the members in the areas we're serving in. It was really good and I learned a lot and saw a ton of places that I can improve in."
- "Sunday - Wilson Correa got baptized and it was amazing! Half of the talks and testimonies were in Spanish, but it didn't matter cause the Spirit speaks all languages! It was definitely another highlight of my mission! Then after we finished cleaning up after the baptism, we headed over to the Lutheran Pastor's house and had a wonderful Easter dinner and had a great time with them! We answered a lot of his and his wife's questions and sang for them and as we were discussing about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith he made the comment how Lutherans don't so much base their beliefs off of personal experiences cause they can be somewhat faulty, but rather they were more logical. So when I shared a thought at the end of our visit I thought it would be appropriate to share it on the Resurrection. I asked them how do you prove the Divinity of Jesus Christ and after discussing it for a minute I answered that the answer lies in His Resurrection. Then I proceeded and asked, "How do you prove the Resurrection?" To which I again answered by saying it was through witnesses. I bore testimony about the witnesses in Jerusalem, Ancient America, and Modern day witnesses such as Joseph Smith, but then I made the statement that none of these amount to anything without our own personal witness of Christ's Resurrection. I asked him if he knew that Christ was the Son of God and our Saviour to which he answered "yes". Then I asked him how he knew. He paused and said he'd never really thought about it, and didn't really know. It was quiet for a bit and neither of them could really answer my question, so we then bore our testimonies on how we knew the divinity of Christ and how it was through personal experiences we had had in our lives with the atonement, and prayer and scripture study and the same way we came to know that Christ is the Son of the living God, we also came to know that God restored his Church through Joseph Smith. It was a great visit and they both commented at the end how impressed they were with how well a 19 and 20 year old conducted themselves, and said you represent you church well. We're going back on Monday to talk about the Plan of Salvation with them! So the Lord definitely helped us there and I still can't believe how well it went."
- "Monday - We had district meeting and in our district we have the Bangeter's (a senior couple) and Elder Bangeter talks even more than I do (hard to believe, I know). He got up and told us how he grew up on a farm and had to milk 24 cows every day and that required him to get up at 4 AM. He said some cows we're easy to milk, and others like the one he named Banana Tit were really really difficult. This all led up to him explaining how easy we have it out here, and he told us how hard and inconvenient his mission in Canada was and that the Elders in this Mission needed to stop pussyfootin' around and just work. Well, I agreed with him 100%. Then he made us all feel a little better by telling us that he wasn't talking about any of us in the room, but still, he made me see how easy we really do have it out here. Then that night we went and had dinner with the Meyers and an LA sister missionary named Sister Roberts! While there we found out that brother Meyer was the one who invented an amplifier that made it so we could have cell phones that worked. He also invented those electricity orb things that have the purple electricity in 'em and when you touch the glass orb the electricity centers around your finger. He was also the one who invented the things you hook up to electric guitars and it gives them all the weird sounds. This guy is amazing. He has his own lab out back that Bell labs built for him cause of everything he invented for them."
- "Tuesday - We got chased by a bulldog and outran it. It was the same one that bit me a week earlier when we were at the part member families house. I don't think it likes me."
-Elder Roberts
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