Hola Amigos y Familia,What an exciting time I've had these last few weeks. Definitely been low times but also plenty of high moments to combat and even outweigh the low ones. I'm growing to love the people I am serving with and our amazing teachers.
The biggest change in my day to day life is we have really moved away from basic Spanish and to starting to teach the different missionary lessons. It's really interesting because on my schedule it says in the morning that we have a Doctrine Lesson (a lesson which is supposed to be focused on learning different concepts of our religion; examples are what is faith, what is repentance, or simple statements like God is our loving Heavenly Father) then in the afternoon we have a Language class in the afternoon about the same thing. But because of the amazing missionaries I am surrounded by we pretty much always speak in Spanish even for some of our classes that are supposed to have more English. Though one of our teachers has learned that he should always ask first in Spanish and if no one responds within a minute to ask again but in English. One of the reasons why we have been able to grow so much in speaking Spanish is because we always try to say it first in Spanish than as a last resort, we use English.
Exciting news from this week is that I have got my departure date for the McAllen Texas Mission. I will be leaving on October 12th, 2020. Which for some reason is 2 days before I am supposed to finish the CCM. This is both great news and sad news. Great because I really can't wait to get to go out and show God's love for his children, but sad because I will miss out on getting to learn and grow even more with the great missionaries of District 14D.
As part of this last week I was asked to lead a Book of Mormon: Read, which is where typically a teacher picks a chapter from the Book of Mormon and we read parts of it and learn different things both pertaining to missionary work and to our lives. These are some of my favorite classes because we really get to focus on the principles of our religion and how they apply to us. For this Book of Mormon: Read I chose to have us read through Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life in 1 Nephi chapter 8. These next few verses help to describe the scene.
8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.
9 And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field.
10 And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.
13 And as I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might discover my family also, I beheld a river of water; and it ran along, and it was near the tree of which I was partaking the fruit.
19 And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood.
20 And I also beheld a strait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood; and it also led by the head of the fountain, unto a large and spacious field, as if it had been a world.
21 And I saw numberless concourses of people, many of whom were pressing forward, that they might obtain the path which led unto the tree by which I stood.
26 And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.
These different verses help us see all of the parts of the vision. We have Lehi, The Tree of Life, a Rod of Iron along a Strait and Narrow Path, people seeking to follow something, and a Great and Spacious Building. These are like in most stories are symbols. These symbols are explained by Lehi's son Nephi in 1 Nephi Chapter 15. The main symbols I would like to focus on are the Tree of Life and the Rod of Iron. We read that the Rod of Iron is the "Word of God" and that we need to be continually holding on to it. This means to look to Scripture and the Words of Prophets to know all the things we should do in this life. On October 3rd and 4th we have the opportunity to listen to the words of Heavenly Father's latter-day prophets here on Earth. If any of you are looking for direction in life I would encourage you to listen to what they have to say. More information can be found at
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng">churchofjesuschrist.org.
The other symbol I would like to talk about is the Tree of Life. Lehi describes the fruit of it as
11 And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen.
12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.
Lehi had the overwhelming desire that he wanted to share this joy with his family. This joy we learn came because the Tree of Life and the Fruit represent the Savior and his Atonement. What is so important and wonderful about the Atonement? It can be that Christ's Atonement allows us to repent and start each day anew or is it that we can rely on him as he has experienced all of our hardships or is it that because he performed the Atonement we know he has perfect love for us. Whatever our reason is we need to constantly be partaking of this gift. In 1 Nephi 15:36 we read
36 Wherefore, the wicked are rejected from the righteous, and also from that tree of life, whose fruit is most precious and most desirable above all other fruits; yea, and it is the greatest of all the gifts of God.
I challenge us all to earnestly seek this most precious gift and to come to cherish it everyday. I know that as we truly rely on the Savior's Atonement we will grow as a person and be able to handle all of life's challenges that we have been given.
I miss all of you, thank you for being my friends, examples, and leaders. I hope you have all had a wonderful week. I don't know when I will be emailing again as next week is General Conference (October 3rd, 4th) and as such I do not have a formal P-Day. Let me know how you all are doing. I would love to hear from you.
Con Amor,
Elder Hunter
Fotos:
Goofy Zoom Pictures
Vision of The Tree of Life