Another week gone and a new year has begun. Thank you everyone for the amazing emails you sent this week. Mom, Dad, Rachel, I cant tell you how amazing it is to hear from you. Giving me the wonderful updates on Rexburg! I cant believe how cold it is there! Im pretty sure when I return home I will never be hot again haha! This week it was so hot here in Brasil that I kinda felt like that man from Indian Jones whos face melts right off!!!! haha but really thank you for your love and spirit it means so much to me. Kristine Tighe... I love you and thank you for your email and testimony. Your faith and trust in God is incrediable, I was deeply touched by your email this week and felt the spirit so strong remember as King Benjamin once taught "Blessed are they that kept the commandmants of God"- God is there and he will bless you. Thank you again for your wonderful email and know you and my 2nd family are always in my prayers... Kristin, my dear friend thank you for your email once more as well, its truely crazy how fast time is going and your starting school again! Keep on the srtaight and narrow and look for every oppurtunity to increase your knowledge and testimony of this great Gospel. Good luck as you start school... Last Matt, my twin. I love you Matt I do not have words to describe how touched I was by your email. It brought tears to my eyes. You have such a way to bring comfort to those in need and a spiritual ear to listen to the promptings from the Spirit. I am so lucky to have a twin like you. I love and miss you so very much. Stay strong and know Deus, ele está contigo neste momento. Sempre tem fé nas mãos do Senhor. Ele vai fazer muito milagres por meio você mesmo. Sempre lembra isso meu Irmão! Eu te amo!... oh, and before I forget, thanks Boomer for your wonderful email HAHA it made my day.
Well as for this week I dont really know where to start (Something that occurs often) It was transfer week and this new transfer is going to be amazing. My new companion is named Elder Alves and he is from Manaus! I dont know what it is but I seem to be able to understand a Manaus accent better then the accent here in the south. I just realized that this week as I was talking to all the missionaries from Manaus at the bus station haha I thought it was pretty funny... anyway my companion is from Manaus and really awesome. We set many goals together and are focusing on trusting in the Spirit more. He is so in tune and very patient... and he just smiles non stop. Im so grateful to God for giving me this tender mercy. As you have all read the last transfers have been rough, but I know without a doubt this transfer will be a wonderful and great learning experience for me... oh and something else that blew my mind when I met him is he is 27 years old! but looks almost like he is 18 years old. He had to prove to me by showing me his identification that he was 27 and he in fact is! haha but im so glad and grateful to be with him. We are working really hard and have already began to teach many new people who are ready to hear this glad message of the restored gospel. His testimony and spirit are wonderful.
So this past week I was reading in the Book of Mormon about the prophet Alma. I was near part in Alma 39 when his son Coriânton commits some pretty big sins. In chapter 41: 1 we read something that really got me thinking. In it we read that as Alma was talking to his son he said "Son, I precieve that your mind is troubled concerning the state of those after this life."- and then Alma begins to teach his son the great plan of salvation as to bring comfort to his son... I really began to think about this verse as Alma knew his son so well as to be able to tell when his son was troubled and then knew his son so well that he was able (Through the Holy Ghost) bring comfort to his son through love. Alma was not only an amazing example of a powerful missionary but at this time was a poweful example of how to be a loving parent. His son had done some pretty terrible things and Alma was disappointed in him, but still showed unamountable love for his dear son, and instead taught his son how to change his life. He gave own examples of his past when he had gone about destroying the church and how the Gospel had changed his life through the infinate Atonement. He then later, as his son is experiencing the power of the atonement, brings comfort to his son because he KNEW HIM so well. Alma was an amazing parent... I know that some time in the future I will be a father, with children that may not be perfect haha. I want to take the time to get to know each of my children personally and take time out of my life to share experiences from my life, mistakes I have made, strengths I have gained... but ecspecially I want to be in tune to the spirit as to be able to fill their lives with the infinate goodness of this gospel. To teach them where true happiness is found. This week I just couldnt shake that from my mind and actually right now I have no idea why im sharing this with you all haha but I just feel this message so strongly from the Spirit. We have to try everything we can to be in tune to the spirit. To live in such a way that we can be examples to our children, grandchildren, and teach them the wonderful truths of the Gospel. Sometimes it make take time and patience but I promise in the name of Jesus Christ that our children will feel our love and example... and for those who dont have a family yet, continue to live your life in such a way that you may be in tune to the whisperings of the spirit so when that day comes you will be ready.
I had another message prepared for you all today but for some reason this wouldnt leave my mind and as I typed my other message it just felt like maybe for another time. I hope and pray family and friends that we may be like the Prophet Alma and teach and love our children. That we may take the time to share our love for them and for them to enjoy our righteouss examples. I dont have children so thus I dont really know to much about parenting, but as I read these words this past week I couldnt stop thinking about it... and I found such a deep love for my future children. I hope with all my heart that I will make them my priority and take my time to show how much they mean to me. Over my years of living in Rexburg I have witnessed so many wonderful examples of being a wonderful parent from my friends parents... but ecspecially from my own parents. The day I read this verse in the Book of Mormon I recieved a letter from my mom in which she placed a picture of her and my dad. They looked so wondreful together and I just felt the spirit so strong, As I saw in their eyes an eternal love that cannot be found anywhere else but the Gospel. As my dad said this week in his email, The prophet Joseph Fielding Smith said “May I remind you of just how important the family unit is in the overall plan of our Father in Heaven. In fact, the Church organization really exists to assist the family and its members in reaching exaltation . . . the family is the most important organization in time or eternity.” I testify this is true. Families are really the fundamental key to eternal happiness, not things of the world, not money, or material things... but families. I challenge everyone of you who may be reading this to take time this week to spend time with your family, parents, ecspecially with your kids. Get to know them their likes, dislikes, everything! Something I hold dear to me are the late nights I spent sitting in the living room talking with my mom and listening to her advice and testimony, or the Home teaching nights I went with my father and we afterwards would sit in the car talking... Share your testimony with your kids and families and I promise you, you will feel a new relationship begin to grow and a love that is unmeasurable. Something that has become so important to me here on the mission is my wonderful family and I hope someday to have my own and share my own testimony with them. I know this mission is definatly preparing me for that wonderful day and changing me to become the husband and father He knows I can become.
I love you all so much and am so grateful for the scriptures and all that they contain. I have such a deep love for the Book of mormon now here on the mission and I just cant stop studying it! haha I love every page as there is a new lesson to be learned from every chapter that we can apply in our lives. Read, study, love, and most importantly LIVE that wonderful Book. The missionarys in the house joke that the Book of Mormon has become somewhat of my "teddy bear" here on the misison since I feel asleep with it in my arms teh other night HAHA But i have such a respect and love for it in my life and ecspecially I have such a deep love for the Holy Ghost as he has helped me to better come to understand the scriptures and its teachings. Pray to God that the spirit may guide you as you conduct your own studys and I promise your mind will be open to so many wonderful truths. Family and friends I love you once more and know I am doing great! I love this Mission and this Gospel and have no doubts of its truthfullness. I have a lasting conviction that Jesus Christ lives and this is His Church again on the Earth. That God will bless us on His time. Everything we pass through, every trial or diffuculty is a chance for us to come unto him in humble prayer as we recognize our need for Him. So that we can prepare to live with Him again... Just know in the end everything will be alright... This is my testimony and love that I would like to share with you all this week in the hopes that some of you might be strengthed. I just feel this message so strongly in my heart and so content in sharing it with you all this day. May God be with you all this week as we all strive to better our family relations. I know this church is true!... It really is. :)
Love Elder Benjamin B. Doggett
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