Niagara, 3/11/2013

Hello Family!

It has been a good week. Lots of cool things happening. A girl here named Marlene wants to be baptized! She is the daughter of a recent convert. She's about 20 or 21 yrs old, and she seems to love coming to church right now & she loves to bring her 2 little sisters (who are baptized). Their Mom works quite a bit, so this would be a good change for the entire family. We also met a nice lady named Jennifer a couple weeks ago, and we sacrificed some P-day time to visit her today (that's why emails are late). It was a great sacrifice! She is also going to come to an FHE activity we will have tonight. So, those are a couple highlights from the week.

Today, we got this from President Scott:

Notice

To: General Authorities, Area Seventies, and Mission Presidents

From: Missionary Department

Subject: Adjusted Missionary Email Policy

Missionaries are to write to their families each week and are also authorized to communicate by email with friends, priesthood leaders, and new converts. Mission presidents should allow sufficient time on preparation day for missionaries to write emails and letters. While in the mission field, missionaries should receive authorization from the mission president before entering into communication, including via email, with converts and others of the opposite gender within the mission boundaries (see Missionary Handbook, 36–37).

.....
So, that's pretty cool! Now I don't have to worry about the people I haven't written letters to. Now I can just email you back! :) But of course, snail mail won't stop completely.

I feel like my mind is kind of scattered right now, but I hope ya'll know how much I care about you and love you. I don't want to do a lot of "preaching" anymore. Preaching doesn't really do a whole lot. That's why our purpose as missionaries is to invite, not to preach to. But I will continue to share my thoughts with you, and any news from the past week that I find necessary to share... which for some, it may still sound preachy. :) I know that the work that I am doing is truly God's work. If it wasn't... I'd be wasting my time. And only someone powerful as God could take someone like me, and somehow use me as an instrument in His hands... to do whatever little things or big things He wants me to do. It is true, as the Book of Mormon says, that "by small things, great things are brought to pass." We should never give up, nor expect too little from ourselves. We have tons of potential.

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Brett Simper