May 10, 2016

Dear fam jam and Friends,

So this week our preparation day is today, Tuesday, because we got to go to the temple this morning! :) yay! That was awesome! We went to the Bountiful Temple which was beautiful! There is such a wonderful view from the temple grounds of the valley because the temple is right on the side of the mountain. It was totally worth the effort to wake up early. It was a good morning. This last Sunday was awesome! We invited someone to church, AND THEY ACTUALLY CAME!!! It was so nice to sit with their whole family and to have these great testimony building experiences. There was actually a lot of people we were working with that came to church this week. It was quite a sight. It is always a blessing to see these people striving to come closer to their Savior. Through the ordinance of the Sacrament, we remember Jesus Christ and His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, His crucifixion, and His resurrection three days later; showing us that He overcame both sin and death, that we may, through Him, return to the presence of our Heavenly Father! The work here is really awesome! 

So our district decided to go to the zoo after we went to the temple this morning, and that was hard for me. I honestly didn't want to go, because I knew nothing would get done today. And once you've seen one zoo, you've seen them all. And we went and spent a ridiculously long time there, and by the time we got back home and dropped off other missionaries in our district, we were already late for dinner. We haven't done laundry, emails, studies, or anything. So it wasn't much of a preparation day and was more of a "let's do nothing day" and I don't like that. Personally, we have been working so hard that we've been dying for a break of some sort. I'm so tired from biking up and down these hills and teaching a ton of lessons that I'm ready to pass out! But we've seen more miracles in the times where we struggled to want to work but then did anyways. There is many instances in the scriptures that teaches us about that sort of diligence. 

Well gotta go! We have a lesson in 5 minutes! I'm surprised I could right all of this in the time I did! It's been a good week! Love you all! :) keep in touch!

Love Elder Patterson