Knowledge and Families

  It has been a good week this week. We had another baptism! Wooo!!! Her name is Maria Dolores. She has been an investigator for something like 8 months, and now she's a member! I could feel the party in the heavens when she was baptized and confirmed. :D We have been working hard, and this week we didn't have many lessons with a member present and we didn't get many references. However, we are going to try to fix that real quick. We already sent around a list with the members to be able to write their names and when they can accompany us again.  We have a plan for a map to put on the wall with all of the houses marked with reference information. We're going to color coordinate the houses for members, investigators, references contacted and received from members or nonmembers and the names of the people in each house. With this we can know which houses are already references and we can ask people that we know if they specifically know the people in those houses. Especially with members, we could ask them to get to know specific neighbors to be potential new investigators. I think our references will be a lot more organized that way, and hopefully we can get the members to do more missionary work.

I can't remember everything off the top of my head, but I'll try. I don't have my journal with me to remind me. I have thought a lot about my future family this week. I've thought about parenting and how I will raise and help my own kids. I feel like I'm being prepared for those things. I feel that I will face many of the same problems in parenting and being a husband that I will here. I've also thought a lot about the type of wife that I want. I received revelation yesterday about an attribute that I hope for in a wife. I have always thought about how I want a wife that is as smart or smarter than me in "school smarts." My heart has made a change. Mom, you always say that you are not very smart when it comes to computers or other technological or mathematical stuff. I realized yesterday that it was more important that my future wife be a teacher than someone very intelligent in the ways of the world. For our kids, it will not matter how much knowledge she has if she can't share it with them. I want to find someone who is very intelligent spiritually, and I know now the attribute that I should look for is that of a teacher. Preach My Gospel talks about how true intelligence is taking a very complex subject and teaching it so that a child can understand. You always made learning easy, Mom. Thank you for being intelligent. Maybe not in the ever changing ways of math and technology, but in the ways of God, and in the teaching of your children. We, your children, are as the army of Helaman. You as our mother have taught us to have faith in the Lord. I want to find a loving teacher for a wife, and so today I began studying teaching skills, in hopes that I'll be a better teacher myself. I had also read about King Benjamin (You  gave me his name, so i think it's important I get to know him :D) I read about how he taught his sons, and I imagined myself teaching my sons (Kind of like a homeschool seminary class) I already love my future family. That family becomes clearer and clear every day, especially the man I want to be. You guys, as my family, are changing every day, and I can see the blessings of your righteous actions. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for being my examples, and helping me understand the principles of the family. I am excited for the future,  and I know that my mission is preparing me for it.  

   I love you all bunches and bunches, and I hope that you have a good week. Tell Julia, Aaron, and Chellie to write me. 

Love,

Elder Dazey

PS> We also had a fun time filling the baptismal font with trash cans of water this week because they didn't have enough water in the building. It was awesome. The young men were all there helping us fill it from an underground store of chlorinated water :D

Also some Cinderella-ing in the baptismal font. And a photo of some dashing young missionaries. Also there is a new elder in my district that sang in BYU Choirs. He's AMAZING. We're gonna start singing duets. He did Cinderella his last year of High school. Like the same one :O