For Mom and Dad:
I remember you talking about how Christa would write about how much she loves you and didn't appreciate you and stuff and how her mission helped her see that. I was wondering when that would happen for me, and I think I had the first example of that this week.
We had a dinner appointment with a couple, their daughter and their granddaughter and they're all active but they've had struggles. After the daughter and granddaughter left the table we talked about life and stuff and how the daughter had left the church and struggled but had come back, and then the mother talked about all 3 of her children had left the church for awhile but had come back and how that seemed normal during the teenage years. My companion also agreed sorta just talking about how he didn't go to church for a long time for show jumping and other stuff and how as a kid his aunt would get them to drink coffee and wine and stuff when they visited her.
I don't know if all that made sense, but it really made me realize, there was never a time where I really doubted the church. I might have said, the big bang theory makes sense, evolution makes sense, and I don't know how they fit in the creation, but there's gotta be a way. And even stuff like that, it never really seemed plausible to me that the church wouldn't or couldn't be true, and I still feel a little bad about the one time I stayed home from church cause I was sick and I played video games instead. So really, I'm just really grateful whatever you did to keep our entire family in the church from what I could tell all the time and how much you loved us and were patient with us. Elder Shrubb will talk about some of the things his mom would do like read about Laman and Lemuel when they were untidy, and how clothes left in 1 spot in their rooms for a week would get donated to like salvation army, and I just go, 'wow, glad my mom was patient with me and just loved me and encouraged me to be clean and stuff.' I don't know, I'm just glad that I knew you loved me so much and that you still love me and I think as I'll see more families that have some things missing, I'll see even more how wonderfully safe and loving our family is and was.
One thing that shocks me about England is the prevelance of 'partners' or semi-legitimate relationships either with civil recognition or without but simply aren't as permanent as marriages. There are tons of single moms around and Elder Shrubb has told me that lots of people don't even know their partner's religious beliefs.
For everyone:
So... After all my other side emails I was gonna email everyone, and Elder Shrubb just finished and is now waiting for me, so uhhhhh I guess this'll be a brief email to everyone. The nice thing is that there's not lots to talk about that springs to mind, but all is well I'd say here in England. Just so you know Brother Wright sent me 2 copies of the part 2 of the Men's chorus soundtrack so I don't know if that means someone else is missing one or what, maybe let him know, it's not a big deal on my side because I think I could get it maybe from one of the missionaries coming in from Men's Chorus but we'll see. Thank you for all the music though, it's wonderful, and thank you for all the letters I've received, sorry but I don't have time to write back to all of them and really not too much to say. Well, not much else, today is a zone P-day so we'll see how it goes.
Lots of love and not much time,
Elder Ryan Baxter
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