Over the hump - Letter to Dad - 12 July, 2015

Hey Dad!!  How are you doing? Can you believe that I have already been out on my mission an entire year? I look back on the year, and it has gone by SOOO fast!! And then I look at the moments and it looks so long. :) haha I have been able to do and experience so much in this past year, and there is a lot that I am looking forward to in this next year.  

As a quick bit of news with P90X3, I just wanted to say thank you! It has been way good to have those to reference. :) I started doing Total Synergistics today. I will admit though, that looking at those workouts, there are a LOT that I don't remember. I am going to do the best that I can, and obviously sometimes my resources are limited, but I am excited to go through it. If you could maybe even make a CD of you doing the workouts and send that, I am 99% sure that it would be okay if I used it. I would ask President Wada, obviously, but I think that is okay. :)

Also, speaking of President Wada, I for sure get to go home with him!! :D :D I am super super excited. We were at Mission Leadership Council on our one year mark (Elder Driscoll and I as well as three other zone leaders all came over on the same plane) and we mentioned it was our one year day to him. He then turned to Sister Wada and told her that this was the group that would be going home on the same plane as them. I am so happy. I did not want to be with another mission president for only two weeks, although if that was what the Lord would have needed I would have done it.

Let's see. We got to talk to a lot of people this last week, and one of them was a man by the name of Karl. We stopped him when he was riding his bike at the park, and we got to have a really good conversation with him. It was great. :) What was really interesting was that as we talked to him I felt that there was something in his life that was really weighing down on his shoulders. We testified so much to him, and we did everything that we could to have the Spirit with us as we talked about the restoration a little bit as well. It was really powerful. And so we asked him to sit down with us at this bench just a little bit away and really talk about the gospel. And we just sat there in silence for the better part of a minute. It was so good to just let the Spirit work with him. Sadly, he still rejected it. We continued to talk to him for a little bit, and invited him again, and the same thing happened. He didn't listen to the Spirit. We did all that we could, and gave him a Book of Mormon, and directed him to where he could find the church, and we went on our way. It was way sad to see him leave, when the Spirit was working as well as it could. Agency is really hard sometimes.

Similarly, we got to teach a less-active member yesterday. It was really good as well. His name is Uther Kyodai. I love him so so much. We have visited him a few times in the past few weeks, but we have only been able to share a message at the door. This time we just asked if we could come in and teach a message. To our surprise he said yes! It was so good. We got to find out where his testimony is right now, at least a little bit, and a bit more about his life. We also got to talk about God and his love for us. I tried to do everything I could do discern his needs as we taught him the lesson, and I prayed for Elder Driscoll to do the same. I don't think that we found out everything that is in his heart, but at the same time we really felt like he has some concerns about the Plan of Salvation. We get to teach him about that next time.

I have been able to learn a lot recently about loving people, and how when we love people we really try to learn how to help them, and what the questions of their souls are. Through the Book of Mormon we can really answer those questions. I testify that the Book of Mormon has the power to help people answer their own questions.  I love you so much, Dad, and I hope that you have a good week. I know that you will find answers soon! Thank you so much for all that you do for me. :) I love you!!  

Love, Elder Livingston


Note: Some names may have been changed for privacy.