"My Visa Has Come Through..."

Well, I think it's safe to say that my work here in Tallahassee is done after baptizing Mary last Sunday... If you haven't heard by now, I got word at 10:15 on Tuesday night that my Visa has come through and I will be headed to Brazil Monday night! I'm incredibly excited but incredibly scared at the same time. I'm a little rusty with the Portuguese and the whole culture change is going to throw me off big time. I know I'll be okay, though, because I'm a part of God's Army and His Army doesn't lose! 

So, just to forewarn you all, my P-Days will probably be on Monday from now on, so don't be saddened by my lack of email next Saturday! I also want to let you know that if you didn't write me while I was out here, now it's going to cost you about $2 to send me one... Now is the true love test ;) I'm just kidding, kind of. I just love Elder Brewington! Even an email will suffice for now! richard.le.sueur@myldsmail.net get at me. 

I'm going to be honest, there's not really anything to talk about in this email because it's only been 4 days since my last one and this week has been all sorts of messed up. We had exchanges on Tuesday and worked extremely hard and were very successful with contacting, Wednesday was very slow and we only taught one lesson, Thursday was filled with Zone Conference, Friday everybody was gone for Spring Break and we had nothing to do. 

Zone Conference was amazing though! President and Sister Jensen were awesome and really helped us recognize that we needed to improve our teaching abilities in order to meet our mission goals. I got to bear my testimony at the end and it was such a cool experience to see that I have grown into a part of their family. The Church is true everywhere and it is evident in the way that the members are always so accepting and inviting to strangers! Ahh I love it! 

Let's see, what else happened... I found a loaded clip of .40 caliber hollow-point rounds on the street corner when we were on our way back from playing soccer with the ward on Thursday night. I didn't want to just put it back because my fingerprints were all over it at that point, so now it's sitting in our apartment as we try to figure out what to do with it. The same night we came across a "party favor" (still in its packaging) on the ground that looked like a dollar bill to me, so naturally I picked it up and immediately threw it back on the ground. I was struggling with picking things up! So I quickly redeemed myself by picking up a penny a few feet later. 

I feel bad that this is such a short email, but I truly don't have anything else that's exciting to share! I will share some personal insights that I learned during my personal studies this week: Don't stress the trivial details. People are going to have conflicting opinions, but if it's not important to your salvation, don't worry or argue about it! It's something we have had to learn as missionaries with difficult companions, and once you have mastered it, there's nothing more relaxing than avoiding conflict. This is especially true with the gospel. Just because Matthew's account of the Sermon on the Mount is different from Mark's doesn't invalidate the Bible! Just have an open mind and don't be so proud that you can't let the trivial things go. "It's better to admit you're wrong than to drive the Spirit away." Brother Smith shared that with me and my companion when we were having a hard time in the MTC and it really made an impact on me. 

Please just strive to be Christlike and invite love into all your interactions with people! As you can imagine, people can be very hard to deal with and hard to love, but we can always find a way to love them. Just like how I still love you all even though I haven't received any letters ;) Be happy and serve your enemies! Happiness is the greatest gift we can get here on this earth! I love you all and am so excited to hear your responses! 

Love, 

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org

"Gosh I love being a missionary..."

Holy cow. This week has been so crazy and amazing and interesting and so many things I don't have words to describe it! For all those who missed it last week, I'm in the Florida Tallahassee Mission waiting for my Visa to come through and I know for sure that me being called here was inspired because it's already been so great!

Just to fill y'all in real quick, I'm serving in a trio with Elder Winter from Idaho and Elder Richards from Canada on Tallahassee Community College campus and from what I have been told, it is by far the best area in the mission, so needless to say, I am pretty stoked. We are on bikes and I'm pretty sure I have just about lost those 10 pounds I gained at the MTC already... It's so fun but SO hard to bike so much every day, it gets to the point that having someone pick us up in a car is the greatest blessing we could get.

We have done so much work already and witnessed so many miracles in finding people just randomly and people who are just so prepared to hear the gospel, I can't believe what I had missed while I was in Provo! The work is so much different on campus, from what I've heard. Planning goes way quick because we pretty much just walk around campus for several hours a day and look for street contacts and the day is way different. I love my companions though! They are great examples and have taught me a ton.

Anyway, we live in a pretty ghetto apartment that smells like smoke, but in my opinion, it's better than the MTC rooms. We got hooked up big time with Genghis Grill twice this week and Applebee's once and people are just way awesome in this Young Single Adult's ward. It's hard to draw the line between being friendswith the kids in the ward and being their missionary, but I think that willcome in time. It's so much work and I am more exhausted than ever at the end of the day, but I wouldn't change it for the world!

Another thing I found to be quite awesome this week was with my personal studies and how they always coincided with one of the lessons we would teach during that day. I'm learning a ton and still developing at crazy rates.

So, today was our first P-Day (it's on Saturday because nobody is on campus) and we started by playing in a softball tournament from 7:30 to 2:30 and I'm going to be super sore tomorrow. I played pretty well, considering my short history of baseball experience, and I had a ton of fun. Another one of the benefits of being in a YSA ward is that they have sweet activities every day except Tuesday and Wednesday and we're always there to bring investigators and such, so I love it. Gosh I love being a missionary! It's true that Heavenly Father looks out for us and provides us with opportunities whenever we are being obedient.

As much as I have wanted to sleep in every morning, I have still gotten up at 6:30 and been as obedient to the schedule as possible, and I promise you that we are being successful for that reason! 

A cool thing I learned this week reading in the Book of Mormon was when Jesus was giving the Commandments to the Nephites and was talking about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. When He says He created the earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th, basically He says we have no reason to not be able to finish everything in the first 6 days and should devote all day Sunday to resting and thinking of Him. It was cool because I had never thought of it that way before! So I challenge you all to do better at keeping the Sabbath Day Holy as Christ commanded. If you go through and read His commandments, you will also find the blessings that He promises when we keep them faithfully. Also remember that faithfully means doing it because you [want] to and not because you have to. Trust our Heavenly Father and let Him bless you! I promise He loves us and [will bless] us whenever we are obedient :)

I love you all so much and miss you all tons! Please take my word and do the things I ask you to do because I know that I have been blessed for being obedient as a missionary and I want all of you to share that same happiness that comes through being obedient to God's Commandments!

Go bless other people's lives and be a better person each day! "Today is the first day of the rest of your life!"

Love,

Elder LeSueur

PS- My new address is:

Elder Trevor LeSueur

1370 Ocala Rd. Apt. 109

Tallahassee, FL 32304


Mormon.Org

"Have Faith That He Hears and Answers Your Prayers..."

It has been one crazy week here at the MTC and time is really starting to fly by like nothing else. 

Well on Saturday at TRC (a small thing where we get to teach members lessons like family home evening) I met a Blake LeSueur from Arizona who met Grandma LeSueur a little while ago randomly and then I taught a guy named Patrick that had a photography class with Chelsea not too long ago, and he was super excited to meet me! I have found it's easier to speak Portuguese when you have something in common with someone and it just flows! 

So that was cool, then Sunday flew by, Monday was nothing special, and then Tuesday was insane. 

We were privileged to have Elder Jeffrey R. Holland speak to us and he completely blew us away. He spoke about staying active [in the gospel] when we return from our missions, and how Preach My Gospel came to be for that reason of keeping RM's active. 

He went on to speak about the Son's of Mosiah and all the great missionaries in the Book of Mormon and how they taught with power and authority (turns out thats the most used phrase in the book) and how we can maintain that power and authority. He also talked about how everything that has ever gone on in the Church up to this point has been building to this time and we are responsible for carrying out the plan Heavenly Father has for us. 

Even more than that, all the prophets of old knew that their time wouldn't end with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. In other words, they knew that their dispensation wasn't the chosen one for having Christ come back to cleanse the world, yet they still carried on their work and fulfilled their responsibilities because they knew what we would be doing exactly at this moment to hasten the Lord's work and bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Seriously, everything connects and its so awesome to think about and make those connections and have a personal witness of the truth of everything! 

f you haven't had a witness yet or you want one, I encourage you to read the Book of Mormon and sincerely pray about receiving a witness that the words spoken in it are true. I testify that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and you will become closer to Him upon reading it and by gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, you can know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true as well. I promise you all that I wouldn't still be here if I didn't know that what I was doing was true! I love you all so very much and I want you all to have the peace and joy and TRUE happiness I have in my life! 

Another cool part from that was when he said the dedicatory prayer for the new buildings on campus. He blessed them to be protected by angels that nothing would ever harm us or these facilities. Such an awesome blessing and it meant so much coming from a man of his stature! 

Other than that, I got to host new missionaries this week on Wednesday and they were kind of funny. They were a little culture shocked, but nothing different from me! I know they're in the right place and they will get along just fine. 

I want you all to know that I know this Church is true with all my heart. Heavenly Father loves us and knows each one of us individually and all of our struggles. He is waiting for us to humble ourselves in prayer and ask Him to bless us, once we do that, He will! I promise! Put your trust in Him and have faith that He hears and answers your prayers. If you don't have faith that He will, what would it hurt to try?

 I love you all so much! Please keep writing me! Be happy and share love with all those you meet! 

Love, 

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org

"Do Good Things and You Will Be Happy..."

Hello all my amazing family and friends! Have I told you lately that I love y'all so much? Seriously, I can't explain how grateful I am for each and every one of you! This past week has been absolutely great, I have gotten more letters than I know what to do with! (I still expect more from those of you who haven't written me though...) 

As a quick Provo update, we had a couple days of record breaking highs of about 35 and 40 degrees this week! I know it sounds horrible to most of you, but it was nearly shorts and a t shirt weather... And now we're back to the dang snow and freezing temperatures. 

A little news from the week: Elder Ginez had to get glasses, so we were able to abandon the MTC campus for about four total hours on Monday and Thursday. I was so excited! Seeing real people, and real cars, and real magazines and newspapers that were from last November. It got me so much more excited to leave the bubble I live in here and get out to Brazil! Anyways, I know I'm here still for a reason beyond what I can know at this point, so I will just keep taking life as it comes and doing everything I know I'm supposed to be doing! Other than that little adventure outside of the MTC, we have basically been doing the same exact thing as we have always done here. I think that's really helping the time fly by because it feels like I have a P Day every other day! 

So my Spiritual thought for the week is something we heard from Elder Enrique Falabella at the Devotional Tuesday night. He spoke to us about charity and making changes in our lives and one thing he said which I'm sure most of you have heard before but could always be reminded of is, "If we keep doing things the same, we will get the same results. If we do things differently, we will get different results." This can be applied in several ways. First and foremost, if you aren't happy for whatever reason, make changes! Whether it's the people you're hanging around, the things you do in your free time, or whatever you notice that isn't helping you out. I can promise you this: Wickedness NEVER was happiness and never will be. Do good things and you will be happy! I promise! That's one of the benefits of serving a mission. I am continually doing good and therefore I am always happy! Study the scriptures, serve people, PRAY. These are a few of a million things you could be doing to be happy! Please seek true happiness and not the vain, temporary happiness the worldly things has to offer. 

Another quick note he shared with us was that repentance leads to charity which leads to a desire to share the gospel. Repentance is a gift, even though we tend to give it a negative connotation. How cool is it that Christ paid for our sins so that we can be cleansed of them? But it's not automatic... It takes recognition on our part and a true, sincere desire to make the CHANGE I was talking about earlier. Charity is a necessary characteristic for salvation, so please work on that and then you will WANT to share the gospel with others because you WILL be happy! 

I testify of the cleansing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the peace and happiness it brings you afterwards. I love you all so much! Be happy and share your love with those in need! 

Love,

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.org