"The Book of Mormon is true and has brought me closer to my Savior..."

Hello beautiful people! So I have officially been in Tallahassee for one month and tomorrow will be my three month mark on the mission. What in the world is happening to all this time?!

What have all of you been up to? I'm really very curious since only about 3 people besides my family have written me letters... Come on people, show me some love! I at least have an excuse to not write first because I don't have your addresses! Even if you email me your address I will write you a letter! Empty mailboxes at the end of the day are so lame for missionaries.

Anyway, this week was definitely your typical roller-coaster ride as a missionary! We had days that we taught 7 lessons (a large feat on TCC Campus) and we had days that we didn't get to teach a single soul and we had everything in between. We found a few new people who are very interesting and potentially sketchy... So, keep my safety in mind on Tuesday if we end up going over to his place for dinner! Haha I'm kind of kidding…

But what I learned from this week is that we are going to have some incredible days that don't compare and we feel on top of the world, but we can't enjoy those days if we don't experience the trying days, too. How boring would it be if we just did the same thing every day with the same results and never had to deal with disappointment? After all, we learn best when things don't happen the way we want. What I'm trying to say is that even though the bad days are really tough out here, knowing that our Heavenly Father is in charge and will bring us success makes everything worthwhile. Elder David Bednar spoke in a CES Fireside last night and said it really well, "Strong faith in the Savior is submitting to His will, even if the outcome is unfavorable... Do you have the faith NOT to be healed?" Do you have the faith that everything will be for the best when you let Heavenly Father direct your path, or only when it's convenient to what you want? It's hard to keep that state of mind, but it makes life much more enjoyable; I promise!

He also said "Not shrinking is much more important than surviving." Our faith is always either increasing or decreasing... Be productive in your lives and take 10 minutes each day to read your scriptures! It is TRUE power against the adversary and you will notice a difference in your happiness!

Okay, enough chastisement.

So, yesterday was Mary's baptism (we moved it because we had to work a Family History Fair all day Saturday) and it couldn't have been a better ending to my first full month in the field. I was privileged to perform the baptismal ordinance for her and it was the most amazing thing I have done. To be able to do something for the Lord that literally cleanses someone from all sin... That is so much power and so humbling. The service was incredibly spiritual and nearly the whole ward was there since it was right after church!

More than ever, I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ on the earth. I know that my work as a missionary is bringing people closer to Him and only through these ordinances are they able to return to live with our Heavenly Father. Being a part of the reason people can have that amazing gift is mind blowing.

The Book of Mormon is true and has brought me closer to my Savior as I have read and tried to abide by its teachings. There is nothing more that I want than for all of you, my wonderful family and friends, to have the happiness that comes with being a valiant follower of Christ. Please, read the Book of Mormon daily and gain that personal testimony of its truth! It will come to you, I promise! But, no matter what I say, it has to be through your desire.

I love you all so very much and I pray that you continue to find success in this life! Remember you are a child of God and He loves you more than you can comprehend! I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ. Be happy and serve someone in need this week :)

Love,

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org

"I am being reassigned (temporarily)..."

I found out on Wednesday that I am being reassigned (temporarily) to the Florida Tallahassee Mission! Which, coincidentally, is also kind of deceiving because the only part of Florida in my mission is the panhandle and the rest includes about half of Alabama, half of Georgia, and a little corner of Mississippi. So needless to say, I will be kickin' it with the gators and swamp people for a little while! There is a girl in our Zone from that area and she said we will be fed well, so it looks like I'll continue packing on the pounds for at least another six weeks... She also warned us of using our manners correctly, you know, the "yes ma'am, no ma'am" kind of southern hospitality? Yeah. I don't think it should be a problem getting back into those Prosper roots, but I hope I don't get a bad reputation for forgetting to be polite!

Needless to say, I'm quite excited to get out of the MTC and do some real missionary work. The experience here has been great and it will definitely be weird leaving the people I have been around  for my entire mission so far, especially the 11 other guys in my District, but it's part of progressing! 

So the other reassignments from my District include Billings Montana, Seattle Washington, Baton Rouge Louisiana, Salt Lake City Central, and Provo Utah. Haha I had to laugh a little about the guys staying in the freezing cold up here for a little longer, but they're in one of the most successful areas in the US so I guess they are willing to sacrifice.

So this week has been extremely rough. I have struggled to stay motivated and diligent in my studies because there has been so much excitement! We have still done a ton of work and I have continued to learn, but I know I could have been doing so much more, so I found myself asking the Lord for forgiveness for wasting His time each night... It's something I'm working on so don't judge!

We have been blessed to hear mission stories from our teachers and have fun with each other since we wont really be seeing each other much after this week. I have grown to love each one of these fine Elders on a personal level and ithasn't been easy, but it has been a great experience! They each have strengths and have taught me so much, I'm so grateful for these past two months. I know this is a principle we can all apply in our lives as we are surrounded with a myriad of people with different personalities and different lessons they can teach us. I challenge each of you to find a lesson you can learn from each person you associate with and understand how that can make you a better human being. Some of the best lessons I have learned have come from times when I have struggled with my companion or struggled with an investigator, but the blessings and lessons that came out of it were worth the temporary displeasure. I want all of you to be the happiest people in the world and I know that you can be by finding the blessings in your life each day and constantly thanking our Heavenly Father for all He has given us. So do that for me and I promise you will see a difference in your life!

One more thing from the Devotional this week. Elder L. Whitney Clayton and his wife spoke about loving one another. A thing Sister Whitney said was that in order to enjoy the thrill and the rush of going down the hill, you have to endure the ascent up the hill first. We can do hard things! Ask the Lord for help and He will undoubtedly help you! Trust Him! I love you all and hope life is going absolutely wonderfully! Be happy and help others share that happiness! Eu amo voces!

Love,

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.Org

"We Have the Potential to Become Like Him..."

It has been an absolutely crazy week! I just want to start off by saying I love you all and miss you so much! This past week we experienced a flu outbreak which kind of caught me for a day so I was stuck in bed all day Wednesday wishing I could be doing something productive, but it was also kind of nice to be able to sleep 20 of the 24 hours! It was tough because I was having really weird dreams and kept waking up feeling like something was wrong and then I was just so vulnerable to thinking about everyone back home I got really upset and really homesick.

I want everyone to know that those feelings (any bad feeling we get at all) are from Satan himself and he is working so hard to discourage us and make us feel like we can't live up to the potential we have as God's children. Think about it... We learn from our parents and eventually become like them because of the observations and everything we have of them. Now apply that to Heavenly Father. As His children, we have the potential to become like Him! How cool is that?! I challenge all of you to find out for yourselves what you can do to become more like Him and have all that He has. 4

We have also been dealing with the coldest consistent weather I have ever felt. It was 0 degrees this morning on our trip to the temple and that made the ten minute walk feel like an eternity! As soon as we stepped outside it felt like I couldn't breathe because it was so cold and so dry! Miserable... But that just makes the entrance into warm buildings all that much better! I have been feeling so great the last couple weeks and I know its because all of you are praying so fervently for me to have all that I need, so THANK YOU! Please keep the prayers coming ;)

I was reading in Alma 26 the other day and came across the scripture about why he was boasting in God. Verses 10-12 and 27 summed up to me says that we are nothing in our own strengths, but with the help of the Lord we can have success by bearing our afflictions with patience. I know this is true because I have been dealt some pretty rough things already! And whenever I've complained or felt like I was being wronged, it was so much harder to be happy or gain blessings from it. But when I was willing to accept it as the Lord's divine plan for me, I understood the lessons I needed to learn and how it would help me in the future.

For instance, yesterday we were teaching one of our progressing investigators, Fabiano, and the lesson ended up being the last lesson we would teach him because he had stopped progressing. What I learned was that when Elder Ginez and myself were not teaching in unity (the most important key of teaching), we didn't allow him to be taught by the Spirit and everything fell through. There's a lot more that I learned, but I'm running short on time.

I just want all of you to know that the things you deal with in this life are preparing you for the future and giving you knowledge you must know for the next life as you become like God!

To finish off, I have some awesome news... Drum-roll...

People are starting to get their visas from Brazil! The district that is just one week ahead of us started getting them today and Elder Christensen of my district got his too! AHH its so exciting and so much more motivating to know we are finally so much closer to being where we are going to be proselyting! I'm so excited to get to Brazil! Even though I won't be able to get letters and packages as easily, its still way exciting.

Speaking of letters and packages, SEND ME MORE! I'm really wanting to hear from all of you about your lives! I know its time consuming and I cant be a hypocrite because I never really wrote missionaries, but I would love it :) I gotta go, but I love you all!

I know this gospel is true and I know that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us individually and knows us personally too!

I look forward to your letters :) Be happy and go share something with someone in need! 

Love, 

Elder LeSueur

Mormon.org