"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

"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