Hello Family!

Happy 6th of July!

The library was indeed closed yesterday. We did nothing special for the 4th.

We had an investigator get married to her less-active fiancee(now husband) on Saturday. It was an... interesting experience. Quite a cross-section of people there. They also had many gallons of Sweet Tea there. At the church. That was funny to see. They showed up about an hour late. Then it almost didn't even happen. She almost backed out, but the Bishop talked her into it. Then it finally happened. Short, sweet, and to the point. hallelujah!

Our two baptisms that were supposed to take place this month probably won't happen. One just hasn't been going to church, so she'll have to be delayed. the other moved back in with his girlfriend and doesn't want to be baptized until December. Fun.

We had Mission Tour this last week with Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the First Quorum of the Seventy. It was awesome. It was mostly a question and answer thing. The most fascinating thing he spoke about was the Light of Christ. He spoke of how receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost is really a greater endowment of the Light of Christ. Being a Person(age?), He can only be in one place at a time, so almost always, when you feel the Holy Ghost, what you are actually feeling is the Light of Christ. The Holy Ghost acts as sort of the Manager or Director of the Light of Christ as well as the Gifts of the Spirit. So he does cause the feelings you get, but it's actually the Light of Christ. There are also ties with other scriptures. The scripture about how we get Light and it grows brighter and brighter until the "perfect day." Also, letting your light shine before men. The city on a hill/candlestick thing. There seems to be some literalness to this. The Truth and Righteousness we possess increases our light. It is visible. You can see it in a person's countenance. You can feel it. Fascinating things to think about and study.

He also talked briefly about the difference between the 3 Kingdom's of Glory. Those who go to the Celestial Kingdom have repented of all their sins, we know this. Those in the Terrestrial Kindgom are guilty of Sins of Omission. Those in the Telestial Kingdom are guilty of Sins of both Omission and Comission.

He also spoke about how the structure of missionary work is about to change, somewhat. Zone Conferences will be every 3 months, instead of every 6 weeks. Interviews with the Mission President will be every 3 months instead of every 6 weeks as well. Our goals will be based monthly, instead of on a 6 week basis. So that'll be interesting.

He also spoke about relationships. There are 3 relationships in Missionary Work: 1)The relationship between the Missionaries and God 2) The relationship between the missionaries and the investigators 3)The relationship between the investigators and God. Now, the focus of the old discussions was relationship #2. And the one of the intentions of Preach My Gospel is to shift that focus to #3. Missionaries aren't quite getting that, so every missionary across the entire world is going to be taught these 8 simple lessons on how to do that. We don't know how when or where that will take place at this time.

Life is going well for me, as always. Training is still fun. Elder Mortensen is growing a lot. I love it. The weather has cooled off just a little bit, so that's nice. We're also going to go bowling today, so that will be fun. :)

Congratulations to Jason on your Mission call! Good luck! :)

Well, not much else exciting has happened. Sorry. :)

I hope you all have a great week! Have a good one! Go to the temple!

Love,
Elder Bracken