Letter 3/1/10

Thanks for all the wonderful emails! It was the best present to have so much good news! It's great to hear so much news from the family. I received the birthday package on Friday! Thanks so much! I have to admit that I opened the tie a day early so that I could wear it to Stake Conference. I loved reading the notes and opening presents! Thanks

It's been almost ten days since I've written and I have tons to share, I really hope that I can get to all of it. It's going to make it a little difficult because my spacebar isn't really working.

This week has been packed with great speakers. We had Zone Activity, Zone conference, Stake Conference and next week our zone is going to the Temple! I feel like I've learned more in the last ten days than I can ever hope to apply.

At zone conference we focused a lot on teaching families and working with the members. President Paulsen gave us some truly amazing counsel on developing Character. President Paulsen used some amazing examples. He talked about a time when he was working for American Express and they asked to let go several people in his department. They explained that they had conducted internal audit which involved in depth accounting off everything in the company, the purpose was to check the integrity of everyone in the company. They checked expense accounts, time reports, even the rates of stationary usage. Many people were let go, others faced disciplinary action. His report was cleaner that any they'd seen before. As a result he was trusted with more and more. His career skyrocketed because they could trust him. When President Paulsen was asked to be a mission president was the CEO of American Express. Heavenly Father sees everything we do, when he is able to trust us he will bless us with greater opportunities. It is equally important to gain the trust of our ward, investigators, and fellow missionaries.

The Spirit was very strong, we all felt the desire to gain the Lord's trust and work to become spectacuar missionaries. At the end of President Paulsen's last address, Elder Niest (the Zone Leader) stood up and bore his testimony. He talked about the trust a family had for him and his companion. Just a week ago the Husband had been shot by a stray bullet (a drunk man was walking in a field shooting his gun - please don't worry about my safety, thigs like that are very rare) The first call the wife made was to him. (I was there when he revived the call, we were on the way to Ralph's baptismal interview) He talked about the amazing trust that can and should be built between the investigators and the missionary. He then read scripture from James telling us to be doers of the word and not hearers only. He opened the floor for us to state what we were going to change to become better missionaries.

Stake conference was equaly as great. We had some amazing talks, the topics were Love, The Atonement, and Repentance. We met at the University of South Africa (It's the only place big enough for the Stake to meet) The Campus was amazing, everything looked brand new. The school was huge, from a distance the school literal looked like a Star Destroyer from star wars (I'll have to get a picture if I ever go back)

Once again I'm out of time. Things are great and continue to get better! I love being a missionary and I love serving the Lord. I had a lot more I was hopping to say, but I'll have to save it for another time. It does give me a chance to leave you with a challenge, look up Election in the Bible dictionary and think about what it means about yourself in pre-existence as well as your responsibilities in this life.

I love you all! Thanks again for all of you prayers and support! I know that we being greatly blessed! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Keith Halterman