"Remember who you are and what you stand for."

Jan 3, 2011 ...Dear Family,


Things here are going pretty well. Elder Morris and I had a good week. We found quite a few new investigators. I'm hoping we can continue to find many new investigators each week. Our other investigators are coming along slowly.The end of the week was a little rough. On Friday night my stomach felt terrible so I didn't get much sleep. That made it so I had no energy on Saturday. It was not pleasant. It pretty much carried over into Sunday as well.


Last week we had interviews with President Barry. It went really well. I really enjoy talking to him. He definitely is a man of God. He also told us that we're going to have Elder Dallin H. Oaks come and talk to us on January 22nd. I'm really excited for that!


I've been reading the New Testament this past month or so. I really enjoy it. I felt like I didn't know enough about Christ and His life. So, I started reading and have learned a lot. I'm in Mark right now, so I still have a lot to read. Every time I read I get a little more. It's wonderful.


I've also started reading from the Book of Mormon everyday again. I've actually read from it, or studied some scriptures in it, everyday, but now I'm continuing to read through it from the start, instead of jumping around and studying different things in it. I've been learning so much. It's incredible how much a person can gain when they read and really look to what is happening and apply it to their life. The Book of Mormon is incredible. It truly brings the Spirit and we can find answers to our questions by praying and studying it. As I've been out I've really been able to see how critical it is that we always read the Book of Mormon. When we stop that's when our testimony starts to grow weaker and we fall away. That's why we always invite people to read it and pray about it. They must do this to gain a testimony.


So, I really don't have much else to say about last week. Like I said earlier, it was good. There's nothing that really sticks out in my mind. We did have some really good lessons. Unfortunately the people we taught haven't been very responsive.


Now for the reason of the title of this email. Like I said at the end of my call on Christmas. That little saying of Mom's is really incredible. In the past I never gave it much thought. I would just shrug it off. Now I think about it more and it's got a lot of meaning. There are a lot of different ways to look at it, but at the very core of it we are all the children of God. There's nothing better than that. When we understand that our lives will change. When we make that our identity we will see incredible blessings. I learned something about that a few months ago. Our identity drives our values, which drives our rules and beliefs, which drives our attitudes, which drives our behaviors, which drives our actions, which drives our reality. So, to change our reality we need to change our identity. There is no greater identity to possess and understand than that we are the children of God. Well, I've gotta go.






Love Always, Zach