Elder Justin Thiel

Dear mom:

That's great to hear that Matt is a priest now.  Tell him that missionary prep is important and to take it seriously because I didn't.  Tell Horsley that I said hi and tell him that I am really thankful for always sticking with me and picking me up for activities even if I didn't want to go.  I think that he is one of the biggest influences for me on serving a mission.  Also tell Brother Savage that I still work out every morning and that he can't slack off just because I'm gone now.

One of the biggest things that I'm starting right now is that I'm learning how to teach a "stop smoking class" that helps people stop smoking in just a week and we already have some people that want to take the class from us. We just had a mission conference yesterday and we had Elder Aidukaitis of the 70 speak to us.  He taught us the importance of goals and inviting people to be baptized in the first lesson.  I got to do a role play with him in front of everyone one because me and my companion were the only ones brave enough to do it.  Not everyone can say that they got to do a role play (which is when you act like your teaching someone and the Elder Aidukaitis played the investigator we were teaching) with a general authority.  They taught us the importance of making goals with faith and also of the power of prayer.

I would say that the most important thing that I can get any of my investigators to do is to read the Book of Mormon.  The introduction in the front of the book doesn't lie.  Anyone who reads the book and then diligently prays about it with real intent or intending on acting on the answer they receive will get a divine witness that the book is true. It's something that you have to do that no one else can do for you and it's the most important step in learning if the gospel is true because if the book is true, then everything else that I teach someone is true because it all can be found in that book.  I would say also to not take anyones word for anything untill you try this out yourself because in all reality, truth only comes from God, so ask Him and that's where you will get the truth of all things.

I didn't get transfered so I'm still in the same area but I did grill chicken this week for a family that we had dinner with and it was amazing.  I prepared it myself so now I know how to make some awesome chicken.