LOVE IS THE MOTIVATING PRINCIPLE ...

"Love is the motivating principle by which the Lord leads us along the way towards becoming like Him, our perfect example.  Our way of life, hour by hour, must be filled with the love of God and love for others."  -Elder Henry B. Eyring

¡Hola Familia!  How are you?  I’m really well.  This week we worked a lot and we also had several trials.  But yesterday, Sunday, we enjoyed our work and we were greatly blessed because we had 13 investigators at church.  It was really cool.  I am so thankful for this Gospel - it has changed my life.  I didn’t realize just how beautiful and how perfect it is before I left for my mission.  Everything makes sense for me now.  Especially the Plan of Salvation and how living the Gospel is so important in this plan.  I am so thankful for the opportunity we have to obtain Eternal Life together.  This is what I love.

Mother, that’s good you wrote the quote about love.  It’s something I have been trying to improve in my life right now.  I have to pray every night for this gift.  I love prayer.  Almost every night I go to bed in my hammock and I pray until I fall asleep.  I know prayer is real and if we have faith and ask for the right things, God will bless us with those things.  We use fans and ceiling fans a lot.  If we don’t use them, we basically die. jaja  Even in the bathroom we have to use fans.  jaja There is almost no air conditioning in any house – just at church, but those fans help us a lot.  I love you a lot Mother and thanks for marrying Daddy in the Temple.

As far as the mail goes, I just receive mail Mondays in the nights because it’s different here and I haven’t received my four generations or a package from Uncle Paul.

I’m not going to write Michelle because she’s going to WX :p

Daddy, that’s really sad with the truck…  but I hope you can ride your motorcycle at the family reunion, that will be cool.  I don’t remember that vacation we had before, but I do remember the photo.  I love Slurpees as well, those are something I miss.  jaja  You know what?  I think the Rey de Oro has better tacos than the ones here but they are still good here.  That’s weird with Dallin; I can’t believe he’s going to receive his calling! How cool with that gangler.

Brother, how are you?  “Qué potente” means “how cool.”  It’s what they say here. But I have seen that with gifts as well.  Like, at times I can only understand things that are Gospel related when we are talking.  But with other things, nope.  (Stephen’s note:  He’s talking about how when they talk to people, if they are talking about church related topics, he can understand them in Spanish.  Other topics, however (like cars or sports perhaps), he has a harder time understanding.)  The language is something I want to have all throughout my life, that’s why we’re always going to talk in Spanish.  jaja  My companion and I were talking about the apostles and he asked me who I know that could be an apostle some day and I told him you could be an apostle. It would be cool, don’t you think?  Maybe … Do you have a girlfriend?  Bye.  I love you brother.

(Stephen’s note:  this is where he ended his first email – so what follows was from another email.)

jajajaja  I was just kidding Michelle, did I scare you?  jajaja  I love you and that’s weird you’re already in high school!  Well, in like two months.  I agree with you – attitude is really important.  Always have a good attitude and all will be well.  I really love this concept.  That’s good with your grades.  jaja And Lake Powell is really fun I love that place but I didn’t have much luck with the fish there!  Actually, you caught more than I did!!  And that thing with the flour seems really fun. I love you a lot little sister.  Keep going and I love you.

Disclaimer: these are NOT from Elder C's mission but are native Cancun children.

Original Spanish Version:

Hola familia! como estan? yo estoy muy bien. este semana trabajamos mucho y tambien tuvimos variors pruebas. pero ayer el domingo difrutamos nuestra trabajo y fuimos bendecidos mucho porque tuvimos 13 investigadores en la capilla. era bien potente. estoy tan agradecido por este evangelio. me ha cambiado la vida. no me di cuenta de cuan bonita y cuan perfecto es antes de saliera de mi mision. todo tiene sentido para mi ahora. como especialmente el plan de salvacion y como vivir el evangelio es tan importante en este plan. y estoy muy agradecido por la oportunidad que tenemos a lograr la vida eterna juntos. es lo que me encanta.

mama, que bueno que escribiste esta cita del amor. es algo que he estado tratando de mejorar en mi vida ahorita. y es algo que tengo que orar mucho cada noche por este don. me encanta la oracion. casi cada noche me acuesto en mi maca y oro hasta que duermo. yo se que la oracion es real y que si tenemos fe y pedimos por las cosas correctos, Dios nos bendecira con ellas. usamos ventadores y ventadores del techo mucho. y si no los usamos, basicamente morimos jaja aun en el bano tenemos que usar ventadores jaja. y casi no hay clima en nigun casa, sino la iglesia, pero los ventadores nos ayudan mucho. te amo mucho mama y gracias por haber casado en el templo con papa.

y con el correro, solomente recibimos correro los lunes en la noche porque es diferente aqui. y no he recibido mi 4 generacions ni un paquete de tio paul, pero he recibido varias cartas de Ali, pero estoy esperando hasta que reciba su proxima carta para responder. tal vez voy a recibirla hoy en la noche. la ultima carta que recibi era de Ali y dijo que acaba de enviar una otra carta. voy a esperar escribir hasta que reciba esta carta.

noy voy a escribir michelle porque va a asistir wx :p

papa, que triste con la camioneta...pero ojala que pueda andar en motocicleta en la reunion de la familia. sera potente. y no recuerdo esta vacacion que tuvimos en el pasado, pero recuerdo la foto. y me encantan las slurpees tambien. es algo que extrano jaja. y sabes que? creo que el rey de oro tiene tacos mejores que aqui jaja pero todavia son buenos aqui. y que raro con Dalin. no puedo creer que va a recibir so llamamiento! jaja que potente con este gangler

hermanito, como estas? que potente quiere decir que padre. es lo que se dice aqui.
he notado esto de los dones tambien. como a veces solo puedo entender cosas que se tratan del evanglio mientras estamos hablando. pero con otras cosas, no. el idioma es algo que quiero tener a lo largo de mi vida. por esto siempre vamos a hablar en espano jaja. mi companero y yo estabmamos hablando de los apostoles y me pregunto quien conozco que podria ser un apostol algun dia y le dije que tu puedes ser apostol jaja seria potente no? tal vez jaja tienes una novia? adios te quiero hermano