Jacoby's 3rd letter

Hello family and friends :) Hope you're all doing great!

First of all I want to say thank you very much to everyone that has sent me letters and packages I've really appreciated hearing from all of you and I loved all the food that I received. Haha, my district especially loved the cinnamon rolls! I'm sorry that I haven't written anyone back yet we don't have very much spare time here but I will be sure to write you all back asap! A LOT has happened this week both good and bad but of course mostly good :)

I'll start off with the bad and finish with the good. Lots of missionaries here do not belong here. Plain and simple. It's sad but true. The other day I went to get a drink of water with my companion during study time and I was alarmed to see that a lot of the other "servants of the Lord" who are set apart as missionaries were just goofing off and not working at all. I saw some playing hangman, just laughing and being disruptive, elders and sisters flirting and being stupid, and many other pathetic things! It's absolutely unbelievable! For all the future missionaries reading this, study time is the Lord's time, it is sacred. When you waste that sacred study time that the Lord has blessed you with to better prepare to serve God's children you are robbing your Heavenly Father because you are wasting HIS time. DO NOT. I repeat, DO NOT be like any of these disgraceful elders or sisters. Be a valiant and honorable servant of the Lord. Work hard. When you study as hard as you can and give your best effort learning as much as you possibly can then the Lord will bless you with guidance, strength, and most importantly with the Holy Ghost when you'll need it in teaching situations. Work hard and the Lord will protect you. Slack off and you have no promise. It's that simple.

Anyway, enough of that! This entire week was very uplifting in many ways :) I really learned and grew a lot! I'm very blessed to have a companion that likes to work hard and study hard like me so we've been kicking some serious butt here! One of the spiritual experiences that stood out to me most was when we were teaching the 3rd lesson the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we both bore testimony of the power of repentance and the cleansing power of baptism. The spirit was so thick we could've cut it with a knife it was incredible. We all felt a deep peace and we couldn't stop smiling. The Holy Ghost really confirmed to me the truthfulness of this message. Our teacher then gave us some great advice. He said to remember how we feel right now and never forget that as long as we bring the Spirit into the lessons and as long as we feel the Spirit then we're doing our duty and regardless of how the investigators respond (they have their agency) we can know that God is pleased with us and we're doing the right thing. I know that as I keep that in mind, I will be able to get through rough times in my mission as I just continue to do my part.

I'd like to share with you all my testimony of the Restoration. When we taught this week about the First Vision I felt the Holy Ghost bear witness to all of us with absolute certainty that Joseph Smith did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Through the prophet Joseph Smith, the fulness of Christ's true gospel was restored to the earth and we are so blessed to have that knowledge in our lives. If there are any of you who have your doubts or who aren't as certain about Joseph Smith. I promise you all that if you will read the Joseph Smith History, ponder, and pray with a sincere heart and with real intent (meaning you will act on whatever answer you receive) you will know for yourself that Joseph Smith was God's true prophet and he did translate the Book of Mormon by the power of God and he did restore the true church of Jesus Christ. I bear you my witness of these things.

Also I want everyone to read Helaman 5:12 and think about how we can all make Jesus Christ the foundation of our lives. If we put Jesus Christ at the center of our lives then our testimonies will always be unshakable. I love you all and I'm excited to be going to Ecuador this Monday! This is God's true church and it blesses lives so lets all look for more ways that we can share it :)

Love,
Elder Remington