Week 7

Little does Travis know his chastisement in this weeks letter has already been taken care of! I recommit myself to keeping weekly updates of dear Elder Morty on his beloved missionary blog ;)

WEEK 7

"So every sunday an elder and a sister are called on to speak in sacrament meeting. Just a 3 or so minute talk in french. Not a big deal. They assign a topic and we're each supposed to prepare a talk because we don't know who is speaking until right after the sacrament. So I haven't prepared a talk... just gotten scriptures picked out in my mind before. This week I thought I was safe becasue I only have 2 weeks left and they had picked the elder and the sister from my district last week! However... guess who was called on to speak. Yeah me! I hadn't even thought about a scripture to use and so while the sister was giving her talk I was definitely feverishly looking for scriptures on faith! It was really neat because I had never thought about faith being a principle of power before but that is what I was able to give like a 7 minute talk on (or so I was told). It was amazing and amazingly true at the same time. I really focused on Mor. 7:33 and Alma 48:13,17 as my references with captain moroni being my key example. Really cool, needless to say and also a lot of people said they enjoyed my talk! So that was cool. But yeah, the french is coming well and it is really neat to be able to speak and read in french with relative ease. I still have a long way to go, but I can communicate when I need to and that is really positive.

"I think dedication is huge! Like the dedication mom and dad and gpa/gma have given to the pear farm this year. That is amazing! Thanks so much for stepping it up and being willing to serve like that. In some ways it is like our ancestors who gave everything they had just to go to the temple to be sealed as a family. They recognized the importance of it and so they completed it. Obviously it's not the same situation, but it is similar and they require similar efforts of Dedication. So thanks!"

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I am excited for Travis to send home some fun pictures! It will be great to see how he looks and to see glimpses of the experiences he is having.

Not that you'll read this Elder Morty, but your family is sending you a virtual hug. We miss and love you!!