The Raleigh Family

Dear mom,

This week has been awesome! I got to baptize a kid named Mercelo this past Sunday who was the kid of the woman we baptized last Sunday. It was pretty cool feeling to be the baptizer.

It sounds like everything is going really well at home. Sounds like Maddi’s BBQ was good and it’s awesome that you guys finally got a new couch! Haha and the organ...

That’s nuts that in less than a month we’ll have a new member in the family!

This week I’ve been studying a lot about Divine Nature and I realized that all of the attributes kinda go in a cycle or like they circle back around. I figured out that all the attributes feed into each other. First there’s faith then then knowledge, virtue, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, and diligence. And then I read a quote from an apostle that said personal integrity is the foundation of faith so tack that on the front there. And then I started thinking, what is the foundation of personally integrity? And after thinking about it a lot I figured out that it is self-esteem. So tack that on in the very front. And what is interesting is that if you are diligent with all these other attributes then it will build your self-esteem. So it’s like a never ending cycle. I found a scripture I liked a lot in 2 Peter chap. 1 that talks about these things. I like verse 2 a lot cause it says your grace and peace will multiply through the knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ and it lists all these attributes and then in verse 8 it says that if these things abound in you then you will not be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Then also in verse 10 it says if ye do these things you will not ever fall. So this past week I’ve began to study these things one at a time and try to apply them in my life and I can already fell a lot more peace in my life. Anyway you guess should look this up and study them because I think they are important.

I also like that quote you gave me. Conversion really is the focus and as you love people the work really is a lot easier haha and you will be better at helping a person to be converted. And I think if you mesh the last two together it might work better, teaching truth (doctrine) with the spirit is the key.

I love you guys! Have an awesome week and tell dad I love him too. And tell heather I’ll be praying that everything goes well with the baby.

Love,

Elder Raleigh

Ps. here’s the kid that we baptized this week and his family! And I just thought this was a sweet picture of me and my companion.

Dear mom,

This week was awesome! We found someone who was just ready to receive the gospel and we taught her every day last week and she got baptized this past Sunday!! I’ll attach the picture. Every single commitment we asked her to make she made immediately without hesitation and kept them all. She quit smoking and we were able to give her a blessing and in the blessing it said she would developed a dislike for smoking according to her faith and like two days before her baptism her sister offered her a smoke and she said it smelt disgusting to her and she didn’t even want it! It was serious miracles this week! She told us after only being there twice that she was already beginning to feel like a new person. The Holy Ghost was definitely working in her! And this week her son is gonna get baptized and he asked me to baptize him!! It’s gonna be sweet!!! So this next week should be pretty awesome too. We set our goals pretty high for this week so I think we’re gonna see some real progress in this area.

So that’s pretty much all that happened this week, oh also we got a new mission president but I haven’t met him.

Anyway why were you guys picking up a couch?

That’s nuts Bro. Little said that it was the best ever! Sorry Maddi got sick :( that’s brutal being sick while camping! Haha reminds me a little bit of man week this last year. Sick and camping and hot and cold and bugs don’t mix well so I feel for her haha

Love

Elder Raleigh

Dear dad,

This week was super awesome! We baptized a woman named Solange and she was just ready to receive the gospel and turned her life around in a week and this week her son is going to get baptized too and he asked me to do it! So were gonna be working a lot with him this next week and getting him ready for it. You’ll have to read the email I sent to mom because it has more details about the whole situation. But it was a really awesome experience!  

I attached a picture of her and that’s her son there so you’ll have to show that to mom.

Anyway not much else happened this week, just a lot of hard work! Haha my language is starting to come along! It’s getting easy for me to understand what people are saying. I still have problems with conjugation and I don’t know all the words but I can for sure have a conversation with people as long as we’re not talking about things that are too complex haha

I heard trek was awesome this past week! Other than Maddi being sick, but I’m glad you guys had a good time!

Oh I read a really cool talk this past week called His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox. It’s really good, it really helps to understand what grace really is so you should look it up and read it its really awesome!

Anyway this week is gonna be awesome here so hope it’s awesome there too. Keep praying and focusing your lives in the gospel!

Love,

Elder Raleigh

Dear mom,

This week has been super crazy! It seems like every week just gets a little bit crazier than the last. So last Thursday we went to the sister’s area to help finalize a baptism of a nine year old girl. The spirit guided us all day long and there were a ton of miracles that helped us get it done. First of all we were in a city that we didn’t know, without a map and only and address and a bus number that we needed to take. So we got on the bus and asked the driver for help and he got us off in the right direction and when we got off the bus we walked kinda aimlessly for like ten minutes and just ended up at the street we needed and were able to find the house and then we taught the girl all the commandments she needed to know and she was one of the smartest girls I’ve ever seen that age. And her mom wanted her to wait to be baptized, so the girl had been praying that she could be baptized. And when we showed up the mom was at work and only the grandma was there so we were able to teach her and interview her for baptism. Then we asked the family where her mom worked and then we went off again and tried to find it and after a long bus ride and some more aimless walking we just found where it was at. It’s very interesting when I think back on the whole situation we were totally lost the whole time! But not at one moment during the day did I feel lost at all and the spirit guided us to where we needed to be. So anyway we found where her mom worked and told her that her daughter was ready for baptism and got her to sign the paper that she had to and this Sunday she was baptized! It was an awesome experience! After we got the paper and left we stopped and said a prayer of gratitude because we knew that it could not have happened without the help of the lord. We literally just walked into a city and the lord guided us to where we needed to be and got done what he needed to get done. I guess it was important that this girl was baptized this past Sunday.

Then two days later we found a woman named Solange who has just been prepared to receive the missionaries and the on Sunday some members brought a family to church that has just been prepared to receive the gospel too. And they needed blessing so after church we gave them blessings and this week we started teaching them and they want us to come by every day this week and teach them and there getting baptized this next Sunday as long as they can quit smoking! So we’ve been working really hard with them and helping them out as much as we can with that. So this Sunday were going to have a minimum of 3 baptisms! I’m so excited! These people have just been waiting to receive the gospel!

In sounds like you guys are gonna have an awesome week this week too. Trek sounds like it’s gonna be sweet. And I’m jealous that Maddi gets to do the beach and trek all in one week! Lucky! And tell Heather happy birthday for me and sorry it’s late but hope she had a good day. And I can’t believe she’s gonna have a baby soon! It’s crazy that Kacen will be 4 and there will be another 2 year old when I get home!

I really liked the part of your thought faith is always pointed towards the future. My comp and I have been talking about that ALOT lately and I think that’s why we’re starting to have so many miracles happen lately, because we’ve just been having faith that we would find people to baptize and not letting ourselves even admit one bit that it’s not gonna happen. We’ve just been looking to the future and not dwelling on anything that goings wrong only on what will go right.

Thanks for your email and for your prayers, they’ve been helping a lot. Everything is going great here and we're having miracles. Stay strong and keep praying and always look to the future.

Love,

Elder Raleigh

PS

“His grace is sufficient” by Brad Wilcox, this is such a good talk about what grace is! You should read it and it’ll change your perspective of grace to something that helps in everyday life!

Dear mom,

This week has been pretty good and pretty hard. We’ve found some pretty good people who have good potential. This Sunday night we went out with a 10 year old kid tracking in his neighborhood and he did some contacts for us and it just melted people’s hearts. We ended up teaching the 1st lesson to someone and he was there with us and at the end we asked him to bare his testimony about the book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong! He said that he prayed and while he did it he just asked if the book was true and he got a warm feeling and afterwards a very peaceful feeling and then he asked about joseph smith and got the same feeling and because of that he knows that the book is true. The woman’s mind was blown it was pretty sweet haha. So that was really good.

Love,

Elder Raleigh

Dear dad,

This week was pretty good. We’re finding people who think will really be baptized. And my comp and I are getting along really great!

Sorry I forgot to tell you happy father’s day. I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me while I was growing up. You are a really good example of the type of father I’d like to be some day. I’ve learned a lot from the things you’ve taught me and I can apply some things to how I teach and go about mission life now. Thank you so much for being my dad.

I finally cleaned the bathroom today haha so the apt is looking a lot nicer now.

Love,

Elder Raleigh