April 27, 2020
Dear family and friends of the Idaho Idaho Falls missionaries,
We
appreciate the love and support that you show each of your missionaries. They
are awesome and we are so grateful to be serving with them. We wanted to write
a quick note to give an update on what is happening in Idaho with the current
COVID-19 situation. Unlike many parts the country, Idaho has been very
fortunate and has very few cases compared to many other states. Currently, the
total number of cases in Idaho is 2015. There are less than 50 cases within our
mission boundaries. In many ways if you drove through Idaho Falls you would
never know anything was happening. We received good news from the governor
today when he announced that Idaho would begin phase 1 of getting back to
normal life. Effective today, the shelter at home order has been lifted. We had
a meeting with the area presidency today and we hope to have more information
in the next few days to let us know what that means for our missionaries.
Slowly we expect return to normal life.
Your
missionaries have been champs. Even though it can be challenging staying in
their apartments, they are continuing to work hard and focus on their purpose
of bringing souls to Christ.
Many
of them start their day by exercising with me during Facebook fitness.
We have come to love it and plan on continuing it even after we no
longer must stay in our apartments. Every day we continue to have
devotionals at 1 o’clock and we have had some outstanding speakers. We
will continue this as long as we are required to stay in our
apartments. We are seeing many miracles and many hearts being softened.
Missionaries are having success with families they have been trying to
reach for months and they are now able to reach them because many people
are staying home. Last week it was announced that we could begin having
baptisms again and we had our first baptism in a month. We had a
mission leadership council today and found out that we have 37 people
scheduled to be baptized in May. We have over 80 people on date to be
baptized, so many good things are happening.
We
love your missionaries and we are so grateful for their willingness to
serve and to continue working hard even under challenging circumstances.
In the Idaho Idaho Falls mission we have a saying, “Don’t ask why, ask
what.” They have taken this to heart and many of them have
asked, “What can I do to better serve those around me?” “What can I do
to better prepare and to better learn the doctrine?” “Who needs my help
that I could send a message to through technology?” They are truly an
inspiration. We have also been focusing on Facebook to help us find new
people to teach. We have created 18 new Facebook pages representing
different areas throughout the mission. Your missionaries have been
working diligently to create inspiring posts and videos. I hope they are
sharing them with you.
Thank you again for loving and supporting them. When you talk to them again please remind them how much we love them.
President and Sister Hurley
Here is Elder Trezise's email for the week:
Hello family!
This week was AWESOME! Elder Slade
and I are really getting along, and have a ton of the same interests and
it's pretty great. He's also like the most diligent missionary I've
ever served with and that's pretty awesome. We ended up teaching 35
lessons over technology this week and even found a new person to teach
over technology! It was so cool! We had 8 lessons yesterday alone! So
we're staying busy, and the work moves on. Something I've been reciting
everyday is the Standard of Truth. It says,
"The standard of
truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from
progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may
assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly,
nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited
every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the
purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say
the work is done."
I love that so much. God's work will move
forward, and it's a little prideful to think that anything that we do as
humans can mess up His plan, haha.
I was studying from a talk
this morning by President Monson where he talks about all the prophets
he's known and describes a little bit about each one. As he talked about
President Heber J. Grant he quoted President Grant's favorite quote.
It's by Ralph Waldo Emerson. And it says:
"That which we
persist in doing becomes easier to do. Not that the nature of the thing
has changed. But our capacity to do has increased."
That's
really what I wanted to talk about. Building righteous habits. I've come
to learn as I've been out here that righteous habits are often hard to
form and easy to break, while wicked habits are easy to form and hard to
break. It's perseverance vs. addiction. But it has been quite
interesting to see how as we form a righteous habit and stick with it,
how it becomes easier. For example, when I came out I had a rough time
studying the scriptures for a full hour each morning. There were some
days I was pretty lax with it. But as I've stayed out it has become
easier and easier, to the point where an hour seldom feels like enough
time. Has the scripture study itself changed? No. The nature of the
thing has not changed. But my capacity has increased.
That's
exactly what God's plan in the first place was. That's exactly what our
purpose here on Earth is. To form and progress in righteous habits. So
it's important that as you look at your habits and measure how hard they
are to keep, you understand that it's a good thing to have a hard habit
to keep. And if you find some that are hard habits to break, maybe you
want to re-evaluate what sort of an impact it has on your life. And keep
in mind that the principle of self control is an eternal one.
I
have found myself enjoying my mission, and really my life a lot more
recently. And I attribute it to the fact that my companion and I are
being 100% diligent. There is not a moment of the day right now that I
feel unproductive. And it is amazing. Exhausting, yes. Hard, yes. But
amazing. Because I understand that habits that are hard to form are for
our good. And though it may seem hard now, "thine afflictions shall be
but a moment. And then, if thou shalt endure it well, thou shalt be
exalted on high." What a miraculous promise. All God asks of us is to be
obedient. How are we to expect God to bless us when we don't give Him
our all? Elder Manu once told me, "To give my Heavenly Father anything
less than my all is a sin." I love that. The attitude of, "everything I
have comes from Him. So everything I do should be for Him."
I
know it's hard. And I know there may be habits that you have that you
don't want to break, or you don't want to change. Maybe there's things
you know you should do that you aren't doing. And you're hesitant to
start. I invite you to repent. Make the changes in your life that
qualify you to be worthy of all that Heavenly Father wants to bless you
will. And if you do, you will receive peace in this life, and eternal
life in the world to come. I love each of you and testify to you, with
everything that I have, that I know that this Gospel is true. I know
that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He loves us. And He gave His all for
us. He gave more than any of us could ever give. And we in return owe
EVERYTHING to Him. So begin to give Him everything. Each of us, myself
included, myself especially, can give Him more. I promise you that you
will not regret it. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
-Elder Trezise
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