August 13, 2013
Family and Friends,
This
week has been extremely busy so I’m sorry if I didn’t write. First off, I saw a bunch of friends
this week! I saw Elder Pace,
Skidmore, Wilson, and Aarif a ton since he has the same meal schedule, so
almost every meal every day, and I just sat through the devotional tonight with
Elder Lunt! Elder Richard G. Scott
spoke and it was amazing! But it
was good to see Jeff and talk to him for awhile.
So
this week we officially became Senpai because the new Kohai came in! It was so nice with them coming in
because it showed us how much we’ve already learned! And that was extra nice because the language is so hard and
I’ve had some struggles, but I’m doing a lot better so not to worry!
Thursday
this week I was still sick, and because of that I was completely
exhausted. However, the Lord
strengthened me cause I was able to last throughout the day, which I didn’t
think was possible. So that was a
huge blessing!
Saturday we had TRC again, and again it was great! One of the people we taught was a returned
missionary from Sapporo so that was cool!
Sunday
after the devotional I got to go see all of the Oly missionaries that were
still in the MTC and got to take a bunch of pictures with them. During Choir on Sunday the director
told us that the person who published “Jesus Once of Humble Birth” donated
about 200 copies of it so the missionaries could sing it and wanted the missionaries to take the copies. So to give them away he gave them to all the missionaries who went to choir for 4
weeks or more, and since that was my 4th week, I got a copy!
Monday I was feeling some self doubt and hopelessness. I felt like I wasn’t fulfilling my
purpose and couldn’t do it. Then
during class we taught each other while pretending we were investigators ready
to be committed to be baptized, but having doubts. I was the ‘investigator’ for two of the sister missionaries
and I pretended that I had doubts about whether or not I could keep going with
the lessons or be baptized and endure to the end. They then asked me if I believed that Christ would help
me. Immediately the scripture 1
Nephi 3:7 popped into my head.
Specifically the part where it says that the Lord giveth no commandments
unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish
the thing which he commands. I felt the spirit telling me that God
has commanded me to go on a mission so he will prepare a way for me. God answers your prayers!
Today
was great! We finally were able to
go to the temple and see the new temple film! We also had another miracle happen to us. Choir was at 5 and we got back from the
temple at 4:45. I didn’t think we
were going to make it, but we were able to get dinner, pick up the mail, drop
by the classroom to drop off the mail, and go to the residence to get pens and
paper for the devotional, and make it to choir on time. That was 15 minutes. It was amazing, but we did it with the
Lord’s help. The devotional was a great talk by Richard G. Scott about prayer.
Again, I thank all of you who are writing letters! It means a lot to know you care. If you have any questions I’d be happy
to answer them! I love you all and
miss you, but I’m doing great and loving it! I hope all of you are doing well and you’re in my prayers!
Talk to you next week!
Elder Stephen Bickel
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