Dear Family,
So good to have a moment to write you all. It hasn't been long since my last e-mail due to a belated preparation day. However it was a great weekend. There are about 6 hospitals in my area, 2 of which are some of the biggest in the nation, tus we get alot of calls through out the week of members who are sick and contact the mission office for blessings at the hand of the Elders. They come from all over the country and I love this aspect of my work. This weekend I had the privilage of giving a blessing to a young opera singer who has survived at double longue transplant. This girls's optimism is truly humbling, she went in for another surgery today and wanted a blessing from us yesterday. She has been singing opera since she was a little girl and still sings even after her transplant, she has some youtube vidoes you all should check out if you get a chnace, they are quite inspiring, her name is Charity Sunchine Tellimen-dick. I also have been visiting the family of a very elderly man in one of our area's hospital that has touched me deeply the past few weeks. We bring his family the sacrament and sing hymns with him, upon which he openly cries every time. This man's family are always in number of about 10-15 persons every time we have stopped by, he is definitely on his way to the next life and they all know it. It hits me more and more when we visit this man that family is the greatest gift we have from our Heavenly Father while on Earth. He tearfully thanks us with is quite trembling voice every time we leave, I always walk down the hall way of that hospital thinking to myself that there is no amount of fame, money, recognition or any other personal amibtion of more importance than raising up a righteous family by being a righteous example.
Elder Sumsion and I are teaching a new investigator that I am really excited for. We were getting chinese food around the corner from our apartment the other day and I began to talk to the clerk at the resturaunt and ended up getting her information and set up an appointment at a coffee shop around the corner from us. This girl is 27 years old, her Dad died when she was 16. She has a 7 year old son and she just left her boyfriend she was living with (blessing!!), she works about 50 hours a week and said that she is seeking guidance and direction in her life. It really touched me as I was looking out the window at the coffee shop and saw her walking to our appointment through the puring rain, carrying a bag of all her clothes because she had just left living with her boyfriend. I love this woman like a sister. We taught her in a members home and had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon. We are going to help her move this week and she says she is willing to meet three times a week. She accepted an invitation to be baptized on Oct. 29th, three days after my next transfer, I hope I'm still in the area to be able to baptize her, so if you would please keep her in your prayers, she needs this!
I must be going but I wanted to leave you with something I read this week that has had a profound influence on my thinking. I was reading an article titled "The Fourth Missionary" which if you can get a copy of is great for any person, missionary or not. The author mentioned how we must completely surrender our will's to the Fathers if we truly wish to become Christ-like and live purposeful lives. He said pay our one tenth of our incomes to Heavenly Father, which incomes he gave us, we give of our talents, which He gave us, we give of our time, which He gave us, if we are really charitable we give of our clothes, food, housing, emotional support, all of which He gave us the capacity to give. The author then went on to say that the only thing we can give Heavenly Father which is truly ours and not his is our will. I want to leave you with a testimony of who I am because I am what we are, children of our Heavenly Father. I know He loves us. Let our faith be in Him and in His Son, not in life's circumstances. I don't wish to bring up past transgressions but as some of you know I had to write an appeal to the Church's mission council to be even allowed to come on a mission. After divulging to them my serious transgressions of my past, I wondered how I might end my appeal in a way that they might know despite all of these things I had done according to my own free will, that I had been forgiven, that I was still loved, and that Christ still heals today. I chose to re-iterate the words of the prophet of the restoration to them, found in the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenents, which is "after the many testimonies which have been given of Him, this is the one we give last of all which we give of Him, that HE LIVES!". Last week I was in Hiram Ohio where that same revelation was given, the spirit whispered to me that I was right in place I needed to be at this point of my life. True prayer happens when the will of the children correlates with the will of the Father, we both willed I be here in this beautiful place of Ohio. I can't wait to show you it all one day. I know He lives who once was dead! I love you and hope all the best things for you this week.
Love Always, Elder Prince
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