Happy 25th Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY 25TH ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can hardly believe that -- 25 years is a long time!  I'm so grateful you guys are showing me how it's done.

So the week was really crazy.  I think the best thing was last night as I was sitting there I thought...it's a miracle how quickly bad goes away. Or maybe not goes away, but how quickly we forget it when the good comes into our life. It's such a blessing to be able to forget sometimes, but maybe not even forget. It's just that the good is so amazing that it pushes out any need to think about the bad. Sounds like a typical mission to me. Gotta love it.

A quick quote ''A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.'' - Grace Hopper. Thanks to Uncle Lane for that one. It really hit me.

Oh yeah, and before I forget. Please forgive me for last week. I mean for real, forgive me. I said it was Sauron teh White and it's Saruman the White. Yeah, that's what some time in Perú will do for ya.

One really cool experience from this week was on a work visit out in Paramonga. I had heard that there was a less active returned missionary who had served in the Provo Utah Mission and I had to go find her. We went by very last thing in the night and it was something special. She pulled out her album (which she hadn't looked at in years) and I just recognized it all. She had been to the Provo, Salt Lake, Manti, St. George, and one other temple. Had served at BYU and the mission home is in my home stake so that was crazy. And she's been to Conference too. I just asked her if she knew how blessed she was and she only could reply ''now I do''. She had forgotten it all. I was thinking about how many people would love to go visit one of those temples and about all of the amazing spiritual experiences I have had in each one of them. She didn't go to church yesterday, but she did tell her husband that they won't be breaking the law of chastity until they get married so that was amazing. I was shaking so bad, and I know she felt the Spirit.

In my studies this week I loved learning from Enos and from Jarom. Enos is such a great example to me of wanting to share all the good that we have been given. Right after he was blessed of God he started to pray for his enemies. I want to be more like that and pray for those that maybe don't even want my help. I also liked in Jarom how he talks about how the revelations and preachings and writings of his fathers was enough because they had presented the plan of salvation. He didn't have much room to write, but he wanted to add his witness of the truthfulness of all that had already been written. It also made me think about how important everything that was already written is for all of us. If he didn't need to add anything more then what was written is enough, and probably even more than enough to fulfill it's purpose. I know there is so much to learn, but I'm grateful that God has given us the Book of Mormon as it is now. If we had more pages, then we would need to study all of them, but He lets us know that what we have is enough for His purposes. If we truly study and apply what we have been given it will change our lives in the ways we need. We also had some more really good practices of trying to be direct, specific, and brief in our first lessons and I know that helped us as a companionship this week.

My spiritual experience was pretty much all day yesterday. Hector and Anita both went to church and their two sons will be going with them next week. We were able to teach almost an entire family of a less active member who has gone to church two weeks in a row now after being inactive for over 30 years. The Spirit was present during the lesson and I know that all were able to feel it. I feel like we shared exactly what the family needed and we all left edified from that experience. And then to finish the day we were able to teach another family that is married with two children. We hadn't been able to meet with them all week, but they promised us that they would have time this week and that they will be going to church next week as a family. It was just so amazing to see that after working really hard all week long, Heavenly Father blessed us with families at the very end. I know that we just need to keep working and that Heavenly Father will bless us, sometimes at the very end, but always.

So that last family we were able to visit are so rich, but so humble. The mom is very ready to hear our message. We were truly blessed at pretty much the very last minute we had during the week. That's how missionary work, and life, is a lot of the times though. We just have to keep holding on because God has so many amazing things just waiting for us.

Congratulations this week to Jamie, Joseph, and Hayden who are graduating. Enjoy it, because it's amazing!

I love you all so so much. Have the best week ever and know you are all in my prayers.

Oh yeah, and we're going fishing today so that's gonna be so awesome! Gotta love the wild South American adventures.

Love your happy and forgetful friend in Perú,

Elder Aaron Micah Wheatley