June 28th- 8

Family,

Wow these letters are sometimes really hard to respond to and leave my

mind blank! That is the saddest thing I think I have heard yet. It

makes the things I have to say to you so insignificant. I cannot

imagine what it would be like if we did not have the gospel to give us

hope. Well the Bangart family will be in my prayers and I hope that this, if 

anything, will only bring them closer together and strengthen their

testimony.

Okay so now… well poop! I don’t know what to say to you.

This week was a very exciting week. Elder Stringham and I are getting

along very well. He is a good missionary and a hard worker. We have

already gotten a few new investigators in the four days we have been

together. One of them has an amazing story…

On Friday we had an appointment with a referral. We showed up to his

home and unfortunately he was not there. However, the man who answered

the door allowed us to come in and share our message with him. It

turns out that he is a preacher as well as a religion professor at the

university. It was a great lesson the spirit was very strong and he

was very interested in learning more. Most religious clergy members

who we speak to are closed and are not willing to pray to know our

message is true. Joseph is different, he felt the spirit during the

lesson and is going to read and pray to know what we share is true!

This week during my personal study I was able to read a talk by Elder

Nelson in the EMM binder titled, “Perfection Pending.” I loved this

talk and it really got me thinking about our divine potential as

children of God. What an amazing fact it is to know that we can become

perfect like our Heavenly Father. While reading this talk as well as

the New Testament I have been pondering a lot on the atonement.

Perfection or the ability to become perfected only comes through the

atonement of our Saviour Jesus Christ. We are so blessed as members of

the church to have this knowledge of who we are, what we can become,

and how we can achieve our potential.

The atonement is amazing and I am so grateful for it. In alma 7:11-13

we can find out that he did not only suffer for our sins but also for

any hardship or pain that we ever feel in our life. It must be

reassuring for the Bangarts to know that there is one person who knows

how they feel and what they are going through right now. It says he

suffered so that “he may know according to the flesh how to succour

his people.” Jesus Christ is there for us always and will help lift

our burdens when we turn to him for help.

Parents and family I love and miss you all,

Richard

PS. If you get a chance I am wondering about my line of authority as

well as genealogy (what part of England we come