September 7, 2015

Dear Mommy, 
  

I was in an incredible mood on Monday. We went to Walmart and a lady came up to us. And she asked if we were corporate. We told her we were Mormon Missionaries. She asked all sorts of questions, we answered them all and then she mentioned she was looking for a church in Aurora so we gave her a BecauseHeLives.mormon.org card and then we went back to shopping. As we were leaving a returned missionary came up to us and it was just a very busy day at Walmart. We went To Chick-fila for lunch it was so good! We had a District P-day and went bowling. We were playing for an hour and on our second game pretty much everyone had a perfect game, needless to say it was a great day!

So Investigator Update, we had amazing lessons with all of them. The Hoyles are doing great. Last night we went over and  he had a date for  the 12th but we are gonna have to push it back so he can be a little more prepared but he is so ready! He has a strong desire and he it internally motivated!  Amber who was pregnant had her baby and they are both happy and healthy and moving so they will now be in the Denver North Mission. Robb is doing awesome he has been a more stagnant investigator but we have been asking really good questions and he has been thinking a lot it is pretty cool. We are really excited!! 

On Friday we went to Seminary at like 10 o'clock, and THEY WERE IN CLASS. It was the strangest thing to go to seminary during the day! They have enough LDS students that they have release time seminary. We sat in and they were talking about the Creation. The Seminary Teacher (Brother Carwin) made a point that I thought was interesting> God made Eve from a rib and why not the head or the foot? Eve was made from the rib because symbolically if it was the head she would rule over him if it were the foot, he over her, but it was the rib meaning equality. 

Plans For this week: Today we are either gonna go hiking or have a nerf Battle not sure yet! Then we will have a Labor day bash with one of the members in the ward. Then we will do service at the local food share. At some point this week and we will try and set Brother Hoyle with a new baptism date. If we stay after transfers we will be moving into the Waltons.  But we won't find out till Saturday! I am content with staying or leaving either way I am where God needs me and that is awesome!

Lastly you wanted a list of things I wanted for Christmas. For you it is not too soon but after Christmas I will have a little over 4 months left so as far as I am concerned Christmas could never come and I wouldn't mind one bit. But if you want to know what I want I would like a longer mission. I would like to serve in Riverton stake and I would Like to end my mission in Laramie. Last and as normal I would like Santa's  naughty list (The Gospel helps everyone get on the nice list). Since you cant really get any of that for me I'll just take socks.  

Love Elder Westrup

August 17, 2015

Dear Mommy,

   All is well. This week has been super eventful, we got put back in
a tripan. I am now with Elder Noh who is from Apple Valley,
California. He is the oldest male son and a family of four children.
Elder Noh is very intelligent it is very fun to talk with him,
although Elder Taylor feels left out because he is at a different
level than us. Elder Noh is really good at balancing out the
conversations so Elder Taylor can understand and participate and not
feel left out! I really look up to Elder Noh, he Is 6' 4" and a giant
teddy bear. I feel that this will be a good transfer. Our District
consists of three people so that is fun.

   Work wise, our numbers have not been very accurate concerning the
actual amount of work we have been doing. We have been trying to find
where we teach and teach where we find but as of now we have no super
good leads. We met this guy, his name we forgot, so we have been calling
him Nick. "Nick" seems super cool. We haven't been able to sit down
with him but I believe  there is a lot of potential to help  him come
unto Christ. We were trying to find  a less active and we got no
answer. So Elder Noh suggested we knock a couple doors and he was like the
second door we knocked. I have missed tracting. I know it isn't the
most effective but you feel good when you just get out and meet new
people and have them bear testimony of Jesus Christ, and then you bear
your testimony of Christ, and both of you leave edified and
strengthened.

   I have some repenting to do. I have been basically filibustering
the last couple letters, because I just haven't been focusing on the
real reason why I writing, I was just writing five paragraphs to
achieve my goal. In that sense I have been rather selfish, and I
apologize. My writing is not for me it is for my family and friends to
learn and grow to share my experiences not achieve some remedial goal
set in place as a way of self gratification. I am learning so much and
growing even more. When applied the gospel will automatically change
you and you will be so much more happy it is the best. I can promise
this because I am living it.

   So in secular experience, I have given up soda for the last month
and I feel great. I have a more energy and don't crash in the
afternoon. I feel like I am loosing weight, I have a plan to cut back
on my unnecessary sugar in the next 8 months. I want to loose 5 lbs
every month over the next 8 months. my goal when I get home is to
weigh 200 lbs even. I want to be self sustained (motivated) in my
weight loss by the time I get home. I feel like that is a very
achievable goal. We will see what happens.

   Well in closing all is well on our end. On your end how are things?
Lately I have been hearing quite a bit about fires and most of the
people have been say around Sacramento? How was your trip? Did ya'll get
home safely? Who are Roland's teachers? How is the rest of the family?
When does Rebekah get home? What is new at Mira Loma? We just had
TIWI's installed in our cars and they are annoying but they save lives
so that is cool I guess.

                                Love
                                                           Elder Westrup!

August 10, 2015

Dear Mom,

All is well! This week was pretty good, I have been tracking a little bit more, I enjoy finding so much! I am glad I am in an area where Elders want to work. Saturday we had a Zone Dinner with the stake president. After the Zone Leaders shared what the Zone vision for the transfer would be, which is "All for one and one for Christ." The district leaders then broke down the vision and it was broken down well for the most part. It was a great vision but not a goal which I think was the point. Visions are meant to be general to point in a direction. A vision alone is near pointless, without goals we become demoralized because of a seemingly unachievable goal. One thing the District Leader and I agreed on was that we couldn't have follow up on the Vision, what is the point of anything if there is no follow up. On the other hand goals without a vision are scattered and often don't make a lot of sense. Well that is my rant part of the email.

Cool thing this week, we were able to get to talk to Wade, one of our investigators' husbands, he is a former marine and we get along so well. It is awesome the amount of former military in Broomfield. But back to Wade. He works all the time and so it is hard to get a hold of him. Elder Taylor and I had just tried some Prospective Elders and none answered and so we were just walking around. Elder Taylor walked down Wade's street and he and his wife were front porch sitting. We walk up and start talking to him, him and I were swapping funny military stories. 

He told me one time when he was overseas. One of his convoys broke down and he volunteered to stay at a F.O.B. (which was being shutdown that night) and wait for repair crew to come so they got orders to stay put until they came. An Army Convoy came by pulling the last American soldiers (besides Wade's group) out. The leader of the Convoy came up and asked if they wanted to join the convoy and leave with the army guys and Wade said " Sir we have orders to stay and I am not disobeying orders from Srgt." The other soldier said "this Base is gonna get run down before your convoy gets here. If you don't leave with us you are gonna die " Wade replied "I have a 180 rounds and a pocket full of motivation that says we aren't gonna die." The Convoy leader had no reply and left them with some ice water. I loved that!

Last night I was thinking and I thought of the importance of names. A land's name defines its purpose, depending on who named the land determines the strength of the name to the land, without authority a name wont stick and the third and last the relationship between the namer and the name.  Similarly with the name of a child, for example my name Richard Hugh Westrup, I was named by my Father having authority from God not only because of stewardship over me but of the Melchizedek Priesthood. My Name Richard means powerful ruler or leader, Hugh means of the Heart, Mind and Spirit. I am named after My Father's Father, there is great emotional connection for my name to my Father and to me and that adds to the power behind my name. I don't remember where I was going with that but my name is what it is supposed to be!

Alma 38:12 "Use boldness, but not overbearance; Also see that ye bridle all your passions that ye maybe filled with love; see that ye refrain from idleness." Bridle all your passions that ye may be filled with love. First time I read this I didn't quite understand how bridling could cause filling of love, as I realized that when we give things up for a time, restraining ourselves we grow fonder of those things. Not only growing our fondness but refining it, perfecting it, causing it to become a pure love. That is cool. 

Love Elder Westrup 

July 27, 2015

Dear Mom,

I am well. I don't know what else to say. We did quite a bit this week but i just don`t know what to talk about. I guess the only thing I feel I can talk about is my favorite scripture which is John 15:13 through the end. I will just focus on verses 13, 16, 19, 21, 26 and 27.

"13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." I have always loved this verse because it is always quoted by soldiers but its original meaning is the most important. The Savior is talking of himself preforming the Atonement, but we can in similitude lay OUR life down and focus on his work and glory. That is what I get to do right now, I am laying down my life putting my wants my desires away bridling my passions, for the last 15 months and hopefully for the rest my life I will come second. I have a friend, who is my Savior, Redeemer and King, I am laying my life down for him. It is not an easy task by any means. I am human and natural, fallen and fallible, but through His grace I can change, I am changing. I am growing and so can everyone. I am glad I have this opportunity to act in his stead and I am glad He called me here so I can grow and change that it might be a permanent change.  

"16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." I love Christ and He called me as His hands to do His deeds and help work His works that i might  find joy! He loves and trusts me enough to give me authority by another servant of His who holds the Keys to ordain me with power! The Lord gave me this power of knowledge and truth that I might establish a lasting conversion not only in others but in myself! I know that is true and it is amazes me regularly! 

"19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." I like this verse because it is preparing me for opposition and if we are prepared than we won't fear. It is saying if you were playing on their team then they would love ya but guess what I drafted you long before they could claim ya and because you are not following their rules they hate you they`ll call you names, yell at you and try to frustrate your progress in My work. Every time I read that I think "great today is gonna be hard: people will be mean, I am going to be made fun of, and my cherished beliefs will be trodden upon like pearls before swine." Then I realize if I were part of the world this would probably be pretty discouraging, but I am not. The Lord(who called me out of the world)'s ways are not the worlds. Opposition is important for my growth and development and I have a lot of growing to do!

"21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me." One more reason there is persecution is because the nature of God is so deeply misunderstood. When we know God and His relationship with us and with those that are arguing with us or fighting us we treat them different and they start to understand us and their hearts change. Love breeds Love. God is love, people who contend don`t know God. Straight up.

       "26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." The Comforter has come and He testifies of the Reality, Divinity and Life of our Savior, Redeemer, and Lord Jesus Christ. That is truth. And because I was with Christ from the beginning, I to am called to bare my witness of Him. That He lives and loves us. That we are Sons and Daughters of a living and loving Father in Heaven. Understanding and practicing this relationship will cease all animosity and anger and cause world peace ;) 

  Love y'all

        Elder Richard Hugh Westrup