Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Thank you everyone ...

Wow! This was the most amazing week ever! I Love my mission sooo much and I have just come to love my Savior more than anything in the last 2 years! I am grateful for the blessings that my loving Heavenly Father pours upon me and I have been more blessed than I ever should have been! We have a Baptism this week, a young girl we started teaching my first week here in Buhl! She is amazing and is so prepared! She comes from a less active family and she has just grown and progressed in the last few weeks! She asked me to baptize her and confirm her. What a blessing! We set another date for the week after this one for a boy that comes from a part member family and he is sooo excited too! We are baptising him in the hot springs and he will be confirmed there too! I feel such a bond with these people here and I KNOW that God knew all along that I needed to end up here sooner or later! How merciful and tender He is to me! So I will end my last 2 weeks here in the mission with 2 baptisms and I will love every second of it! I have had many life changing experiences here in Idaho (and Oregon) and not only were these the best 2 years of my life by far, But they truly have been the best 2 years for my life by far! The things I have felt, learnt, and seen will bless my family and I for eternity and I thank my Father in Heaven every day for preserving me and allowing me to serve Him! I was not the sharpest tool He had in His tool box. Nor was I the strongest, but he used me as His instrument to do so much good and, He allowed me to be shaped into just the tool He needed! For that I owe my life to Him and I will serve Him all my life! I started my mission serving these people because I knew I had to! I came out because I had been given soo much I had to give a minute amount back to Him. I started because I knew it would make my family proud and I would grow in the process! I whole heatedly can stand today and say I have served the last 2 years out of the love for my Savior! What a transformation! I allowed my mission to change me and I sure am glad I did. I have come to KNOW Him and His Gospel! I love His teachings and I love His Children everywhere as He would if He were personally here! I have served and been served by this people and I know the promise in D&C 18 is true, my "joy will be great with [THEM] in the kingdom of my Father" I love the sentence on page 2 in P.M.G. where it says "As your understanding of the Atonement grows, your desire to preach the Gospel will increase." How true that has been for me! I just want to thank all of you for supporting me through all of the last 2 years! Though I know life is tough at times with the everyday "hustle and bustle", you still took the time to stop and write me a little note of love. The prayers that have been offered up in my behalf have been the direct result of many doors opening and hearts softened.
I know I would not have made it 2 months, yet alone 2 years with out you and to you I say simply... THANK YOU! I love you all and will see you soon. A hui ho till next time!
-Elder Runnels

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Mission Release letter is in ......

Dog bite


Wow! What a wonderful week! I have just loved working here in Buhl and I love the people here sooo much! I cant believe how easy it was to love the people here and how quick it I was able to connect with them! I am sorry I did not e mail last week, funnie story tho... So um we were contacting someone we were working with, and their neighbors had a cute little dog... It was an adult pitbull and it kinda bite my leg last week so I was in the doctors office. Good news tho, I got it stitched and its healing great and all is well! I am so stoked that this happened cause now I have a cool story to tell my grand kids some day! And the dog is going to be put down cause the next day it bit a little girl on the back. I asked the owner if my companion and I could kill it for them and they agreed so I'm stoked! Should be fun... As for the miracles here in Buhl there are too many to explain but we did set some dates for baptism for a few of our investigators, and they are doing great! We are so excited with all the work there is here and how much our friends are growing closer to Jesus Christ! I know we were both sent here for a reason and I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to finish strong here! Life is sooo good and the Church is Sooo true! I love you all and will talk to you next week! Aloha!

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-Elder Runnels


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Can you all move to Idaho?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow! All I can say is WOW! I am amazed at how much the Lord Loves me, and all his children! This week was the best week in the whole 22 and a half years of my life! I am loving life more than i ever thought i could and I'm loving being a missionary more than i ever imagined! I am blown away at how much joy is filled with in me and I have officially decided that i will never come home and I will probably never be released as a full time Elder. Sorry Mom:( I have just never been more Happy and I am pretty sure i an do this forever! Words just wont do and this email cannot express the last week of miracles and blessings and great things that have occurred. Simply put, I don't deserve the success that the Lord is allowing me to see and the Joy I feel as I watch others come unto Christ! I love my new companion and miss my old one... But all is more than well. President Cannon calls me to talk story cause we both miss each other... After seeing each other every day for over 7 month straight, It was a sad day when I left Boise but Ill see him soon... We found 6 New investigators in the last 3 days and we are finding our love explode for all 3000 people that live in this town. I will stop wasting time e mailing so we can get to work. KNOW that i love you all and KNOW that more importantly, Our Heavenly Father loves you all with and intimate and perfect love! Sorry family but it looks like you will all be moving to Idaho soon so we can be together... Nah nah nah, just joking.... Unless you want to? Nah Have a great week!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

last transfer .... BuhL!!! So excited!!

Wow! Well this week went smooth and all missionaries are in there new areas safe and sound! We have had wonderful weather the past 2 days and its warming up and clearing up! For the most part on all the transfers i have drove in it has been snowing or pouring rain so it was nice for a change to be driving on clear clean roads! What a blessing! Life is sooooo good and words cannot express how EXCITED i am to be going to Buhl Idaho for my last transfer to work in the field! I am excited cause i just wanna run run run my last few weeks and that is exactly what i will do! I am still in Boise cause I needed to help the new assistants get settles with all the stuff we do but ill be headed to Buhl tomorrow after we drop off the departing Elders at the airport... One of which is my beloved companion, Elder Nelson who is going home to Texas. Sad day:( We have become best friends and even brothers in the last 7 and a half months as companions and i will miss him choke! But i will see him again! All i can say is I am so thankful that through much praying and counseling with President Cannon, he has concluded that i need to help someone in Buhl Idaho and tho i only will get about 5 or so weeks there, I am amped to "GO AND DO!" I love you all and hope when i see u again ill be in a hospital on a stretcher dyeing of exhaustion, and over heated due to how hard we will be going! The church is sooo true and I love my Heavenly Father! Talk to you sometime next week.. SHOOTS!

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-Elder Runnels

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Wow! What an amazing week! We have done so much with the Lord guiding us to all those who have been prepared! We have had a wonderful week of teaching and testifying of Christ! I am loving the studies I have been blessed to have and i am soaking up every second i have just trying to read and learn all I can about this perfect Gospel! Not much to say other than I have talked to President Cannon and after a few meetings and talks we have come to some decisions on how I will finish my mission off! I am so excited and I obviously cant say a thing until we call out transfer calls but I cant wait! I will inform you all on what happens next week some time after we complete transfers! I love you all, the Church is sooo true and I love my Savior! Talk to u next week!

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-Elder Runnels

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Wow What a wonderful week! We have truly been blessed by the Lord and we are seeing miracles all around us! Just one of the Miracles i wanna share happened this past Thursday! We went tracting cause we had a free hour or two and we knew there are more effective ways to find like working with the members in the two hours but we really really miss just knocking doors so we did! We prayed to see miracles and to just find someone in need that we could help. We knew exactly where we were going to tract and its a student apartment bldg.! Before we even knocked the first door there was a man sitting outside of his house smoking and we stopped to talk to him. His wife walked out and she was hapai so we started talking about families and how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ will bless them! They allowed us to teach right there and invited us to return on Sat.! We also had so much success in knocking doors! We found tons of new people to teach and we even, with out knowing it knocked some of the same doors we trackted 6 months ago. We realized it when we met a man in his home with one arm. He was a grumpy old man and 6 months ago he yelled at us and said if there was a God he would still have his arm... We met this same man, only 6 months later and he allowed us to speak to him! He did not accept our message but he was nice and we even laughed alot as we joked about how much Faith it would take to bring his arm back!! (hahaha weird, I know but he started the joke so its ok.) It is just amazing to see how every time we contact some one they might not be ready just yet but the goal in mind is to move them "Up on the scale"! Everyone we see when we meet them will be on a "Scale" of 1-7. Typically it will take non members 7 times of a positive interaction with a member to allow them to openly speak about the Gospel. We may meet people in the 1 stage where they will not give u the light of day to speak, but we offer our service and try to help in any way. We are friendly and move them from that 1 in their minds about us, to a 2 or a 3. We find those in the 4 or 5 stage and we move them up to the 6 and 7s that we all search for! I love how rewarding it is to just "Go about doing good" as Christ did. We pick up trash as we walk and smile and say hi to everyone. One of the many limitless and countless things i have learnt on my mission is to love all and see them as our loving Heavenly Father sees them! I do not instantly judge people by looks or the way they act or talk but i try, first to love them. Then all else falls into place! We also had a wonderful Sisters conference for all the Sister missionaries in the mission and it was an uplifting experience. They are soooo different than the Elders and go through their own difficulties so it was nice to try to, with the Spirit, Lift and inspire them! They are amazing. To think of all they have given up to be here, i am blown away at their love for God! Life is just amazing and I love my mission so much! More than anything I love my Savior! I can truly say that I know he lives and I know he Loves us! How could i deny that! I have been singing it since i was a little kid, running around church sliding on the carpet in the halls in my knees. Then seeing the look on moms face as she saw the holes i had made... :) I was singing it then "I am a child of God, and He has sent me here." and i continue to cling to that truth today! I love this Gospel! I have a paper back copy of the Book of Mormon that i am reading through again but this time i am only highlighting certain things. I highlight all references to God and Jesus Christ. Also i am highlighting "The Doctrine of Christ" meaning the words Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End! I am blown away cause truly this Book only testifies of the God Head and the Doctrine of Christ! I am loving the Spirit it is bringing into my life as i focus and refocus my thoughts and studies and conversations on my Savior. Truly it is the only and single most important thing we could ever do! I love you all and hope you have a marvelous week! I know you will, if you want to. Its your choice! I choose to be happy and cheerful and optimistic, and through much prayer and the Lords help, I am! We can do ALL things through Christ, who strengtheneth us!

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-Elder Runnels