With his stripes we are healed.

Howdy from Texas! This has been a very humbling week for me and I am so very thankful for the gospel in my life. As I have pondered my ponderize scripture through out this past week, I have felt of my Savior's love in so many ways. I know that he is the way, the truth, and the life. This scripture led me to ponderize Isaiah 53:3-5 for this next week. It is:

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

I know that through the saviors infinite and eternal sacrifice, we can be forgiven of our sins and enjoy the blessings of the gospel in this life and to live with our Heavenly Father again someday. He truly knows all our pains and weaknesses and desires us to come unto him and to put our trust and faith in him. I am so very thankful for his tender mercies in my life.

Elder Christensen and I had an awesome opportunity to do a companionship exchange with our zone leaders this past Tuesday! I went with Elder McDonald and Elder Christensen went with Elder Evans.  Companionship exchanges are where we change companions for 24 hours and learn from each other in our different areas. It was cool being able to go with Elder McDonald and see the investigators that he had and to meet some of the members in the Las Palmas ward too. Our zone leaders are awesome! I have learned so much from them and have been incredibly blessed with their service in the south zone.

We continue to work a lot with the less active members and strive to help them be more active in church. We have been doing really well with planning out our days and on how we will use our time most effectively. We haven't had too many appointments this past week with our current investigators because of this assignment but we have been getting a lot of new investigators through our findings with the less actives. There is so much to do! I love it though, it is nice to keep busy and to progress in the work of the Lord.

We have still been going by Brian and Greg. Greg was on the fence a few weeks ago about being baptized and said he wasn't quite ready yet. We still want to keep in touch with him and to help him all that we can. Brian has been progressing a lot! We were able to teach him a few times this past week and has accepted a baptismal date for the 7th of November! I am so very excited to be able to see him get baptized and to experience the blessings of living the gospel.

The weather here has been pretty rainy! We were caught in a huge rain storm on our bikes coming back from one of our areas! Ha ha we enjoyed the rain while it lasted. It is starting to cool down a bit but occasionally gets up to the 90's. I heard the winters here are pretty chilly because of the humidity so I am enjoying the warmth while it lasts.

Yesterday was a very spiritual day for me. I had the opportunity to bless the bread in sacrament meeting. Being able to do that helped  strengthen my testimony of the savior and his Atonement. As I have been out on my mission, I have gained so much strength in partaking of the sacrament by being spiritually renewed and fortified for the coming week. I know as we partake of the sacrament, we will be able draw closer to our savior and increase our love for him. We will gain a greater reverence for his infinite atonement.

Thanks for all the pictures mom! It's great being able to see familiar faces back home. :) thanks for all the emails and for being able to hear back from home. Thanks grandma for the pictures! Everything is going good in south Texas :) Have an awesome week!

Love you all!!!

Elder Munro

 Elder Christensen, Elder Hansen, Elder Nielsen, Elder McDonald, Elder Munro, Elder Evans - 10th Ward District