Dear Mom, Dad, Aaron, Billy, Kendall, Family & Friends~
I finally got to meet President & Sister Barry. They are wonderful! I am so glad to have them and I know I will learn so much from them. I think that they are just the example I need at this time to help me prepare for the future. We are going to be learning a lot more from the scriptures and a lot more from Preach My Gospel. I'm glad, because I love to learn, and I love to be taught by someone who is good at teaching. Not that President Newman wasn't an excellent teacher, but what I needed to learn from him was more of an attitude thing, one concerning boldness and confidence. I am grateful for all he taught me and I know it will benefit me for the rest of my life. But I also know there are things that I need to learn from President Barry and I am excited to see what they are. One of the stories he told was of a young boy whose mother wanted him to learn the piano. So in order to motivate him to learn she decided to take him to the concert of a world famous pianist. They were seated near the middle of the stands and the concert hall was packed. As the time grew near for the concert to begin, the mother lost focus of her son and was absorbed in a conversation with one of her friends. Soon after, the lights began to dim and the mother hopelessly realized that her son was gone and she knew there would be no way for her to find him. The crowd grew silent and the stage lit up; there sat the young boy upon the bench of the piano and the audience quietly listened as he played a child's rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". From behind the curtain the world class musician walked out and he silently walked behind the boy and whispered into his ear, "Don't stop, just keep playing". Then the master placed his left hand beside the boy's left and his right hand beside the boy's right--and he began to play. The audience was mesmerized at the sound of the beautiful music. [President Barry] then went on to teach us that oft times we are like the little boy, doing our best to play a simple melody and in so doing the Master comes in behind us and whispers gently in our ears, "Don't stop, just keep playing" and then proceeds to work the most gracious of miracles right at our sides. He said to us that we shouldn't give up, but that we should continue playing and the Lord would come to work a grand miracle for each of us. I thought it was a neat story and it really motivated me to keep trying my best. I thought of the joy the boy must have felt as the Master played with him, how excited he must have been... If he didn't want to learn the piano before, surely he wanted to learn then. I know we can have the same experience as the young boy as we decide to "keep playing" in our own lives. What joy we will have when we begin to see the Lord work within our own lives! Anyhow, I thought I'd share that fun story.
The 4th of July went well, but we too watched our fireworks on the 3rd. Whether we were supposed to or not, we did anyways. And we had fun being able to watch them! I love fireworks and I was glad that I didn't miss the tradition of having fireworks in July. My companion and I are working well together...I like Elder Brown and I know that he will be a good missionary.
All in all things are going well here in Florida. And I'm glad to hear things are going well back home. I'm glad the 4th of July weekend was a good one. I'm glad you are having fun reading the book (Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Wendy Watson Nelson), Mom. The Alma 5 questions activity was a lot of fun, wasn't it?! I've read that chapter quite a bit lately and I've tried to visualize the things Alma spoke about. I realize I still have a lot of work to do, however, more than anything, I want to be able to stand in judgment with clean hands and a pure heart. So it is good to check myself every so often to make sure I am still on track for where I want to be. The world is going crazy on us, but at least we have one thing that will always stand still...and that is our Savior and His teachings. We at least have reason to hope and reason to have joy. That is what matters most. I love each of you and I hope you all have a wonderful week this week. And I'll talk to you next Monday! :)
Love~
Austin
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