Janurary 16, 2012: hi

Hey Everyone,

Sorry You didn't hear from me last week, the cafe was closed and we didn't have time to go anywhere else. Things have been going well. We are working hard. You meet the funniest people when you go door to door, It really gives me an appreciation for who we are as people. Everyone is so different, some more different than others. The world is a big place.
A couple weeks ago I had my interview with the mission president, I've almost hit a year on mission so he asked me what I had learned so far. I told him two things,First I said I've learned how to love. Since I've been here the people that I teach and meet and live with have been very different than me, different food, language, culture, almost different everything. It's hard to relate when there is seemingly little common ground. As I think about it, it reminds me of something someone said to me near the beginning of my mission, she asked me why God had made different races and where they all came from. I told her I knew a lot of theories and some information about that but I wasn't really sure. Then she told me the best answer to that question I have ever heard. She said that she thinks God made us look different so we could learn to really love each other. It's easy to love someone who looks, talks, and acts like you, so God made it so we would have to really learn to look deeper if we wanted to follow his commandments. i couldn't think of a better answer than that. I think that must be true. And so I've had the opportunity to begin to learn that. God loves us all so so much, we see evidence of that everyday if we look for it, we see it in the way he sent his son Jesus Christ, to save us. I have had the most spiritual experiences I can remember during the times when I have been able to tap into that love, see a person through heavens eyes. As that happens a stranger becomes one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, so deserving of love, not because they did anything to deserve it, because if we judged by our earthly standards, we would easily find reasons not to love one another. The deserve love because they do, because they are a creation of love, because if Christ loves them, which he surely does, than why shouldn't I.
The second thing I told him I learned, was that no one was going to make me do anything. When I first got here I was looking for the camera's in my apartment, now I realize there are none and there never will be. No one is looking over your shoulder, no one is checking up on you. No one will call you in if you don't shave or you sleep in or anything like that. It's up to you, each man and women has a God given right to choose. We always have we always will. It's really up to us, we can become what we want to become. When we choose the right we feel it, when we choose wrong we feel it as well. It's a lot of weight on ones shoulders when he realizes his destiny is in his own hands. Then it is a relief to realize there is help for those who ask it. I'm reminded of a scripture in Matt. I cant think of the exact reference but it is when the Lord says "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

So there's a lot to learn in two years, I hope I can continue to learn in my second year these valuable lessons

I love you all,
Elder Scott Milton Brazee