I haven’t made an email for a couple of weeks because I have been busy on p-days and I’ve just been sitting at home with COVID in quarantine for 2 weeks haha. I am doing really well! I am now over COVID! It came but now is gone and I am very happy about that! I hope y’all are doing well!

These past few weeks I have been in my apartment a lot and I had lots of time to think. Something I keep asking myself is why am I in Texas right now? I haven’t been teaching people because I am not your “regular missionary”. Instead I have been exploring new ways to use social media as a missionary. It may seem like I’m not a “regular missionary” and at times I have beat myself up because I’m not serving the same type of mission everyone else serves.

Don’t worry, I know I am where I am supposed to be and I am the missionary the Lord needs me to be. When these thoughts and questions come I can hear Heavenly Father talking to me saying:

“Justin, you are where you need to be. I am shaping you into the disciple I need you to be. You are teaching the most important person you will ever teach on your mission. That is yourself. You are learning many lessons in Texas that will help you in Korea, and into the rest of your life.”

I know I am gaining a stronger testimony of Jesus Christ each day. Each and every one of us has a different purpose and sometimes we can lose sight of that and think our purpose needs to be what someone else is doing. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has sent me to Texas right now! I have learned so many different things, many things I might not have learned if I was in Korea right now.I love each one of you and I hope you know that! Keep up the good work! This was a short and sweet email this week haha. I hope it makes sense to someone and helps you out a little bit!

Elder LeBaron

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Hello, y’all! I hope y’all are doing well! This week was pretty good, and also it was pretty quick! I hope y’all have a merry Christmas and party hard!!!! Christmas is my favorite season because everything is focused on our savior and there are usually more opportunities to serve others! 

This week I have noticed a common theme. As some of you know I recently got a Polaroid SX-70 (which is a super cool camera hehe) and when I got it I wasn’t sure if it worked or not, and the leather on it was very old and falling apart.

The leather on the camera had to all be scraped off and redone and it was not an easy task haha. It took a couple of hours to accomplish, and it was kinda scary because I didn’t want to ruin it. 

(Now I bet you’re reading this and wondering why the heck I’m writing this in my weekly email and how does this tie into missionary work or the gospel at all but I promise it does, just keep reading 😉 )

As I was scraping off the leather I was thinking in my head “this sucks” or “I should’ve just kept it how it was” or “this is going to take forever” but every time I had that thought in my head I had another thought. There is a story by Hugh B. Brown called “God is the Gardener” and what I was doing to this poor little camera reminded me of his story.
I was scraping and cutting and pulling apart this camera and it may have seemed like it would never end or that I would end up making it worse, but I kept hearing in my head, “just keep going”. There was a lot of work that had to go into it. I had to cut the leather, glue the leather, stamp the leather, and wait patiently throughout this whole process.

Now after all this work, I was left with this beautiful camera. It seemed like It was never going to end, or I would mess up, or that it wasn’t going to be worth it, but It ended up turning out exactly how I wanted it and more.

This is a concept we can relate to in our own lives. It may seem like what we’re going through isn’t necessary or worth it or maybe you just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. But it is always worth it. God has a way of scraping us, cutting us, stamping us, gluing us, and It may seem like a long process or it may not make sense, but it does and it is a short moment in time. 

In D&C 121:7-10 It talks about how we will be rewarded for the things we endure. I hope this makes sense to someone and it wasn’t a pain to read through, but all that matters is you know our Heavenly Father loves you. He is shaping us into exactly what we need to be. I promise if you endure it you will look back and see the growth you’ve made, and that you are better now than you were. 

I love all of you so much!! Keep praying and building that relationship with our father in heaven! Keep up the good work!

Elder LeBaron

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Hey Y’all!! Sorry this is a little late but my week was good!! We had a zone conference and my comp and I drove all over the mission to take pictures of the other zone conferences because President Chapman liked the picture we took at ours haha. We also videoed a lot of videos for a Christmas video we are making. 

Lately, patience has been one of the things I’ve been working on a lot lately. I think it is because I’m going to need a lot of patience in Korea when I’m put in the middle of nowhere with a comp that speaks no English and IDK what I’m doing haha. It’s hard to have patience when the world is the complete opposite of that haha. 

I listened to a talk by Elder Rasband called “Recommended to the Lord” at October 2020 conference, and It talks about being worthy of a temple recommend and how it is important, even if we can’t go to the temple. With COVID and everything I haven’t been thinking about the temple as much as I use to, and I want to change that. I use to try to go to the temple each week before COVID and I was always thinking about the temple and the importance of it. I want to get back into that mentality by setting aside “temple time” each week and I want to find a quiet place and just ponder on the temple and the covenants I made. I invite y’all to do it with me if you want haha. Maybe if you’re close enough to a temple you can sit in the parking lot or on the temple grounds if that is open. Just because we can’t be in the temple right now doesn’t mean we can’t be worthy of it and gain those same blessings. 

Well, I love y’all and I apologize for the short email this week haha. I hope y’all have an amazing week!!

Elder LeBaron

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This week was pretty good! It was more of a slower week but it went by fast if that makes any sense haha. I hope y’all are doing well and everything is amazing! I’m so happy it’s already Christmas time!!! Make the most of the Christmas season and participate in Light The World!! I hope you like this email haha. I also hope it makes some kind of sense to someone haha.

As it comes to the end of the year try not to wish it away. Enjoy what you have each day. It’s hard to do that sometimes, haha believe me I know. I’ve been through some crazy stuff in my life that has helped me realize “afflictions shall be but a small moment” You read that in D&C 121:7, but there’s more than that. “And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.” D&C 121:8 we learn in the next verse that if we are patient and just endure, we can be tremendously blessed.

This year has been rough for lots of people. Believe me, I didn’t think this is what my mission was going to be like AT ALL haha, but it doesn’t matter what we thought was going to happen. God knew this would happen. This is all still God’s plan. Sometimes we forget that. 

Sometimes we get some crazy storms thrown our way haha. These “storms” we have sometimes can be a little wild haha, but a quote by Mark E. Petersen in April 1971 conference was ” Who can control such awesome forces? Who is the God of nature? Who stood in a storm-tossed boat with a group of frightened fishermen and rebuked the storm by simply saying “Peace be still,” and the wind abated, and there came a great calm?” The answer to all of these questions is Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus Christ, we can have peace. He can call our storms by simply saying three words. Peace be still. Those three words are very peaceful. Makes me feel at least a little more hope haha.

I hope this is all making sense so far haha. No matter what I say doesn’t matter. The spirit is the teacher and if you learned something reading this that came from the spirit. Having the company of the spirit is so amazing. I’ve never known the importance of the spirit until I had to completely rely on him. 

I love each one of you!! You all are children of our Father in Heaven. He loves you more than you can even imagine. Keep up the good work! Talk to you soon!! Oh and I got a new comp and transferred to the media zone. My comp’s name is Elder Carter.

Elder LeBaron