Elder Kasey Lightheart

  Patricia's baptism. Wow, what a wonderful week it has been! I wanted to start out my email sharing an awesome scripture I read this week in Mosiah 5, verse 12, which says "I would that ye should remember to retain the name [of Christ] written always in your hearts". I love so much this invitation from King Benjamin because it has so much layered meaning. I find it truly important that he invited us to write the name of Christ in our hearts, and not just on our wrists, or in our mind. Our heart is generally associated with feeling, and love, emotion and joy, and when we center those feelings in Christ, everything we do follows suit with what Jesus would do. But how exactly can we keep Christ always written in our hearts? I don't think it's a one time experience that remains forever without maintenance. Rather, I believe that we need to work and labor every day to remember Jesus Christ, and love and serve as he did. Choosing the harder right, rather than the easie...

  Exchanges with Elder Almeida Wow, what a wonderful week full of miracles it has been! Unfortunately, I don't have too much time today to share with you all of all the miracles that happened, but I'll try my best to include the best part of the week here! Service Project! Although we weren't able to have any baptisms this week, we did re-mark our friends Mayara and Patricia to be baptized this Sunday, as well as another young boy named Mauricio. We had already been teaching his parents, a Venezuelan couple who speak a little Portuguese, and then invited the whole family to be baptized. The parents still have to be married first, but their son accepted the challenge to be baptized this Sunday as well. But I have faith that this week we can help these wonderful souls enter the waters of baptism. Meet Maggie the cat. Gotta catch 'em all! We also had in-person exchanges this week, for the first time in 6-7 months. It was super wonderful to spend the day with Elder Almeida,...

  My new Ukelele! "I see skies of blue, red roses too, I see them bloom, for me and you, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world". Why include the first few lines of a classic Louis Armstrong tune? A couple months ago a random member from another ward sent us his version of the song, singing it with the same hilarious crackly voice that Louis Armstrong has. And ever since, we have been singing this song together, laughing all the way. But I agree with Louis, that this certainly is a wonderful world.  This week we had the privilege to mark 2 of our wonderful friends, Mayara and Patricia, to be baptized next Sunday, the 18th of July. We are super excited to help them prepared to be baptized, and happy to have seen their progress along the way! After our last lesson with Mayara, we had a little family home evening and refreshments, and among the carrot cake and mango juice, they had cream cheese and bread. I did not realize how much I missed cream cheese until that day. Le...

  Antonio's wonderful family "There is no physical, emotional or spiritual infirmity that Christ cannot heal." (Matthew L. Carpenter). This week I was amazed when studying about the healing power of the atonement of Jesus Christ, how it truly reaches to anyone who seeks to change for the better. If you are struggling in any way, whether because of your own decisions, or those of others, remember that you are not alone. The Savior Jesus Christ knows exactly your pains, and exactly your sorrows, and he can make you whole.  This week started off with a bang as we said goodbye to our dear mission president and his wife, President and Sister Miller, and welcomed the new presidency, President and Sister Kofford. It's pretty crazy to have had 4 mission presidents by now, but nonetheless I'm grateful. I've learned a lot from each of these sweet couples, but I will always be particularly grateful for President Miller, and the kind love and trust he showed me.  Elder Co...