Baptismal Date, Birthday, and Wedding Day!

 This week, Elder Milne reports was a decent week. They had seven nonmember lessons, and a few ward member lessons. The great news is, Jerry's daughter Megan received permission from her mother to be baptized. The date is scheduled for October 24th. Her dad will baptize her. Elder Milne also expressed his excitement for the upcoming General Conference, and their church services can resume in the building on October 11th. He also shared that his district is doing very well and that every companionship has a baptism on the calendar. Their investigator friend, Leo, ghosted them, which is sad because he has a family that can really benefit from the blessings of the restored gospel. They were also able to reconnect with their investigator friend who is in a wheelchair. She had gone quite some time not returning their calls, but she finally did. They had a really great discussion with her as they read John 14 and highlighted God's love for all His children and the importance of going to church. However, even though she committed to going to church, she didn't show up. Such are the ups and downs of missionary life. Ty also mentioned that his greenie companion Elder Dobbs is struggling quite a bit with various issues, and asked if we would keep both of them in our prayers. He talked to his companion about Alma the Younger and his experiences, the conversion of the Apostle Paul, and the importance of choosing to repent instead of to perish as we read in Alma 13. He hopes Elder Dobbs can hang in there and discover what is best for him in order to continue his progression. Ultimately, the mission president will decide. Elder Milne reports being happy but exhausted, and he feels like they are being blessed in their teaching and finding efforts.

Letter from Home:

Dear Elder Milne (Ty, my favorite missionary and youngest son),

 Happy 20th birthday on Saturday! I hope you were able to do something fun and exciting to celebrate, even if it was only for a few minutes. I have a gift for you, but it will not be there today. I wasn't able to get it in the mail in time for the two-day delivery for today. Anyhow, I thought about you all day, and missed you like crazy. At least we had the life-sized cutout of Elder Milne to give us some comfort and a bit of a feeling that you were there with us on Carter and Carley's special day. Everyone loved seeing your handsome face, and hopefully you received a few emails giving you some happy birthday love! The temple sealing, dinner, and open house were wonderful. What a special day it was filled with family, friends, and especially love. The temple sealing was my favorite part. It was so wonderful to be back in the temple. The Spirit there was incredible. I thoroughly enjoyed the words that were spoken prior to the actual sealing. The sealer told Carter and Carley that the only advice they would ever need to have a happy and successful marriage and family was to listen to the words of the covenant they were entering into and to live them throughout their lives. It is amazing to me how these simple truths cover everything we need to do and become in order to have peace and joy in this life and to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for the wonderful gift we have of being sealed as husband and wife for eternity and for the unmatched blessing of having our children born under that covenant as well. The sealer in the temple reminded us that the most important room in the temple is not the celestial room, but it is the sealing room. This is where the most important ordinance we participate in takes place. This is what binds us to our families and to our Heavenly Parents for Eternity. This is what we are all here trying to accomplish. It is so important that we do all we can to live up to the covenants we make in the temple. This is truly the only thing that is of worth in this life, and this is from where all the blessings that matter flow. Remember, you are serving a mission to bring souls unto Christ, to prepare them to receive the ordinance of baptism, but most importantly, to prepare them to receive the ordinances of the temple. There are very specific blessings that come only through making and keeping the covenants of the endowment and of celestial marriage. This morning in my personal study, I came across a list of the covenants we make with God and the blessings he promises in return. I will attach those pages to this email. It is a great review and resource to have.

 How are you today Ty? How did your week go? Today, I am happy but exhausted. It was a whirlwind weekend, and I'm still trying to recover. But it was such a blessed weekend. I am so happy for Carter and Carley - they literally just participated in the most important thing they can do in this life. At the end of the sealing ceremony, the sealer had Carter and Carley stand at the head of the altar and look into the eternity mirrors. He had them look to the right and told them that this view represented their ancestors, all those who had come before them since the beginning of man. He told them to reflect on them and to thank them for all they had done to prepare the way for them to be where they are today. He then had them turn to the mirror on the left and this represented their future posterity, and how what they had chosen to do today would affect generations to come and that their posterity would someday look back and call them blessed for the righteous decision they had made. It was really neat.

 How are your investigator friends doing this week? How was church this week? How is your district doing? How is Elder Dopp doing? Is there anything specific that you need? I can't wait to talk to you today! As we get more pictures from the wedding photographer, I will send them to you. In the meantime, I will send you the few that I have. I love and miss you so much Ty, but you also know that there is no place I'd rather you be. Just remember this week and moving forward as a missionary, there is no better way to combat the evil of this world than bearing down in solemn testimony of the plain and precious truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Defending these truths with our own testimonies is what won the war in Heaven, and so it is the same here - we must fight against evil by countering it with truth! We must never be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we must never fear that it will offend. For in reality, it is only these truths that can save us and heal us.

 Love you to infinity and beyond!!!

 Mom

Letter from Elder Milne:

This was wonderful Mom! Thank you so much - I'm so blessed to have you and our Family. Sounds like Saturday was an amazing day - very excited to talk to you today! A lot has happened. I won't write everything that happened, so we can talk more haha

Love you so much!

Ty

Letter from Blaine:

Greetings Elder Milne,

It’s Sunday night and I am getting ready to hit the hay.  The weekend was filled with Carter and Carley’s temple wedding and reception.  It turned out really nice.
Dallin, Hayley and I flew in from Florida and New Mexico respectively and I think we all travelled safely.  The dinner and reception was well received by all who attended.
Kim and Mike, Glenda and Scott and Kayden came from my side of the family.
Jennifer Weaver who is married to Chris Weaver who is Kim’s partners at Pizza Factory, catered the dinner.  It was really nice of Jennifer to help serve the food throughout the evening.  The wind was blowing pretty good early in the afternoon in Cedar city, but during the dinner it died down and was calm.

Everyone is working extremely hard right now in your family.  Each one of us are striving for some long-range goals.  It is amazing to see everyone at task.
Keely is in her first year of medical school at the university of Utah medical school.  Kim says she likes it. Zack too is there in her class.
It’s amazing that Kim and Mike have two kids in the 1st year of medical school in the same class at the prestigious University of Utah medical school. This is a miracle.

Well, Happy 20th birthday to you. I hope you had a good day.  There are many great things in store for you, keep your chin up.  It will all work out.

Love,

Dad Milne

Letter from Elder Milne:

Sounds like y'all had an amazing weekend Dad. Very happy to hear everything is going well! Sad, I missed it, but things are going well here. We put someone on Date for baptism last night, so I'm excited for that. October will be a good month. Very cool that Keely and Zack are both at the U - very neat. Thanks for reaching out and for the kind words. I'm beyond blessed to have you and our family. Have a great week dad! Love and appreciate you!