Happy Birthday, Preston

Happy 16^th Birthday on the 21st, Preston G. Heflin;

 Great name and heritage you have!  We love to hear your Mom’s reports on your activities and your busy life of church, seminary, school, friends and running.  Quite an impressive schedule you keep.  I remember (way back) when you used to want to sleep til noon every day…, and now here you are - doing early runs and early morning seminary!  We are very proud of your great attitude to get it all done right.  You have prepared well to be ordained a priest soon.  Then you will be able to bless the Sacrament and baptize.  The Aaronic Priesthood is the authority to perform these ordinances which are essential for us all to return to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus. 

The final key element of the gospel of Christ is to endure to the end.  As a runner, you know the importance of enduring to the end.  Have you seen that MormonAd with a picture of a runner just a few feet away from the finish line – all bent over – with hands on knees – and gasping for breath?  …and the caption is “FINISH”.   I am so proud you are a finisher. 

Here are a few photos along the route of my weekly long run of 6 miles on P-Day.

  I don’t go very fast here – especially on the mile-long hill from our apartment down to the bay (and back), but I often think of you while I run/jog.  Keep up the good work! 

Last Wednesday night we experienced our first big terremoto (earthquake)!! First, we felt a “regular” (4.0 – 5.0) tremor.  No big deal – we’ve had these before.  But after the “normal” 20-30 seconds, it did not stop. 

The intensity increased and it went on for a good 2 minutes.  It was a long, rolling 2 minutes and a lot of swaying from our 10^th story apartment.  There have been many smaller tremors since, but none as big: 

§  Strongest quake in the world so far this year - 8.3. 

§  It was less than 100 miles NW of us, off the coast near Illapel. 

§  A 15-foot tsunami hit the immediate coastal area, taking at least 11 lives and doing much damage to Coquimbo – more to the north. 

§  Valpo had a 6-foot wave – no damage. 

We have downloaded an interesting “app” (Earthquake+  for our iPhone) which lists worldwide earthquakes in almost real time. 

It has confirmed that our area has had many 4.0 – 5.0 aftershocks, with the latest one being felt by us just after church today…! 

A few weeks ago, our mission had a visiting authority, Elder Viñas.

He taught the missionaries three ways to know you are/were a success on your mission:

        1.  You went.  You are here.  You are putting the rest of your life on hold and dedicating some time to the Lord.  Congratulations and thanks….

        2.  You yourself are truly converted to the gospel.  You “get it” and you will remain strong for the rest of your life.

        3.  You give your “all” in your efforts to build and strengthen the church as you work to baptize, retain and reactivate.

  

Your brother is setting a great example for you.  We love his thoughts on accountability:  Elder R. Heflin says:  “So, I'm preparing for the sacrament every single day by accounting in my prayers each night.  I go over things that I need to do and things that I need to stop after I take a good look at every day, and I focus on those things and commit to improve on them.   The pattern follows daily and all of a sudden progression becomes so much easier!    So I set some goals a few weeks ago and so far so good...."

Remember:  "What we DO and DON'T DO really matters...

There is no better pattern of life than following the pattern of Jesus Christ". Worldwide Devotional Sep 2015. Elder L. Whitney Clayton.