Bring Him Home...

Last night Meghan sent me this link of David Archuleta singing, "Bring Him Home", 

to the American troops in Afghanistan. 

 As I listened, I not only thought of the men and women fighting for our country, 

but also the thousands of men and women who are serving as missionaries for the Lord, Jesus Christ in whatever capacity that may be. 

 As a mother of one these missionaries,

 the words in this song have real meaning to me as I find myself on my knees often, 

praying for Cody's safe return home in 2 years. 

 Although this is always on my mind, I have a desire that goes beyond mortality, 

and it will always be that in the 2 years he is gone, 

he develops a better understanding of what this life is all about. 

 I hope that while he serves with all his might, mind, and strength, that he will find peace and rest in the Savior. 

I hope that he learns how much God knows and loves him, 

I hope that he comes to realize that God has a plan for him which goes beyond this mortal life,

 and more than anything else, 

I hope he comes to realize that faith in God will eventually bring us home to our Father in Heaven whose greatest desire is for us to live with Him again.  

Roswell Weeks 36, 37 & 38............

Hey Madre

Let me know how the Augustin's do! Haha you will probably get a kick out of President he definitely is a lot different than what I was usually used to. Love that man though! If you get the chance tell Sis Augustin Elder Backus said hello (:

I am ready for Zone Training tomorrow...thank you for the talks, they really helped out. I will let you know how it all goes, thank you! 

Thank you so much for your prayers. We were able to find a lot more people to teach this week, thank you so much. Hopefully we can get them to progress now! (:

How is the rest of the fam? How are you doing? Thank you for sharing your testimony with me, it means so much. I love and miss you like crazy!

Love, Your one and only son

Hey Mom!

Lizzy gave me a shout out huh? Haha I hope everything goes okay for her, those first few weeks in the MTC are rough! She will do good. Pretty weird to see all those guys after a year...haha some look like they have changed others not so much. 

Soooo I got transferred. I am pretty bummed about it. I have loved it here in Lubbock, the ward, the city, everything....but of course once you get comfortable you have to move. Haha and it doesnt help that I am getting transferred to the WEIRDEST place in America...I got assigned to be a Zone Leader in Roswell, New Mexico...I was hoping to stay a Texas Ranger my whole mission but to no avail. ); I really am sad to be leaving but I know that it is where I need to be at this time. Elder Bladen will be my new companion. I have heard good things about him so we will see how it goes...where did your mission boundaries go to? Haha what do I need to know about New Mexico? I cant believe I am going to be back in Mountain Standard Time...haha!

Haha tell Cass not to write Elder Mort back hahaha well mom, I would love to hear from you, shoot me an email if you get a chance. I love and miss you like crazy. 

Love, Cody

Madre!!!

Well, first of all, loved the pics!! You dont look any different now than you did back then! The bangs were a bit wild, but hey, that was the time and culture right? (; 

Things are going well here. My Zone here is huuuuuge compared to lubbock. There are 4 districts instead of 2, 28 missionaries instead of 20, and our zone covers about 300 miles from top to bottom. Yikes!! 

Elder Bladen is a great guy, he is from Logan and has been out about 17 months. Roswell, when you get past all the alien stuff....its everywhere, is actually a pretty nice town. The people are for the most part pretty friendly. There are two wards here. In the ward I cover alone, there is 600 registered members, but only about 140 are active...we have a lot of work to do. We have a baptism this weekend with a 18 year old boy named Jonathan, so hopefully everything will go smoothly. I love and miss you like crazy mom. I will send you a letter today and try and give you some more of the deets (; When do the girls start school? I love you! 

Hey Mom!!

Well, I better get to the red questions first before I forget...Jonathan did get baptized, and received the Priesthood yesterday after he got confirmed in Sacrament Meeting. I'm not working in any Spanish Branches, Elder Bladen is an English missionary so anybody I find I refer back to the Spanish Elders here. We are in the finding stages now so we are hitting the bikes a good three hours a day or so and talking to everybody that we can, its hard work! Really if you could just pray that we will be able to find somebody who has truly been prepared by the Lord to receive it, that would be much appreciated.

I heard Cassidy did a great job; Sister Pearmain actually wrote me and told me all about it (: Crazy to think she is growing up so fast...and then that picture of Christine...haha what!!! Gone are the "Bean" days huh?

When does Sean come into the field?? I would love to have him in the Zone...I will talk with President Heap and see if I can influence some inspiration or something haha!!

I read about the Meet the Mormons movie in an Ensign, that sure would be cool to see!! Hopefully it can get around out here, that would be a great tool to use!

Well Mom, I miss you very very much. I guess I am not technically a new missionary anymore, but I sure do feel like it sometimes. Thank you for the prayers and constant love, it means the world to me. Oh, and I loved those mission pics of yours, haha they were great!! Have an awesome week Mom.

Love, Cody

Sunday.........

Today we went to the missionary farewell of Lizzy Brown, a good friend of Cody's who is headed to Nashville, Tennessee speaking Spanish.  She gave a wonderful talk on the attributes of Christ and it was good to see a bunch of Cody's friends from school again.....

After Lizzy's farewell we drove straight to Provo to see Jordan get set apart to the office of an Elder.....

Jordan's bishop was right on when he said that Jordan hasn't stopped grinning since he received his mission call.....

After we returned home from Provo I went to a very interesting fireside given by Michael Kennedy who is the first descendant of Joseph Smith to receive the Melchizedek priesthood.  You can read about his conversion story here.

Lubbock Week 35...........

The email I received from Cody on Monday was very short....he let us know that they are teaching a single mom and 2 daughters, Myron, Michelle and Mary.  They came to church on Sunday and are hoping to meet with them again this week.  The church will be sending iPads to his mission before Christmas which he is excited about, he also met with President Heaps in a MLC (missionary leadership conference), the focus of the meeting was on empowering  the leaders with more responsibilities, he said he learned a lot and is wondering how he can fit in more responsibilities than he already has :).  He said he is enjoying his new president and had a lot of fun at the conference....

The following is an email that I received today from the husband of the lady (the Young Women's President in Cody's Big Spring Ward) who sent me a letter last March. 

Sister Backus,

I finally just read the email you sent my wife back in March. It fell to the bottom of my inbox. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it. More so, I can’t tell you how much we miss having Elder Backus in this area. I know he is doing great things where he is at, but we sure miss him here. I’m sure my wife told you that we both worked at the MTC for a number of years after our missions and I would have given my right arm to have him in one of my districts. He is wise beyond his years and a very mature missionary. I love his confident humility. I still remember he asked my wife to accompany them to a lesson and then followed up that night asking her opinion of the investigators and whether or not she thought they were committed to living the gospel. Usually the missionaries we’ve worked with aren’t willing to ask the members their opinions.

I hope he is doing well! Again thank you for your advice. I’ve definitely started to read more to my kids every night.