Salvation is not a cheap experience

Letter written April 7, 2010
Hola my little Mom!
I’m glad to hear you had a great birthday! You’re old! ;) Thanks for the Easter package! It came a couple days late cuz of the whole country shutting down for Holy Week.
To answer your question, I study everything gospel related in English. Then I study the language separately for how to teach it. I can barely understand like 1/8 of the scriptures in Spanish so I won’t be studying those really. But I have marked every scripture that I have found for each of the 5 lessons, tabbed them, and then wrote an English description about them in a separate folder. It works out great.
The next letter I get from you I will be out in the field! It’s blowing my mind! I will be able to speak fluent Spanish in like 4 months! Stoked for that! Well, I love you Mom. You rock my socks!
Pops –
Thanks for the scriptures. Ya Ether 12 is great about faith. I have used it numerous times in lessons that I have practiced teaching. I love D&C 121 as well. I finished reading the D&C on Saturday and that section, the beginning, and the verses you told me about are my favorite. I’m starting the Book of Mormon again soon and I am on about page 80 of Jesus the Christ. What were your favorite talks in conference? I like Elder Uchtdorf’s about patience and Elder Hollands’s about lust. He is so bold. I love it. We have heard some of his previous devotionals from the Provo MTC. My favorite thing he said in one of those is , “Your mission won’t be easy, don’t expect it to be easy or even want it to be easy. It will be hard because Salvation is not a cheap experience…..Christ suffered more than we can imagine, so why can’t we?....just a little tiny bit compared to Him?” So good!! Love it!!
Tell me how the Jazz do in the playoffs K? Sweet to hear about BYU. I love Fredette!
Love your son,
Elder Smith