How are you all!? I loved seeing you guys so much! You guys are so cute! You should have seen me before I talked with you guys and after. I just cried and cried. It was pretty funny. My companion learned the word "breathe" in English pretty quick because she kept wanting to say it to me. (she is like you mom!) Don´t worry, it was a happy cry. And I testified of families a lot that night. It was pretty funny because I just got really frustrated. I told my companion that it gets me so angry because I have something so beautiful and so wonderful! I want everyone to have it because there is NOTHING else that makes me SO happy!! But people are not listening to me! I kept wanting to say: "Don´t you see what I am trying to give to you!? Don´t you understand how happy you could be!? Look at what you could have for forever!! Please take it!!" In fact I think I did say it to R_____ family that night.
So you already know about half of my week but I will tell you about
the other half now! We spent the most important part of Christmas with
Paola and her family. I love them so much! They already invited us to New Year's but we feel bad that we continue to eat her food so we are
going to go to a members house instead. But I had a great time! Dad
said in his letter that it is like these people that I meet become so
much a part of my life that I can´t imagine not knowing them. He is so
right. Especially with them. They make me so happy! The twins, Vania,
and Josefa, Paola and the parents are just so great!! They are all
progressing so much and it makes me so happy!
So Thursday we went to visit Y_____. (Who is so cute!!) She had the
Christmas card we made for her on the top of her tree. I made 300
cookies for Christmas this year and she was one of the ones we gave the
cookies to. She told us she loved our gift so much that she wanted to
give us one. She made us these super super beautiful scarfs that I
love!! She is so adorable. It frustrates me to try and explain her because she
is one of those people that you can´t really put words too. "Adorable"
just does not cut it. She is just Y______! We are still stuck where we
are with her. She loves it when we come over but she literally has NO
time. She is sweet as can be and would totally be baptized now but she
has to work.
So the funny story about her is she was super excited to tell us
this story. She kept starting the story and then getting distracted. I
knew what story she was about to tell and I was doing my best to keep
her distracted. She was going to tell us about an envelope. I don´t know
if I told you guys but we went with president and his wife to drop off a
couple of envelopes to families that really needed it. We chose her
family as one of those families becuase she is in so much trouble with
all of the bank stuff. We have made this goal to have more lessons with
members this week and it was a bad idea! We came with a family who is
also in need and also needed an envelope. So when Y______ started telling
the story I was super worried. She told us that she got home late and
tired one night and wanted to sleep but her son told her there was a
sobre on her bed waiting for her. She told us that she did not have the
ganas to open it but she did anyway and found PLATA. "PLATA, chicas
plata!!" Hermana G____ (the member with us) looked at her with wide
eyes and said the same thing happened to me and I have the sobre. As you
can imagine, Hermana Maciel and I were, at this point, sweating bullets,
and had our hearts in our mouths. I did not know what to say. Hermana
G_____ pulled out the envelope while Yesica went to go get hers. It was
obvious that the same person did the good deed and the only connection
between the two women were these two idiot missionaries scared out of
our pants. They did not do anymore investigating so they don´t know who
did it, but I think they do ... they just did not want to say if we did not
say anything. Ha ha ha!! it was a good story anyway. I love them so much! I
hope I will be friends with Y______ for forever!
Friday we had divisions so I had to do a lot. I got to work with
this cute girl who got here a week ago. She is adorable but does not
speak Spanish. We went to the two hardest lessons that we have in the
week. The first is with the preachers son. He is so great! I really love
being in his house. I don´t know how this guy is so smart with such a
limited book and such a limited way of interpreting it. But he
understands a lot of things really well. It got kind of gross when the
cute member we were with started Bible bashing. He started saying we
have missionaries that preach in the street every day and where are your
missionaries!? (which by the way Evangélicos totally have
missionaries!) I had to stop him and correct him and tell him that they
do in fact have missionaries and that we know that all churches are
great. I ended up bearing a really intense testimony about families and
the Book of Mormon! I told him that he could throw lots of scriptures
at me and I probably would not have the answer but I told him that I
know that the Book of Mormon was true because I had read and prayed
about it. Then I happened to find this picture that mom had sent me of
our family and one of Lauren (he knows her story) and I told him "I know
THIS is eternal!!" He got really quiet and said 'how do you know?' I know
he wants a family forever! I know he likes that idea! I know he loves
them so much! I told him that I still feel the love of my sweet little
sister and it is the same as when she was alive, so 'I know that relationship
has NOT died!' It was so cool! I felt the spirit so strong. He told me
basically that he wants it to be true, but because the Bible does not
say anything about it, he cannot believe. It was so sad! And then our
cute member changed the subject to why the stake president is cool....
Oh how I love members.... sometimes. The next day we had M_____. He is
on the other side of the spectrum. I_______ uses his head way too much and
M______ uses his heart way too much. It is really funny because we have
divisions every week and we always have these two people and at the end
of the day the Hermana I am with always looks at me and says ... your
sector is hard!! It really is not but we do have crazy lessons with
these two. M______ is so great but he does not care what it says in the
Bible he just believes what he feels in his heart. So we are still stuck
trying to help him understand that we will be resurrected and that Jesus
was not a sinner. That was the new discovery. He told me that Jesus had
to have been a sinner because if not he would not be able to relate
with us. It turned out to be really cool because I went to one of the
best scriptures I know about the Atonement in Alma 7. I read 11 and 12
with him and he said that is fine, but I still think he sinned. The Spirit told me to read a little more so I looked down and in 13 it
explains perfectly. It says first that M_____ was right, up until that
point the Savior really could not relate with us because it is one of the
only things that the Spirit does not know. But then it says that our
perfect Savior took upon him the sins of the world. I got to bear this
testimony of how I know that the Atonement was that much prettier
because not only did he sacrifice for my sins, he as a sinless man paid
for my sins so he could relate with me perfectly. He does know what it
is like to be a sinner even though he NEVER sinned! That is pretty
ironic. I love my Savior! He lives! And I know that he paid the ultimate
price for me even though he was the last one to deserve it! I am
finally starting to understand what it means to use His atonement every
day! I need Him to teach me, to strengthen me, to cleanse me, and to
forgive me. You guys should read the talk by a 70 in general conference.
I don´t remember his name but it is called "Will you also be made whole?" It is in the second session on Saturday. It is a beautiful talk about
how we need His atonement for every part of our lives. I love this new
idea. That with this infinite act of love, we have the power to fill our
lives with love too. Enough love to completely change our hearts and
only want good. (Mosiah 5 and Mornoni 7) I think that is really all
God´s power is. Priesthood power has the exact same trates as charity.
It says that the Atonement was a great act of love! God´s love is so
pure and so infinite that he has the power to use that love to make us
holy! He can use that power to save us from satan. That is why satan
cannot be stronger, because his power is hate and we all know that love
is always stronger than hate. If you don´t believe me you can watch
whichever Disney movie you choose!! ;)
The girl I did divisions with the whole time kept asking me when she
was going to know Spanish like me. I did not know I knew Spanish, so
that was fun. It turns out I learned a lot without really noticing it.
Saturday we went to visit that family that I told you about last
week. They are so great! They are doing great! The dad thanked us right
off for the visits because their home is already changing. He told us
that they could feel more peace in their home that week! Yes!! They also
went to church on Sunday!! That is HUGE! People never go to church that
fast. We found them on freaking Wednesday and a week and a half later
they were at church. We have another appointment with them this week so I
am super excited.
Sunday was rough! I miss Lauren! I love her so much! I read all of
the book that Sara sent me and it made me really happy! I hate that she
had to leave us and four years is a long time! I cried a lot. I made a
goal though. Lauren hated contention. She would run away as fast as the Spirit would if we let it enter the room. So I made the goal to stop
letting contention enter my life. I don´t want to feel angry. Lauren did
not like contention because it made it harder to love. She was so good
at loving that contention just did not make sense. It did not matter if
she did not get what she wanted she wanted to love people. She knew how
much better it was. Anyway ... so that is my goal. It started before New Years, so it is not my New Years resolution;). I love you all! You are
all an example and a power in my life! We have a family with power
because we know how to love! We are good at it! Even if it has to be on
different parts of the world and even different parts of the veil! And,
because God loves us enough we are going to be whole again one day!
Because His love is more powerful than death! I am so grateful for my Savior who made that possible for me! He lives! He is real! And His love
can save us!
Love you all!
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