This last week has been good! We are the oldest district in the CCM and it feels good. I am SO nervous though to leave the people and everyone are so nice and I have good food (relatively) and a good bed. I hope my first area is in the city. There's a WalMart there! I need to find some mac and cheese I hope they have it there.
This week the power went out in half the houses and all of the buildings. Which means meals and everything are messed up and the milk in my cereal was rotten :( and no hot water. We told the new kids that its like this all the time and they got so pale and were so scared it was funny. Earlier this week my companion got sick. He couldn't go to class and we had to stay back, I was kinda bummed and frustrated because I just wanted to go to class. It turned out to be really good for my Spanish and gave me a lot of time to study.
We had the opportunity to teach all of the lessons to a man named Andres. It was really cool to see the face of an investigator when talking about the Plan of Happiness, where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. He was so interested and I felt the spirit so strong because of his desire to want to grow closer to God. I loved explaining, as best as I could in Spanish, the importance of Faith and how faith is stronger than knowledge. Everything worth doing or of great value is hard, the conversion process is hard and its meant to be. He asked us why, because he had been faithful in prayer and scripture study, if Heavenly Father loves us so much doesn't he send angels down like he does in the Bible or BoM. He continued and said he has accepted Christ as his savior and is saved and if you don't believe that you are diminishing to Power of Christ´s Atonement. I smiled so much when he said this! I liked studying this topic as we were preparing for our next visit with him because we didn't have time to answer his question right there. I went to Ether 12:6. The power of Faith over knowledge is amazing. The same way no one can give you a personal testimony. The difference between testimony and conversion is fundamental. We can have spiritual experiences that strengthen our testimonies, but that is not conversion. Understanding true conversion, one would know you cannot be converted through spiritual experiences alone. Conversion happens only through having faith. I love talking about the difference of Hope, Faith, and Belief as they are all very different things and yet they cannot exist without each other. Hope requires a trust in God, that he will lift and strengthen you always. Faith requires action. We cannot say we have faith in something because we feel good about it. Faith is not feeling good about a test in school and not studying. Faith would be putting your heart, might, mind and strength into studying in order to prepare for the test. Although important to remember that Faith is in Jesus Christ not outcomes. Essentially faith requires skin in the game we have to do some thing to show our commitment to Christ. James 2 Faith without works is dead. I love how the Restored Church of Jesus Christ is built upon Christ. Our emphasis on the Atonement and potential as literal offspring of Heavenly Father sets us apart from other churches. Explaining that it is because we glorify in the Saviors sacrifice that we believe simply accepting him and sitting back is not enough to show our FAITH in Him. We need to work everyday to show our love by bringing other people to His name so that they may value his infinite Atonement. We must do all we can to please Him, and the fact of the matter is that we will always fall short. We know we are all saved by His grace and could not be saved without it, but is after all we can do to glorify and understand its importance that He will be pleased with our presence in the last days.
Went to the temple today it was sooo beautiful. It is the largest temple outside of the United States and one of 5 temples where the Moroni holds the golden plates!
I walk into the visitors center and BAM i see good ole MARK MABRY chilling on the wall in a picture with Jesus. So beautiful.
My companion i think is getting a little sick of me he said "If you're gonna make another vine reference you can assume I don't know it" and i was like.... sorry
I'm so scared to go to the field this week and I was thinking about how hard it is going to be, but the spirit I feel about telling people how we can return to our Father in Heaven and live with him is way better.
I'm still hearing some crazy stories about the field and I cannot wait to meet my trainer on MONDAY! This is the day!!! I'm gonna get a new P-Day when I get to the mission so I don't know when my next E-Mail will be but I love each and everyone of y'all!!!
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