Mi querida familia.
Mmm... I´m just so grateful. You guys are my best friends. Thanks for all the love and support and letters and kindness. When I see those names on the DearElders- Sara McGill, Natalie McGill, Michelle Ririe, Kay Richards, Chris Nielson, Alathia Burnside, Joanna Clayton, Carly Davis, Jenny Nelson... and SO many others (please don´t be offended if I didn´t write your name...Eliza) I am just filled with love and gratitude for the incredible people and friends that I have in this world! You are pillars and examples in my life. I hope to be like all of you someday.
My little comp is just the best. We were eating ice cream this week and Hermana Call went to ask the lady in the shop for spoons. The lady came back looking so confused as she passed us knives... hahaha she is so awesome. Spanish is coming along. I remember so well how that felt (and still feels). Also, we are teaching this lady who was all stressed about having the exact same baptism as Jesus Christ. We testified that the Church of Jesus Christ has the same authority and the same manner of baptism by immersion and everything. I was all pumped that she would be down for it but then she started raising her voice and said ¨you´re trying to tell me that I will have the same baptism as Jesus Christ but I know that He was not baptized in a swimming pool like you guys do. I need to be baptized in a river for it to be the same.¨ Okay my dear little Guatemalan lady... now we are working to commit her to a day and searching for a river close to her that is sanitary enough to be baptized. Oh these people... grateful for the faith and desire to follow with exactness :)
I cannot believe that I have only known these Guatemalan people for 4.5 months because my heart is bursting with the exact same amount of love for them! Charity really is rather amazing. It is something that fills us. Like a palpable substance inside of us that grows and expands and extends and eminates from within us. It truly is the pure and precious love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And the more we seek Him and His grace, the more we ask for and obtain His love- the more we have to share with others! I am learning how perfectly my Father in Heaven and Savior love me. It is not just completely and fully, though it is. It is not just an eternal and unconditional love, though indeed it is that too. But it is the perfect kind of love, in the perfect manner, and at the perfect time. He knows me SO well. And He knows exactly when and how to impress that love upon me in the most miraculous way. I am filled with my Savior´s love. I could not be more grateful for that precious gift. And I love loving other people with His same love :)
I learned a little bit more this week about what it means to ¨mourn with those that mourn¨ and ¨comfort those that stand in need of comfort¨. We received that list awhile ago from our ward with the list of the inactives that we could go visit and I chose to focus on a particular family because they have a sweet name and I felt good about them. So we have become such good friends with them and they are really imporving and coming again. They read the Book of Mormon every day, work on Personal Progress, go to the conferences and activities, and say the sweetest prayers. Love them. One of their brothers works pretty far from here, but his wife lives with them. Her name is Cecilia, she has 19 years, and is a non-member. When we first met her she wasn´t super interested but we always invited her to listen. She was pregnant and I would play with her other little 1.5 year old son so she could listen a little more. She had a darling little boy 20 days ago and we went and visited and helped out and testified of the families... kept visiting and inviting them church but Cecilia never really commited. In church yesterday, they came into Relief Society and made the announcement that her precious little 20 day old baby had passed away that morning. My heart broke for my precious little friend.
We went to her house that afternoon and a lot of members were sitting outside comforting the family and I immediately walked in the room where the mom was, crying, as her precious little baby lay perfectly still and peaceful, wrapped in all white. We cried together for quite awhile. I cannot really describe the Spirit that was there. It was unbelievable. I have never been able to testify so powerfully of the temple and eternal families. She loved that promise and wants to be baptized so she can raise that precious little baby someday soon. I may have not seen them with my natural eyes but there were angels all around. I have never felt that more powerfully in all of my life. I knew that even every family member I have ever loved and lost were there. I knew it. I could feel it. There were lifting us up and filling that room with the exact same charity, that pure love of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 13:
4 aCharity bsuffereth long, and is ckind; charity denvieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself aunseemly, bseeketh not her own, is not easily cprovoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in ainiquity, but rejoiceth in the btruth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Charity never afaileth.
His love is real. It never ends. Never stops. Never runs out.
Necesitamos recordar que la obra misional es menos sobre nosotros y mas sobre el Senor. Y con todas las obras en la Iglesia. Jesucristo es el perfecto maestro. Yo se con todo mi corazón que El vive. Me encanta la obra misional y el poder recibimos cuando arrepentimos y obedecimos. Hay milagros. Hay poder. Hay muchas cosas, experiencias, y almas preciosas esperando para nosotros. Segimos adelante con mucho fe en cada paso. Es duro, pero siempre vale la pena. El tiempo es corto y los bendiciones son eternas. We have our covenants to hold on to, and each other to lean on and learn from. What a sacred calling it is to hold a calling in which some of our Fathers children are entrusted into our care as we try to help them find there way on the straight and narrow path. Whether we are full-time missionaries, primary teachers, bishops, counselors, committee members, mothers, friends, neighbors, or anything else- we each have a little part of that calling.
Con amor,
Hermana McGill
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| One of the most sacred moments of my mission. Watching Antonio baptize little Claudia Maria. He is incredible. Truly trying to change his life and follow Jesus Christ as perfectly as he can. |
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| Dani is my little bud that wants to go on a mission. His family is hard and awesome. |
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| Love the markets! |
