Familia!
Christmas is tamales and Semana Santa (Easter week) is this cooked fruit honey stuff. We ate it everyday.
Claudia was called as a Relief Society teacher. She will be absolutely amazing. She loves the church and the gospel and serving. She is charity.
Jorge took us to another pday activity and read the Book of Mormon in the car for over an hour waiting for us. He loves it. He knows everything about Nephi.
Remember the old investigator we dropped and they came back? Still pilas. Juan and Suzy are planning the wedding for next week and the baptism for the same day. They are so excited and Juan is progressing so fast. He is a gem and loves the gospel. More animated in lessons that ever before.
After 4 months of no visits, Mayra and her family still have Soy Un Hijo de Dios memorized. And the new convert family that moved into our barrio are obsessed with Loor el Profeta. Even the 3 year old has it memorized. I am adopting all of them.
Life is good. I am so happy. No time to write. So much to do. We were sprinting everywhere today and had a bunch to do to plan the hermana zone conference of Huehue coming up this Friday. Pray for us :)
I feel so guilty that I haven´t shared a thought from Preach My Gospel yet since they talked about in conference but anyway I started reading PMG over again and I love it. Truly an inspired resource and tool for missionary work. I love in the introduction how it talks about the power we recieve through daily study.
¨You will be most effective as you follow the Spirit, search the scriptures, keep the commandments, and apply what you learn.¨
That is so true. Success comes when we obey those things. Prayer and scriptures and Spirit. That does not just apply to missionary work. You will be more effective parents and teachers and friends and disciples of Jesus Christ as you do those simple things. Personal study and companionship study are SO important on the mission! They set the tone for the whole day, for each lesson and person, and invite the Spirit to be with you. We can do the same things in our homes. Individual prayer and scripture study every day and then the companionship study comes through Family 15 [**what we call our Sunday family gospel discussion time], family prayer, Family Home Evenings, family discussions at dinner, family scriptures, family temple trips. Or just with your spouse. There are so many ways to invite the Spirit to be with us and to apply what we learn. Families are the best. I love you guys so much.
There was a troubled hermana that wanted to go home because of some personal issues she was having. It was breaking my heart to just watch her suffer like that here in the mission but I also could not bear to watch her give all of this up and go home. She came to Cerrito with me for divisiones and we had one of the best companionship studies ever. We read that talk from Brad Wilcox about "His Grace Is Sufficient". I was so impressed by a part that talked about the final judgement. "More than us sitting there, begging Jesus Christ to just let us in those precious and sacred gates leading to eternal peace and joy and happiness in the Celestial Kingdom- it will be Him begging us to participate in the ordinances and covenants of the Gospel and apply the power of the Atonement so that we will want to enter His kingdom and be worthy to do it." I love how kind He is. I love His faith and trust in us. I am so grateful for His power and His Atonement. All I want to do is teach people about Him.
We had an awesome weekly planning session with some of the hermanas here in Huehue. We talked all about sacrfice and I learned so much.
2 Samuel 24: 21-25
21And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord , that the plague may be stayed from the people.
22And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood.
23All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The Lord thy God accept thee.
24And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25And David built there an altar unto the Lord , and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings . So the Lord was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
Our sacrifices to the Lord must be given with all of our heart. It has to cost us something. And the Lord will eternally bless us because of it! It is always worth it.
Jesus Christ offered himself as a sacrifice, and it was with all of His heart. He was not thinking about or dwelling on anything else. He wasn´t thinking of what He would gain from it or how great people would think He was because of what He was doing. He offered His life out of pure love for His Father in Heaven and for us, His eternal family. It was out of obedience and humility and meekness and selflessness. Oh how I love my Savior for the sacrifice He offered for me. Oh how grateful I am for my precious Shephard, watching me wherever I wander. How grateful for I am for my Prince of Peace and my King, and for His eternal righteousness and goodness. How grateful I am for my Friend and Lord and Redeemer, even my Jesus Christ. And how grateful I am that His power has overcome the chains of death. He lives. I know it. I feel it. I believe it. I testify of it with all that I am. He is my everything. My purpose in each day, filling my every breath, the cause of my heart beat. I will worship Him forever and ever and I will never be ashamed of this precious and pure and priceless gospel of Jesus Christ.
Praying for my precious family always!
Hermana Jane
