12-15-14

I got to talk in sacrament this week! I talked about the Book of Mormon and Pride though. I based if off of a few scriptures, mainly Mormon 8: 34-41, Mosiah 3:19 4:10-11, and Moroni 9:37. i talked about how the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to help us in our times. The Nephites and Lamanites never had it, Mormon put it together for us. He tailor-made it according to the needs of our day and our trials and temptations. The scriptures in Mormon 8 explain so clearly our days! :D So we should always have that in mind as we read the Book of Mormon; it´s for us! It´s like what Elder Uchtdorf talked about in one of his talks from this last conference, ¨Lord, is it I?¨ Many times we disclude ourselves when we say, the Book of Mormon is for us, or Jesús suffered for our sins. When truly those words should have deep personal meaning for us. The Lord loves the world, and yet focuses on the one. Something incredible that I wish to emulate in my life. I wish to be able to find the needs of one person in need and then help them, whether spiritually or temporally, even it is as small of a deed as a kind Word or a smile. Those things do make a difference. :) Taking the time to help someone new at church feel comfortable can be all the difference in coming back.

 

Something interesting about my week: sometimes people here when they see us walking down the street will make the cross sign at us, so that means that they are wanting to ward off demons... I saw that like 8 times yesterday. So that´s fun. We taught 29 lessons this week, one short of our goal. And actually, yes! I used all your decorations and the house is christmassy :D haha I love it. 

 

I do get the American dollars, and all my companions have received them, but now they just sit in a pile :D Maybe I should give them to Ward members :D And some places do accept our money, but I can always go to the bank and switch out the money. some ATMs give the option of taking out american dollars. That sounds really cool! about the sd cards :D I would love it!

 

 

 

 

12-8-14

Woo so big changes this week! but first, here is a lesson I learned that I wrote to president just now,

 

We learned a wonderful lesson on obedience though, the landlord of the house last night invited us to a dinner in her house to celebrate the day that the missionaries entered into her house and we went downstairs and saw a beautiful set of dishes and plates ready for us, and we sat down. And then we realized it was just the hermana mamá and us, and we weren´t comfortable with it (me and Elder Evans at least). So we politely asked her if she could bring her husband, and she replied that he was sleeping. So we explained our rule about not being alone with people of the opposite gender and she said, ¨well take your plates upstairs then! You want to be obedient to ¨El Papá¨, pointing up, and we always receive blessings doing that! But for all 20 years those missionaries have been here and they´ve always sat here and ate with me!¨ So we took the plates upstairs and ate happily as we were obedient. I took the time to explain to the other elders that we had done the right thing, even though every one of us was tempted to stay in fear of offending la hermana. But as we learned, it is always better to do what we know is right, and the Lord will take care of us. La hermana wasn´t offended at all, she agreed with us! :D I hope the other elders remember that lesson forever.

So we had our transfers this week! And I´m training again, and still in Camiri! So i might be here like 9 months of my misión :D My new companion is named Elder Dyer, and he´s from Las Vegas Nevada. He doesn´t speak spanish :D But he´s really great. We are going to work really hard and baptize!! And learn Spanish! We are now 4 north americans here. haha I´ve never seen anything like it! the picture is me with Elder Dyer and Elder Corrales, my trainer, who right now is one of the assistents to President Willard. I love Camiri, so I´m happy to be here still.

 

(I asked if I could help anyone there, and if I could send him Christmas $)

Dont worry about the people here, you can´t pay for anything :) It´s agaisnt the rules, so maybe I could do a secret santa or something, but that´s about it. As for my card... I lost my card from you. One of the machines ate it awhile back, like 7 or 8 months ago :D I think it´s just sitting in some bank in santa cruz. I was outside of the city so i never had time to go and get it, I had no idea how. I have my card from dad still, but I don´t remember the pin. If I´ll buy stuff, itll be at the end of my misión. I don´t want to carry stuff around all the time :D

 

So funny story, Elder Dyer almost didn´t serve as a missionary. He is the same age as me, he went a year to college, he used the excuse...just one year at college and then I´ll go. But he told me, ¨That was really just my excuse, I didn´t really want to go on a misión.¨So he said that it was because he went out with the missionaries a lot, and one day with a group of his friends, and the missionaries, he received his testimony from the spirit. He knew he had to go.

 

I must share this with you,

¨Misunderstanding God´s justice and mercy is one thing; denying God´s existence or supremacy is another, but either will result in our achieving less --- sometimes far less --- tan our full, divine potential. A god who makes no demands is the functional equivalent of a God who does not exist. A world without God, the living God who establishes to govern and perfect His children, is also a world without ultimate truth or justice. It is a world where moral relativism reigns supreme.¨  by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, ¨Free Forever, to Act for Themselves

 

have a great week my times up.... gosh I wish I had more time to write wade and mckade.

Thanksgiving Week

ahhhhhhh how adorable is my new cousin!!! :) He´s so cute. And well we did kind of celebrate (Thanksgiving). haha I forgot until Elder Evans told me, so he cooked some mashed potatoes his mom sent him, with gravy, and I cooked some french fries and we celebrated together :D So some highlights of this week, President Willard came to Camiri for Sunday and he and Sister Willard gave talks on tithing. They were pretty great. We had two more baptisms on saturday, I forgot my camera though so i don´t have pictures. But they were for the other Elder´s. So we´ve 6 weeks of miracles. Baptisms or reactivations every single week. A total of 5 people baptized and 8 people reactivated. Wonderful miracles. :) I´ve never seen anything like this in my misison up until now! I can testify of hard work and faith. They go hand in hand :)

 

Mmm actually we didn´t really get to meet with President Willard while he was here. When he visits the wards or branches he usually only has time for the members there.As for the BYU thing, that´s a big bummer. I didn´t realize that all my credits wouldn´t transfer... I thought someone told me they would. Who did you ask about that?

 

I am learning to work harder and give more to the Lord. This morning I did a study from PMG that really helped me reflect on my duty as a representative of Christ. It was a personal study from Seccion 1 where I studied about the ¨voice of warning.¨ Scriptures such as D&C 1:4, 88:81 Ezekiel 33:1-12, 3: 7-12 and Jacob 1:19. I really liked the scriptures in Ezekiel, because we as missionaries are the ¨watchmen¨ We are the ones called to warn others of the danger that lies ahead if they don´t repent. So we must help others understand what sin is, and then help them to repent. I think many times I get a little lost in just teaching the lessons and not focusing on helping people actually repent and come unto Christ. Our Savior is the focus of everything. He wants us to come unto Him, so if i´m not inviting others to come to Him the way He would, I´m doing something wrong. But I really love Jacob 1:19, which talks about magnifying your calling. Taking upon one´s self the responsibility to help others. I will do my best this week to invite others to Christ and to repent!

 

Another interesting thing; we are in the process of painting our apartment. It´s a disaster! haha but it looks so much better now. There´s a guy working on it at the house. So now it isn´t that horrid aquamarine color :D I´m learning lots of interesting things in the mission. It´s interesting to note what things Heavenly Father is having me learn. hahaha Yes we hired someone, and it was the landlord. But, we had to pay everything. So I told her that we would decide on the colors and how we would do it. She had some things she wanted to do, but since she didn´t want to pay I took control. She is a wonderful lady, just likes to take advantage of others. Our house situation has been a headache, but I´ve learned pretty well how to deal with it :) Also with having to work with the money of the mission and making sure nobody is taking advantage of us because we´re young and white haha. And going and paying for supplies and managing money and using facturas? haha not sure how to say that in english, it´s when you buy something with a NIT or number, so like buying stuff through the mission. Just interesting things.

 

Sorry we can´t write more, I´m always doing a ton for the mission in this time as well. Have a wonderful week! I love you tons and send my love to everyone for me!