Hey Yáll! halfway done at the CCM. There is a hermana here The time seems to fly by, yet I seem like I´ve been here forever. Today I was able to go to the temple again on Thanksgiving and again it was only in Spanish. But what better day to go to the temple on THANKSGIVING! I´m so grateful for being able to have Prep Day on Thanksgiving as well. Though I am not having Thanksgiving at home, which I greatly miss, especially Mom´s cooking, I am grateful for being able to be from a country that has religious freedom and having a day so that we can remember how great our lives are, thanks to the hardships of others.
Sister Bertha, thank you so much for those missionary books, they come in handy so many times, and are such good reads. And also thanks for the letter, it´s so great to get letters in the mail, not to sound prideful but it sure does feel good to get mail in the district mailbox! Especially since the Elders in my district have gotten almost 3 times as many letters as the Hermanas! One funny event, my companions received three big packages from his brother and sister and they were loaded with rootbeers and krispy kreme, i don´t know how he got the krispy kreme, but the perk of being his companion is he shares the treasures with me :)! Also thank you for all the love sent my way, it means a lot to me. Sometimes the days here feel long and repetitive but it is a pleasure to learn new things everyday. One thing I learned from TRC (which is basically the missionaries practicing teaching members lessons from the gospel) is that the Spanish we are learning is like talking to little kids, we speak so SLOW and the Mexicans speak like lightning, and from what I hear the Chileans make the Mexicans look like snails on how fast they speak, the field should be a joy.
Our Devotional on Sunday was such a good one! It was a recording of President Holland´s talk to the missionaries at the CMM. He spoke straight and with fire in his voice to the crowd. A few things he talked about:
¨Do not go back to what you were¨
President Holland expressed the thing that frustrated him the most in the Church, and it is when returned missionaries fall away from the church. He expressed that missionaries should not go on a mission unless they having a burning desire to teach others what great news you yourself know to be true. And he went on the say that if you have received such a witness then it is your duty as a witness to never forget what you know. It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes:
“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.”
President Holland also discussed that if you plan to change your investigators lives, you have to change yourselves, and I guess this can relate to almost all things in life. You have to live the life you want to teach others. You can not expect others to change if you will not put in the effort to receive that same change. Which furthers tom, you have to live the life you want to teach. You can not teach someone about following the law of tithing, if you yourself are not honest in your actions with your fellow men, or so on. From which, I am really going to strive to change my own life. To be a better loving person, and to take things seriously and with more diligence than before (I assume my mom has been waiting her whole life for this).
One thing that will greatly affect my lives,and i have to say almost everyone that knows me, will be if I have more Hope in all things.
Hope is often considered something as might or might not happen. That hope is unsure. BUT hope is a knowledge of things that are! Hope is something that you have when you believe! Hope that the sun will rise, hope that gospel is true, and hope that the Savior will come! Hope is a firm knowledge, and faith is having hope.
My times, running low to be on my emails but I just want everyone to know how grateful I am for everything. How grateful I am for the USA and for my family. How grateful i am for the Lord Jesus. Through small and simple things, all can come to past, and through small and simple things we have made it this far. Its because of family, friends, the scriptures, the spirit, the love of others, and the desire to endure all.
In the words of Mater ¨I don´t have to know where i am going, i just have to know where I have been.¨
Elder Siaosi
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Here are some more fun fotos for the personas in America!
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Here´s a fun fact for all those back at home, this is doctrine from my doctrine teacher, but I have always wondered why God´s plan wound be to have Adam sin and take the fruit. And then in the scriptures it describes Adam and Eve being as little children, having not known good from evil. And little children, thought they may make the wrong choices are free from sin. Thus our teacher explained that Satan had confused them and persuaded eve to take of the fruit. And a reason that Adam and Eve could not have kids without eating of the fruit is because that did not have feelings for each other, mainly because they did not know what feelings were, having never eaten of the fruit, and so it was all in God´s plan that they must eat of the fruit and leave the garden to follow all of God´s commandments.
