I've Grown A Foot Or Two!

Hey Family!!

So this week has been a bit stressful. My companion has been struggling with depression and just got officially diagnosed this week. We are going to the doctors this week to get medicine because it’s been getting worse. It’s so hard to watch someone who you care so much about go through such a hard time and you can’t do anything about it :(( I have to always remind myself I am not a doctor and I can’t fix everything. This week though, I was reading in the Jeffrey R Holland book, To My Friends, you gave me dad and there is a talk in there about depression and mental illnesses. So I had her sit down with me against her will and I read it with her. We were both in tears after. It really helped. She is amazing and I love her so much. I just wish there was more I could do you know?

We are on bikes this week. Yup, still have like a week left of the month and we are on bikes, haha. But it’s been fun! We got to bike to Plantation which is a three hour bike ride (not round trip) to see our favorite Columbian family Nuvea and Teo! We were able to finally meet there 23 year old son Andres. Andres is deaf and can’t talk. He communicates by sign language. But one thing we learned is that English sign language and Spanish sign language is different, so he too has been having to learn a new language. Weird right? I didn't know they were different but it makes sense. So it was fun trying to communicate with him with what little we knew. He understood us though and is super cool! He is super interested in the Book of Mormon and wants to read it. We had a great lesson with them about the restoration and they loved it and it just seemed to click for them. They know that this gospel can help them and bless their lives. They also loved the Book of Mormon and plan on reading it as a family. Good powerful fun lesson. They are so humble and kind.

Our favorite Colombian family. Andres, Nuvea and Teo

This week we also got to meet with Claudia, our other investigator. We went to go see her and her sister-in-law was there. After we said the opening prayer, she told us that she was an inactive member of our church. It was super cool because she helped a lot in the lesson and testified and shared her testimony. We taught Claudia the importance of faith and how it all starts with a desire. If she wants miracles and blessings she needs to go to church, read the Book of Mormon, pray and ask if these things are true. I told her that if she does these things and doesn't receive blessings or an answer then this church isn't true but I know with all my heart that if you experiment upon our words then you will receive the things you desire. That really touched her heart and she said she is going to come to church and read. We were so excited and happy. She said she knows this is something she needs to do. So we are excited to help her progress and work towards baptism because she truly is amazing and needs the gospel in her life. It’s been defiantly a week of adventures but it’s been rewarding.

This week I have been thinking about what I wanted to share with Danyon, Eben and Kerragyn and this is it. I have been reading in 1st Nephi about Lehi’s dream and I got to the verse where it talks about how the people that arrived at the tree of life and partook of the fruit and felt ashamed because of the people that were mocking them from the spacious building. After reading that scripture it made me think of the talk "Which Way Do We Face. I also have been reading in Matthew chapter 14. It talks about how King Herod didn't want to behead John the Baptist, but he did. So the question is why did these people feel ashamed for taking the fruit and why did King Herod do what he did? Because they started to fear man more than God. They forgot which way they faced. Peer pressure changes us and soon we find ourselves seeking the acceptance of those who mock us and who tempt us to commit sin. As missionaries, it happens to us as well and we forget that we don't serve our companions, our mission president, we serve God. We as missionaries are accountable to God. In Spanish, there is a saying "un poco no le hara dano" which means a little won’t hurt you. But if you put a comma after the no it becomes "un poco no, le hara dano" which means a little will hurt you. We need to have courage to overcome the fear of man because a little will hurt us if we start to justify and start to fear man. We will forget what way we face and soon be dragged down. Don’t ever lower the Lord’s standards to society’s standards. Remember whose disciples you are. There is a quote by C.S Lewis and it says “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” It will be hard to not give to turn the other way and face god but if you trust in him he will give you courage! :)