Forget yourself and Focus on others

 I am loving Chicolopan! There is so much work here and we are just having a blast! 

Highlights:

• Sunday dinner was absolutely incredible! Last week an hermana asked us what food we liked. We went on to tell her 6 of our favorite dishes giving her options (but typically the hermanas disregard all of our suggestions. But I am not complaining because basically every meal in Mexico is amazing!). When we arrived this Sunday at her house she had 4 tables set up and on the tables were every single food that we asked for! It was seriously like I walked into heaven. To make the meal even better, she invited all of her neighbors and family who are not members to this meal of all meals! We feasted on the food and as 2 Nephi 31 says we were "feasting upon the word of Christ". Such a beautiful experience! We left absolutely stuffed! She then gave us all of the leftovers! Elder Flores asked to marry her after jajaja. Sadly she is happily married. Sorry Elder Flores!
• The Sacrament meeting was once again a HUGE success! We had 13 investigators come to church and 181 members! These numbers are absurd for Mexico. God definitely has blessed us in our work! 
• We had a Zone Conference on Thursday and it was SOOO GOOD! I love President and Hermana Sifuentes! We left the zone conference pumped to be missionaries and ready to serve!
• All of our lessons have been amazing! The spirit has been so strong and I am growing to love the people of Chicoloapan!

Spiritual Thought:

Recently I have felt like I have hit a plateau in speaking Spanish. My ability to understand it has increased every day, but my ability to speak has felt stagnant. I was praying about it and I was prompted to listen to a BYU devotional that I had listened to many times before called Wrestling with Comparisons. My initial response was that that devotional had nothing to do with speaking a different language. I asked "How could that talk help me at all". But the prompting felt persistent, so I decided to give it a try. In it I found an answer that I would like to share a part of the talk and my thought.

I remember well the insecurities I felt as a teenager with a bad case of acne. I tried to care for my skin properly. My parents helped me get medical attention. For years I even went without eating chocolate and all the greasy fast foods around which teens often socialize, but with no obvious healing consequences. It was difficult for me at that time to fully appreciate this body which was giving me so much grief. But my good mother taught me a higher law. Over and over she said to me, “You must do everything you can to make your appearance pleasing, but the minute you walk out the door, forget yourself and start concentrating on others.”

It hit me at that moment what I should do in order to improve. Well at home I need to focus as much as I can on improving my Spanish abilities. But the moment I walk out the door I say "This is the Spanish I have for today. There is nothing I can do to change that now. I need to forget myself and start concentrating on others. I may be made fun of today by people on the street or by people in teaching. But this part of the day is no longer about me". I know as I continue to do this my Spanish will continue to improve!

Second quick thought:

I was reading in 3 Nephi 26 this week and one verse really stuck out to me! It is verse 11 and it says "Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraved upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people." I just love that last part "I will try the faith of my people". Faith is such an interesting thing. It is obvious through reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon that it is a necessary and fundamental part of the plan of this life. There are times that the Lord will hold back knowledge in our lives. With all my heart I would love to have all knowledge of the gospel. But God asked me to have faith. A good friend of mine, Elder Rowen, shared that he embraces each mystery in his life. because it is through the mysteries in our life that we get to experience the joy of having faith in God and Jesus Christ.