Grinding El Libro de Mormon

 Hello EVERYONE! In honor of Thanksgiving being this week I want to thank all of you for the influence you have had on my life! I am so thankful for every single one of you!

This week was truly a beautiful week! It was also a really sad week due to it being my last week with my dear friend and companion Elder Bretey. The President of the mission President Sifuentes informed both of us in our interviews on Tuesday that he would be splitting us up (Which is highly unusual...pero nemodo) It led to me being really focused though this week and taking in everything I could from Elder Bretey. This led to a really successful and amazing week! These were some of the highlights!

-NO DIVISIONS/SPLITS! President Sifuentes asks all the District leaders to go on 2 or more divisions every week. Elder Bretey being the obedient missionary he is desided to do 3 basically every week. But in our interviews this week he thanked Elder Bretey for doing the divisions and then asked him asked him to stay with me the whole week! It was awesome getting to just work in our area together for the whole week!

-Thanksgiving! There is not very much American food here but there is Little Caesers. So after giving a day of thanks Elder Bretey and I had a "Thanksgiving Dinner" of Little Caesar Pizzas haha.

-We had a meeting for everybody who was in their training called "6 y 12 semanas". These are so much fun! Always fun seeing everybody who you came into the mission with and practicing important missionary and life skills!

-People figuring out that we are happy, funny, and normal people! We had three people who we talked to this week (who were family members or friends of people who we have been teaching) start talking to us about the gospel. All three of them said basically the exact same thing after we talked with them, "You guys are so much fun and really happy people! I thought you guys were going to be really strict and make me feel terrible, but you guys just want me to be happy!". So it is always nice when people realize we are not like FBI agent robots trying to reck their life.

-One of the people who I am referring to above was the mom of one of our investigators Stefanie. We felt a prompting to go to Stefanie's house (we had a lesson in 20 minutes with a different investigator, but when the Spirit tells you to do something JUST DO IT!)  So we knocked on the door and so we just shared how we are willing to help her in any way. As we were sharing this short message, the mom was walking with some groceries(She definitely was trying to avoid talking to us though). We said high to her and she kind of paused giving us enough time to ask if we could help carry her groceries in. So we took the opportunity and started talking to her. We started making her laugh and then she invited us in for a drink. It was an amazing time and then she invited us to have dinner on Sunday. LET ME SAY SHE IS AN AMAZING COOK! Holy moly it was so good! We had a really good conversation afterwards and she wants to know more about the gospel! So more of the story just have a smile on your face and let them know you are there to help them meet their goals!  

Short Funny Story:

In my interview my President was impressed with how my accent and pronunciation was while reading a verse in the Book of Mormon in Spanish. I told my President that I had been reading El Libro de Mormon out loud almost everyday while my companion corrected every pronunciation error and that I PLANNED on finishing reading El Libro De Mormon out loud by the end of the transfer. When I told my President this he assumed, because I was telling him this with one week left, that I was near the end. This assumption was quite wrong because in fact I was only half way through the Book of Mormon in Alma 34. President Sifuentes went on to tell every single missionary what I was doing and that I was GOING(big difference between going and planning) to finish the Book of Mormon this transfer. He shared it in a mission meeting, in everybody's interviews, and in every possible interaction he had with people. The pressure was on everybody knew what I was doing and asking me about it. I had no other choice then to finish the second half of the Book of Mormon in 5 days. So from that day on I woke up at 5 and read for 2 hours as my companion corrected every single mistake I was making (no matter how small) and then I read for an hour during language study and an hour during night. I have lived and breathed El Libro de Mormon this week and I am proud to say I am now done with reading it! For all missionaries who are speaking a different language I highly recommend doing this! My understanding of Spanish and my pronunciation has grown so much through reading the Book of Mormon.

Spiritual thought:

In my 6 to 12 weeks meeting I talked with one of my dear friends Elder Thaxton. He shared something that I really loved. We were talking about how to more effectively share gospel and he started out but inviting me to always be pondering the words of God(scriptures) while listening to an investigator or a friend or anything. He said when we are listening to people we should always be thinking about what scripture could help them? What scripture could bring them joy? because the scriptures are made to make our life more joyful! He told me that being effective at this way of sharing the gospel we need to learn three things. 1. Get a good enough knowledge of scriptures that the Holy Ghost can use this knowledge to help others and can testify to you when to share them. I like to imagine this principal like having a large vocabulary. Scriptures are like how many words you know. If you only know one word, you do not really have any ability to communicate an idea to someone. But, it is still possible to bring someone joy through one word like "Hello!". But it is a lot easier to communicate with someone and bring them joy when you have a large vocabulary. Likewise, it is far easier to communicate and bring people joy when you have an arsenal of scriptures to share. 2. LISTEN! With all your heart listen to the words coming out of their mouth. It should be your primary goal to focus on the person talking. 3. Elder Thaxton then said to me "1 and 2 are not important if you do not do number 3. Number three is when you feel an impression to share something, JUST SHARE IT!". When a scripture comes to your head in a lesson just share it! When a spiritual thought comes to your head just share it! Elder Thaxton further shared "Satan is not going to put uplifting stories or scriptures into your head! So if Satan is not putting them into your head, who is? The Holy Ghost". I loved this idea! So I invite you next time you feel like you should share a good thought or scripture with someone JUST DO IT! That thought is coming from the Holy Ghost!

A scripture that I love that goes with this thought is Doctrine and Covenants 84:85 "Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say(Do not be thinking of your next thought! Just actively listen!); but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life(Scriptures or Spiritual Stories), and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man." When you fill your mind with scriptures and positive thoughts and then you listen with love to the person talking to you, I PROMISE  the Lord will fill your mouth with the scriptures and thoughts you need to share!