Awesome.
I just wrote a really great email for about forty minutes to you all, and then lost it. <myldsmail needs some improvements. Anyway, the jist of if is this...
Hi! thanks so much for all your support and love, mom, dad and all. I appreciate your sacrifices and know you will be blessed. I really love DyC 31 where it talks about missionary work and blessings, specifically mentioning that the family will be okay. I know it´s true.
We had a baptism on Saturday! Liceth Leones, a 12 yo girl. She is very sweet and excited. She was sick on Sunday, and later said she also didn´t have money for a bus, so she wasn´t confirmed. Obviously we talked about that, and she will definitely be there next week. The spirit was really strong, and I talked with her grandmother afterwards about it, and the examples young people can be to us. She wants to be baptized, too, but like many needs to get married or separate. Seeing as her ´husband´hasnt´been around for 6 months, she´s going to talk to him about it, and seems fine with either option.
We went to ´the zoo´today, which here means we drove a couple hours to go out in the jungle and look for monkies. haha It was actually really cool and beautiful, even though I didn´t exactly see a monkey. I´ll have to send you some pictures sometime, though I know my photography will not do justice to the amazing wonders we saw.
The Gospel is true. The simple steps of faith in Christ, repentance, baptism by water and fire, and enduring to the end are the way to peace and happiness inthis life and a fullness of joy inthe world to come. Jesus is our Saviour and friend. His sacrifice has affects my life personally. Because of His love, support, and example, I want to improve. I am honored to carry His holy name and testify of Him each day. Remember that we have all made covenants to do such. Love you all!!
Hna Sue
Ecuabit: there´s little shops everywhere here. everyone (and pretty much their dog, too) has a little family shop. bananas and such will be really convenient and cheap always,but then there´s things like toilet paper that will cost a buck a roll. interesting, eh>?
Hi family!!
I just realized that the email I sent didn´t go through last week. Sorry! I´m alive and well!! I think I just sent it to the wrong address. Silly me.
How´s life up there on the north side? Wow, spell check in Spanish is really not liking my words here in Microsoft word. Haha, but it does recognize automatically that “Microsoft” should be captialized. It´s always hard to remember what´s happened in the past week to tell you things that I want to.
We had zone conference this week. It felt like we had some special meeting every day this week, what with the interviews with the President one day and training-talks the next. It was really a good experience. I really am grateful that, even though I don´t understand all that´s happening in conversations many times, I´m pretty good with getting the Gospel discussions and understanding the talks. I´m so grateful to the Lord, because I´ve definitely constantly needed His assistance. I think that if I didn’t understand the talks on Sunday and in the missionary meetings, I would go crazy without the Spiritual boost. Presidente Lara spoke to us about complete, exact obedience in all things and enduring to the end of a mission, working the whole time, for all of it is the Lord´s. Sister Lara spoke from the talk given by Elder Uchtdorf “On the Wings of Eagles”. I remember when he gave that talk at a BYU devotional, and then I remember reading it in the Ensign, so I feel like that is just the top Elder U talk. Sister Lara, of course, helped us apply it to missionary life specifically. She also told a story about an eagle living amongst and like chickens. It´s lifestyle was such that caretakers weren´t even sure which it was, chicken or eagle. With training out away from the environment of the chickens, it learned to fly again, and returned to it´s life as an eagle. It´s sad how we leave the life of privilege of soaring high in the skies to peck and scratch with the chickens and live like them. We really have been so blessed and need to live up to our knowledge and privileges. It´s very clear from down here how very blessed we are.
I´m so grateful to have the blessing of such a wonderful, faithful family. I have righteous, examples in siblings, parents, extended family, and friends. True it is that I have been given parents “kind and dear”. I´m grateful for the sure foundation our family has in the gospel of Jesus Christ, in it´s fullness. We talk about that a lot here. I´m so grateful for your examples that show me the importance of a temple marriage, of living the Gospel. It needs to be so much a part of our lives that we would be devastated without it. We as missionaries are to ¨preach my gospel by my Spirit”, as the Lord has commanded us. One challenge from Elder Holland to the missionaries is to make His Gospel also become so personal, so that it is so important and so internalized that we also feel to say ´my´ gospel individually. I´m so grateful for the Gospel. I love having time set aside to study the scriptures every morning. I know we need to be fed spiritually and physically each day. We can and will suffer malnutrition spiritually if we do not constantly nourish our testimonies, especially through fervent daily prayer and scripture STUDY (this implies prayer, meditation, application, etc.). How amazing it is that John and I (and thousands more) get to bear testimony, teach and invite others to come unto Christ every day. He is our Savior and the source of Light in life. Sometimes, this world that seems so dreary. Luckily, the darkness of the great apostacy was breached almost 200 years ago, and we know the reasons why we can truly be of good cheer. Christ did overcome the world. He did defeat death, spiritual and physical, and with Him, we can too. Because of the Restoration, we can use the Atonement of Christ in our lives everyday to do just that. I know it´s true. The blessings definitely are worth any sacrifices we must make, for we are always blessed so abundantly for obedience.
Mom, with regard to being one of the foolish virgins, you still have opportunity! Just be praying and open your mouth to share. It definitely doesn´t feel natural at the beginning, but there are probably people wondering what makes you have that special sparkling shine in your eyes, besides the fact that you´re just great like that. Everybody- YOU CAN DO IT! SHARE YOUR TESTIMONIES!! I know that the promise of the Lord that we will have His help is valid, even for non full-time missionaries.
By the way, I´m really excited that I took time to figure out how to make smileys down here, too. They didn´t really translate over to the email program, though. que triste
We didn´t have baptisms or a confirmation this week. Liceth did come, but not in time for the sacrament. Other people have desires, but they need to get out to church. Like John, there´s people sometimes that just don’t really want to ask of God if it´s true, because once they know, they´ll feel obligated to make changes in their lives, and they´re rather comfortable as is. Oh what greater opportunities and possibilities there are for us!!
Love you bunches!!
Hna Sue
Speaking of bunches, I had this dream that we were having a party at home (mom and dad…though it wasn´t really your actually house) and had lots of people there, including Sister Graham. I was supposed to let her know addresses or something before leaving, but never got around to it. We should do something to get in contact with her. Also, the weird thing that really made me remember the dream was that you had this awesome tree with grapes and bananas growing on it in your yard. Can you talk to an expert about what kind of tree that is, because I think it´d be really great. Hahaha
Ecuabit: With regard to driving and road norms, I just thought people were pretty rude and angry at first, because they are ALWAYS using their horns. Seriously, I can hear them pretty constantly right now, even. There´s even honking at pedestrians all the time from cars, buses, motorcycles, etc., as people cross or walk at the side of the street. Then I came to realize that in the US, there´s more of a “get out of my way” or “hey, you´re doing something really dumb” connotation (and once in a while to say hello to a friend), but here, it´s just to say, ¨”hey, I´m coming/right here, just so you know”. I´m not even sure if there are lines in the roads for lanes, either. You just need to drive and honk, anyway.
I just wrote a really great email for about forty minutes to you all, and then lost it. <myldsmail needs some improvements. Anyway, the jist of if is this...
Hi! thanks so much for all your support and love, mom, dad and all. I appreciate your sacrifices and know you will be blessed. I really love DyC 31 where it talks about missionary work and blessings, specifically mentioning that the family will be okay. I know it´s true.
We had a baptism on Saturday! Liceth Leones, a 12 yo girl. She is very sweet and excited. She was sick on Sunday, and later said she also didn´t have money for a bus, so she wasn´t confirmed. Obviously we talked about that, and she will definitely be there next week. The spirit was really strong, and I talked with her grandmother afterwards about it, and the examples young people can be to us. She wants to be baptized, too, but like many needs to get married or separate. Seeing as her ´husband´hasnt´been around for 6 months, she´s going to talk to him about it, and seems fine with either option.
We went to ´the zoo´today, which here means we drove a couple hours to go out in the jungle and look for monkies. haha It was actually really cool and beautiful, even though I didn´t exactly see a monkey. I´ll have to send you some pictures sometime, though I know my photography will not do justice to the amazing wonders we saw.
The Gospel is true. The simple steps of faith in Christ, repentance, baptism by water and fire, and enduring to the end are the way to peace and happiness inthis life and a fullness of joy inthe world to come. Jesus is our Saviour and friend. His sacrifice has affects my life personally. Because of His love, support, and example, I want to improve. I am honored to carry His holy name and testify of Him each day. Remember that we have all made covenants to do such. Love you all!!
Hna Sue
Ecuabit: there´s little shops everywhere here. everyone (and pretty much their dog, too) has a little family shop. bananas and such will be really convenient and cheap always,but then there´s things like toilet paper that will cost a buck a roll. interesting, eh>?
Hi family!!
I just realized that the email I sent didn´t go through last week. Sorry! I´m alive and well!! I think I just sent it to the wrong address. Silly me.
How´s life up there on the north side? Wow, spell check in Spanish is really not liking my words here in Microsoft word. Haha, but it does recognize automatically that “Microsoft” should be captialized. It´s always hard to remember what´s happened in the past week to tell you things that I want to.
We had zone conference this week. It felt like we had some special meeting every day this week, what with the interviews with the President one day and training-talks the next. It was really a good experience. I really am grateful that, even though I don´t understand all that´s happening in conversations many times, I´m pretty good with getting the Gospel discussions and understanding the talks. I´m so grateful to the Lord, because I´ve definitely constantly needed His assistance. I think that if I didn’t understand the talks on Sunday and in the missionary meetings, I would go crazy without the Spiritual boost. Presidente Lara spoke to us about complete, exact obedience in all things and enduring to the end of a mission, working the whole time, for all of it is the Lord´s. Sister Lara spoke from the talk given by Elder Uchtdorf “On the Wings of Eagles”. I remember when he gave that talk at a BYU devotional, and then I remember reading it in the Ensign, so I feel like that is just the top Elder U talk. Sister Lara, of course, helped us apply it to missionary life specifically. She also told a story about an eagle living amongst and like chickens. It´s lifestyle was such that caretakers weren´t even sure which it was, chicken or eagle. With training out away from the environment of the chickens, it learned to fly again, and returned to it´s life as an eagle. It´s sad how we leave the life of privilege of soaring high in the skies to peck and scratch with the chickens and live like them. We really have been so blessed and need to live up to our knowledge and privileges. It´s very clear from down here how very blessed we are.
I´m so grateful to have the blessing of such a wonderful, faithful family. I have righteous, examples in siblings, parents, extended family, and friends. True it is that I have been given parents “kind and dear”. I´m grateful for the sure foundation our family has in the gospel of Jesus Christ, in it´s fullness. We talk about that a lot here. I´m so grateful for your examples that show me the importance of a temple marriage, of living the Gospel. It needs to be so much a part of our lives that we would be devastated without it. We as missionaries are to ¨preach my gospel by my Spirit”, as the Lord has commanded us. One challenge from Elder Holland to the missionaries is to make His Gospel also become so personal, so that it is so important and so internalized that we also feel to say ´my´ gospel individually. I´m so grateful for the Gospel. I love having time set aside to study the scriptures every morning. I know we need to be fed spiritually and physically each day. We can and will suffer malnutrition spiritually if we do not constantly nourish our testimonies, especially through fervent daily prayer and scripture STUDY (this implies prayer, meditation, application, etc.). How amazing it is that John and I (and thousands more) get to bear testimony, teach and invite others to come unto Christ every day. He is our Savior and the source of Light in life. Sometimes, this world that seems so dreary. Luckily, the darkness of the great apostacy was breached almost 200 years ago, and we know the reasons why we can truly be of good cheer. Christ did overcome the world. He did defeat death, spiritual and physical, and with Him, we can too. Because of the Restoration, we can use the Atonement of Christ in our lives everyday to do just that. I know it´s true. The blessings definitely are worth any sacrifices we must make, for we are always blessed so abundantly for obedience.
Mom, with regard to being one of the foolish virgins, you still have opportunity! Just be praying and open your mouth to share. It definitely doesn´t feel natural at the beginning, but there are probably people wondering what makes you have that special sparkling shine in your eyes, besides the fact that you´re just great like that. Everybody- YOU CAN DO IT! SHARE YOUR TESTIMONIES!! I know that the promise of the Lord that we will have His help is valid, even for non full-time missionaries.
By the way, I´m really excited that I took time to figure out how to make smileys down here, too. They didn´t really translate over to the email program, though. que triste
We didn´t have baptisms or a confirmation this week. Liceth did come, but not in time for the sacrament. Other people have desires, but they need to get out to church. Like John, there´s people sometimes that just don’t really want to ask of God if it´s true, because once they know, they´ll feel obligated to make changes in their lives, and they´re rather comfortable as is. Oh what greater opportunities and possibilities there are for us!!
Love you bunches!!
Hna Sue
Speaking of bunches, I had this dream that we were having a party at home (mom and dad…though it wasn´t really your actually house) and had lots of people there, including Sister Graham. I was supposed to let her know addresses or something before leaving, but never got around to it. We should do something to get in contact with her. Also, the weird thing that really made me remember the dream was that you had this awesome tree with grapes and bananas growing on it in your yard. Can you talk to an expert about what kind of tree that is, because I think it´d be really great. Hahaha
Ecuabit: With regard to driving and road norms, I just thought people were pretty rude and angry at first, because they are ALWAYS using their horns. Seriously, I can hear them pretty constantly right now, even. There´s even honking at pedestrians all the time from cars, buses, motorcycles, etc., as people cross or walk at the side of the street. Then I came to realize that in the US, there´s more of a “get out of my way” or “hey, you´re doing something really dumb” connotation (and once in a while to say hello to a friend), but here, it´s just to say, ¨”hey, I´m coming/right here, just so you know”. I´m not even sure if there are lines in the roads for lanes, either. You just need to drive and honk, anyway.
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