Abril 27

Buenos dias, familia mia~

First off, your emails were... hilarious.
But I'm going to talk about MY week for a minute... :)

WOW.
I can't really describe the things I learned this week. As I'm sure you all have found out, the truths the Lord communicates to you through the "unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost" are extremely hard to articulate accurately. Once again we learn how sight and sound are simply not the best way of conveying things, but through the heart. But I'll do my best to describe them. :)
I've been learning and practicing opening my heart when someone speaks. I mean really opening my heart to what they're saying. We're so used to picking and choosing what we think is worth listening to and what automatically connects to us that we almost never truly hear what people are saying. From practicing this--having faith in people and having faith in the Spirit teaching me--I have been able to glean a goldmine of truth. Not that I've hit some sort of jackpot or that I'm perfect at listening and understanding--definitely not. But church and lessons and conversations are never boring or empty anymore. And in fact when my heart is open and "spongy" if you will, that's the only type of soil the Spirit is even able to work with. And boy, He does! Once again, as I've said in past emails, I know that getting out of the Spirit's way and letting Him do His job is SO important. It's so difficult for us because frankly, we're dense, but when we really yield..... it makes all the difference. Like it says in Helaman 3:35, sanctification cometh from yielding our hearts to God. And that leads me to another thing I learned or had reinforced. That yielding is exhausting. It's SO hard--really, truly yielding or giving ourselves up to Him. Because it's forever. You are never the same afterward. It's when you start to ascend the mountain, if you will. Speaking of Elder Holland's description of the mountain of discipleship and how it gets steeper and steeper. John the Baptist felt this when he said, "He must increase, but I must decrease." I have to rely more and more on the Atonement as I keep hiking. It gets steeper, but also I realize much more now how much I need the Atonement in every action. But one of the instances that taught me this was on Saturday when we did some practices at the VC. When the sister was role-playing (or real-playing), and I had to rely solely upon the prompting of the Holy Ghost to discern her needs (because heaven knows I didn't know them, only He did), I realized it takes ALL of my concentration and focus to teach and invite by the Spirit. And it's exhausting. ( but not nearly as exhausting as Joseph Smith's experiences... ;) )

We've been learning how to become master teachers. And master planners. Ugh, I hate that I literally do not have the capacity of telling you all what this means or how master planners plan and how master teachers teach. But I encourage you to go to the scriptures and really study how Jesus taught and how the prophets in the Book of Mormon taught and preached. And invite the Holy Ghost.

So how did the looking for someone to invite to FHE go? Did anyone even do it?
Mom, I loved your comments about loving the people before you preach to them. What a mandatory lesson we all have to learn! And how we can't have the Spirit with us unless we love people.

A VERY brief overview of the week:
We went to Liberty Jail and Far West and Adam ondi-Ahman and the KC temple site on Friday and got our own history tour! SO neat!
On Easter Sunday we found an Iraqi family that is extremely nice and wants us to come back with Arabic pamphlets and Book of Mormon. The oldest daughter translates for the Mom. They're amazing and we're very excited to go back!
We're doing our best to ensure H's well-being within the Church. He does have friends, he is well on his way to receiving a calling and the Priesthood, going to the temple, receiving a Patriarchal Blessing and we've taught him how to be nourished by the good word of God. (but a lot of that is learned privately)
We had a training meeting yesterday on the 8 Lessons (further training on PMG that the Brethren deemed necessary), which was.... perfect.

Well, I'm most assuredly out of time and I love you all so very much.
And I hope you'll take the challenges or invitations I sent. I sent them because I love you.

Tengan cuidado


P.S. I LOVE my companion!!!