Week 49

 This week I met Elder Stevenson! He came and spoke to our mission and it was the first time that our entire mission was all together. It was super awesome to be in the presence of an apostle and hear him speak. He spoke about how everything that happens in the church is based on Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone and we should do everything for him. When he testified of Jesus he said, “I give my sure testimony of Jesus Christ and that he lives”. At this moment the Spirit hit me like a brick wall. Really Jesus does exist and everything that the apostles and prophets say is true. He is waiting for us to come to him with 100% trust. 

His wife spoke about how we need to give our all. She said “If you feel like you haven’t worked hard enough, just start now.” The same goes for us in our normal life. If we feel like we haven’t done enough, or we aren’t doing exactly what we should be doing, we can start now, make changes now, today. Elder Costa shared how everyone here in Chile has heard about Jesus, but what we need to preach about is the restored gospel. He shared his experience about how he gained a testimony of the restored gospel, and it was through the Book of Mormon. The missionaries that were teaching him invited him to read the Book of Mormon out loud. And he said that made all the difference and he could feel the spirit testifying that it was true. 

In my personal studies I found a talk that spoke about how we can strengthen our relationship with God and Christ daily. 1. Commit ourselves everyday at the beginning of the day to emulate the savior’s life 2. have an organized study program 3. Pray Daily 4. Daily service 5. Fasting regularly. If we can do these things often, we will begin to develope a relationship more profound with him. 

We did service as a zone this week and we went to an abandoned factory where they had stored hundreds of bags full of bottle lids. And these big sacks had been sitting there for years and had basically disintegrated so we got to put the bottle lids in new bags. And it was kind of crazy being in a big old fashioned factory. There was even abandoned furniture and an abandoned car. But it was super fun! 

This week we helped Yostin realize the importance of baptism and now he's super excited to get baptized. He has a heart of gold. Their family doesn’t have much and he works, takes care of his mom, and goes to college. And he still makes time to read and listen to us and go to church. Really I’ve realized being here the sacrifices people make to come to church. And I’m so grateful that I have been raised in a home where church and Jesus is a part of my life. Really I feel super blessed to know why I am here and what I need to do here. But I love that God has given us the chance to choose how we can become a true disciple. I am learning here everyday who I want to become. What I want to do when I get back so I can give everything to my Savior. And everyday here I have the chance to choose who I want to be. And it's actually the same for every day of our lives. Everyday is a new day to choose to follow Christ. Jesus really is real. He really loves you. He is proud of what you have done so far and is excited to see what you’ll become if you just trust in him a little bit more. I believe a lot in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. When we really give our hearts to him, he forgives us of what we’ve done. I also love reading the scriptures. I know that they are inspired and they can give us the guidance that we need. Like the prophet has said, daily study in the scriptures can change everything. I wish I could just read the scriptures all day long, but that isn’t the point of them. The point is that we can apply what we learn.

I feel like my thoughts are scattered everywhere but what it all comes down to is that Jesus loves every single one of us! And thanks to him we can change and become better. We just need to trust in him. He really resurrected and lives today! 

He loves you and I do too!