Ok, it's not that dramatic but
seriously.
So on Tuesday we got to watch Meet
the Mormons!! It was awesome and it made me kind of miss being in America but
that's ok. I love Mexico, too. It was awesome because President and Sister
Kusch came down to Iguala to watch it with us and we got to bring
treats...almost like in the movie theater...except not really. But really, I
liked it a lot and I am excited that it is here in Mexico. I hope that a lot of
people go and see it and realize that we are not as weird as they think we are.
Only just a little bit.
Before the movie started, I was
talking to one of the sisters in my zone and President asked if he could talk
to me. He said, 'How would you feel about training another new missionary?' and
I asked him, 'When? Next change?' and he said, 'No...next week!' What? There is
a new American sister coming in early because apparently she is advanced in her
Spanish and so she is coming in the middle of the change. I kind of smiled and
said, 'If you want me to do it, I will be happy to.' haha. I am not a huge fan
of trios but I am also looking forward to having another new missionary. I have
enjoyed training my companion right now and think it will be a challenge since
I am sure she isn't totally fluent in Spanish yet, but it will be really good
for all three of us. It will only be for the next 4 weeks because we are 2
weeks into this change and then I will finish the training with just her.
SO that is why I am writing right
now, because we are going to Cuernavaca this afternoon to get her and bring her
to her new home here in Iguala! haha. Pobrecita, she gets to experience the
hills and the HEAT that is starting to get really unbearable, but it'll be good
for her! :)
This week was a good week. Pretty
normal, nothing exciting really happened, besides what I just wrote. We are
working hard on helping our investigators progress and helping the members here
strengthen their testimonies.
We are still working with Luis. He
hasn't smoked for a whole week! We were so excited to hear that. But he still
doesn't have a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this is the
only true church. We taught him the restoration lesson again and committed him
to pray specifically about what we taught him. We are hoping that he receives
his answer soon!
We have a new Relief Society
President in our ward and she is really worried about the lack of visiting
teaching that is happening (or not happening) in the ward. She gave a good
lesson about why we do visiting teaching, and I have been thinking about the
'why' of the gospel lately and I had a thought that really helped me understand
why we do all we do here in the church.
Do you think that the Lord asks us
to keep certain commandments or have certain callings just to help us in this
life? I was reading about the millennium in the Gospel Principles book and it
says that during the millennium we will still be involved in doing the work of
salvation, specifically the work in the temple and missionary work.
Interesting. So then I started to think, if we are going to be doing this work
during the millennium, then we need to learn how to do it now. I don't want to
be unuseful during that time.
But even more than that, we do all
that we do in the church so that we can become more like our Father in Heaven
and one day be able to live with him again. Do you really think that we will
feel comfortable in his presence if we aren't doing all that we can now to help
build up the kingdom of Heaven? He has given us this time to prepare us...for
what? For eternal life. And what happens when we have a test and we don't do
all that we can to study and prepare for it? We don't pass...or we don't score
as high as we could have.
My companion uses an example to
teach the 3 degrees of glory that I really like. She compares each degree of
glory to a medal...gold, silver, or bronze. And she uses this question...does a
coach of an olympic athlete train his athlete to win the silver or bronze?
Obviously not! He trains his athlete so that he will be able to win the gold.
He gives him all the practices and training so that he will have the skills
necessary to win the gold. Just like the coach, our Heavenly Father has given
us EVERYTHING we need in order to win the gold...or live in the celestial kingdom
with Him and with our families. These things are the prophets, the scriptures,
family history, the sacrament, prayer, all the programs and activities in the
church and so many other things. And above all, He gave us His son, Jesus
Christ, to make up the difference when we fall short. But if we don't put in
our effort, we won't be prepared to live with Him. And it won't be because He
doesn't love us or want us to be with Him, it will be because we don't feel
comfortable to be in His presence. We didn't prepare ourselves.
The things that are required of us
in the church shouldn't be an option to do when we have time. Because I will
tell you now, you will never 'have time' if you don't make the time. We
shouldn't form the church to our lives, but form our lives to the church. Why?
Because it was formed by our Savior and He is the only way to make it back to
live with our Heavenly Father.
We aren't perfect. Thank goodness
for repentance! We won't be able to do everything like we should or want to do,
but if we do our best and listen to the counsel of the prophets, we will be
prepared. We will be happy in this life and in the life to come. Our Savior
will make up the difference and plead our case because we have tried our best
to follow Him.
I love you all so much. Thank you
for your love and support and prayers.
Love you so much!
Love,
Hermana Durham
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