June 1, 2015

hey guys,

so first of all, i got the package this week. the sour gummy worms were super mega great. they were even better because we didn’t have food, so i still had something to eat. (i actually did have money, but nobody else did, so we didn’t go to the store, but now we all have money again, so it’s all good) also we didn’t have light or water for a couple days because the electricity got cut and we didn’t have time to pay it. but luckily we are moving houses this week, so hopefully no more problems like this. we are moving for 2-3 reasons. 1. the rent is being raised. 2 me and elder gonzales are gunna go move apart from the secretaries, so were gunna move twice. also i'm gunna have transfers probably. president told me that i would probably have transfers this time, and after that i will train... president has spoiled the surprise of every single transfer i have had. but anyways, we were packing stuff all today, and so we are running a bit late

but anyways, not too much time, but 2 quick things. first of all i learned an important lesson this week, not really a missionary lesson, but a spanish lesson. short version: por and para are very important. long version: so we were out on exchanges and we were contacting and  worded one of the questions weird, i will explain it from my point of view first. "blah blah contact stuff... so these are your kids" "yeah." "oh, well what are your hopes for their future?" (he gets this really confused/disgusted look on his face) "...nothing" "...really, you don’t want anything for them?" ...now before i continue the conversation i will tell it from his point of view. "...so these are your kids?" "yeah" "well how much can i offer you for them?" "...nothing" "really, you wouldn’t sell them for anything?" at this point we realized what he thought and clarifies "oh, no, like, what are your dreams for them" "oooh..... i thought you were trying to buy them." so the moral of this story is learn por y para better when you study spanish and pay more attention to which you use. also missionaries should not buy children.

secondly we had an meeting with elder Arnold of the 70. i was ready for another nice meeting with a general authority... he planched us pretty hard (planchar means to iron but missionary slang its kinda like... chewed out? no not quite, but like be really direct) he did it with love so it was ok, but he helped us see the things that we can do better and how we can achieve more in this time. a lot of what he said reminded me of something i studied in d&c 3:1

 "1 The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught."

now something interesting about this section is that he is talking to joseph smith about the lost pages, it was Joseph's actions that  were not in line with the lords will. now if he did anything against God, he could not have stopped the restoration, he just wouldn’t have been the one to restore it. so basically the lord will do his work with or without us, we just have the opportunity to be the tools he uses, but if we are not doing what we need to, we are all replaceable. Basically, we can live in a way that we can be used to hasten the work, or we can get out of the way. i feel like hastening the work is a better option.

well that’s all for now, be good, love you guys.