Week 54 - San Rafael

Well hello hello! It's already been a week?

What happened this week? Well we had some pretty darn awesome lessons. We had two with Jairo this week! WHAT! We went deep into the restoration and the plan of salvation and it was so awesome. Jairo also brought his brother with him to hear the message that we are sharing, we gave him a Book of Mormon and dove into the deep end of teaching with him. We also taught one of the Elders investigators the restoration and everyone bore powerful testimony!

Today I read a talk called The Perfect Lie and you should all go read it because it is legit awesome!! It talked about Satans perfect lie, which is to be more Christ like we need to do more, be more, have more, or work more. He lives by the equation me+more=Christlike. He makes us think we are never good enough and when we are focusing on that we are never able to remember that the saviors grace is sufficient for all. What we need to realize is that in reality the equation is me+Christ=more. When we stop chasing perfection and we chase Christ instead our world will change and our progress will explode.

I invite you all to always ALWAYS bear your testimony. It is such a powerful thing you have and the people around you deserve to hear what you have in your heart, they don't feel the happiness you have.

The spirit very much worked through me this week and it was amazing to see. I've come to appreciate the spirit on a huge level. The gift of tongues is so real there were lessons this week that things just flowed from me and while they did I sat and thought wow I'm very much not doing this on my own.

And then to take it a step farther the perfect things were said in the lessons by my companion and I as well as the Spanish elders. It is SO true that if the spirit isn't with us nothing will ever be accomplished. 

I did also go on exchanges with Sister Gardner who is probably the cutest and sweetest person ever. She was going to college for music before her mission too so we talked for quite a while about that. We also did an insane service helping someone move two storage units into one.... on a different floor. It was an adventure that we were told wasn't going to take too long, that was false but we got to Tetris boxes into a storage unit so somewhat fun.

Sister Gardner taught me how the spirit is really very sensitive to our surroundings. It can't be with us in a hectic atmosphere so we really need to be careful what we watch and listen to. I love her and was thankful to get to be with her for a little bit.

And then to finish off the week we got to have an amazing zone conference where I learned many things! I also sang at the meeting with Elder Field, a mash up of come thou fount of every blessings and if you could hie to kolob and it was probably one of my favorite performances. The spirit was so strong and singing again was so fantastic. That was definitely one for the books.

I learned so many things but there were a few things I wanted to just slip in here. The first is that the greatest human condition there is to exist is a condition where the spirit is present and that the worst is one where the spirit is gone.

Second is that there needs to be more of an emphasis in the work of the Lord. Missionaries are in the world to help the members not the other way around. The work of the lord is hastening and the second coming is on its way and we do need to prepare ourselves and we have to keep the covenants we have made and be in the world finding those who need this gospel.

And finally something I loved was when we talked about Peter. Being a missionary can be hard but what great examples we have. Peter went and preached, helped, and served the very people that crucified and tortured his Lord and our Savior. How many Christ like attributes he must have had to not think about himself, to not judge or be angry at those who had committed this act. How much love he must have had for Christ to put himself behind him and go to give what he loved to those who would end up rejecting him anyway. I love being a missionary and we are all missionaries and we need to work together now to BEGIN harvesting the field that is so white and ready to harvest.

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and support it is felt, I hope your week was great and I hope this week you can share your testimony with 2 people!!

Love you all!

Cuídense 

Hermana Foster 

Hermana Lewis who returned home and came back to visit!