A Light Lesson

This week has been really busy. I honestly can not explain all of the things we do because it is a lot and some things are really random. We really run around a lot of the city and some nights we have to stay up a little later working on speacial projects or have our sleep interrupted to go pick someone up at a train station then go back to sleep.  It is a very hectic and busy enviroment in the offices. Just like the streets of Montevideo. It is funny to be literally praying for your life everytime we get out on the intense streets, and cutting and being cut off by people while of course listening to the Morman Tabernacle Choir....it is really funny.

Anyway with the enivorment I am really learning that well sometimes we just need to take a break and enjoy the moment for survival from stress and well just to enjoy and be happy. Alway sneed to be postive and look for the light at the end of the tunnel.

One of these moments of peace in our crazy week was attending the confrence for all of the zone leaders and going to the temple. We did not get to stay for all the confrence but our president talked about the light. It was really Intresting. Before I give his notes on it I want to tell a story that came to my mind while he was talking about this.

It reminded me a couple weeks later in my other area in a lesson that I had. In this lesson the man asked why we have suffering and bad things happen in the good people and what is bad and evil. We talked about the plan of Salvation but failed and luckily we came back and talked about him with the bishop who had served a mission and talked about how darkness like light is just the abscence of light, and eveil is the abscence of good.

Now with that thinking what is light? Well we find out answer in 3 Nephi Chapter 15

9 Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him thatendureth to the end will I give eternal life.

 10 Behold, I have given unto you the commandments; therefore keep my commandments. And this is the law and the prophets, for they truly testified of me.

 11 And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he said unto those twelve whom he had chosen:

 12 Ye are my disciples; and ye are a light unto this people, who are a remnant of the house of Joseph.

I thought that was really intresting then. President Smith talked to us about how we are all called to be an example and share the light of Christ with all for this we go to 3 Nephi Chapter 12

 14 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be the light of this people. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

 15 Behold, do men light a candle and put it under a bushel? Nay, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light to all that are in the house;

 I really liked this and it has been really intresting. It also reminded me of this video from David A. Bednar  Patterns of Light  http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1737858984001

Anyway sadly I do not have speakers on my computer so I can not comment more about the video but I hope you enjoy this light lesson and leaned something like I did it was really intresting.

To all of my friends, family, and anyone who just happens to read this I invite you to share your light and let it shine.

Welcome to the Office

Currently I just got changed to Montevideo and it has been really fun so far. I am in the offices where we help a lot with the finances is the part I am over. I am Financer 2 so right now I just work on small projects mainly making sure rent, water, and light are all paid for the houses, and missionaries get all of the recipts they need reimburst done. In other words I also deal with a lot of frustrated landlords, realesteate agents, and missionaries about money. Our phone goes of all day. There are also a lot of bigger projects that we do such as proposals for president and keeping him informed about the finances of the mission. I have only been here for a week and it is crazy.

We do have a car and I will be getting a liscence here and driving in the next few weeks which will be fun. It will be like playing mario cart but in real life.  I have really gotten to see the mission from another side and it is amazing as missionaries especially who are in the field the whole time...we still go out every night and teach, but anyway we are really well taken care of and blessed it is amazing all of the work that goes behind a missionary and making sure changes work and have all the materials they need so they can focus on the work.

I tis also a lot less sleep. Fortunatly I missed the audit, but we have had to go pick up mini mission or people preparing to leave on missions who go out with missionaries for 6 weeks at the bus station at 3 in the morning 2 days but that should stop until changes in 6 weeks.

A Note From the Confrence

We had a really good confrence and we learned a lot. I wanted to make sure I shared part of what Elder Robins the Seventy that talked to us shared. He started of by asking if we could be converted and feel the spirit with all 5 phiscal senses.  He then went on and read several scriptures how Laman and Lemuel had spiritual experinces with basically all of the sense but still did not have a testimony.

We then went to Alama when he is talking about his conversion and how he knows these things. I don't have the chapter or refrence by me so I will put it in a comment later but in this part he said nothing about seeing an angel, and said it was through praying, fasting, and thourgh the holy ghost that he recieved his testimony.

It was a really cool story. He also shared a part about excuses and going to church in Lucas 14 and it was really intresting because we have a lot of people who don't go to church when they say the will. I never knew about this scripture but it is just really blunt about our excuses and how imporant the sacremant is.

Our Time to Prepare

This Sunday was a really good sunday and a huge eye opener for me. Last minute I was asked to teach priesthood. The lesson went well, but was really hard becasue I didn't know have of the words. It was also a topic I wasn't the most famliar with either. I had known what the lesson would be and this week we had not had suffcient time to do all of our langugae studies.

Next right before sacrement meeting I was asked to hurry play something on the piano while people were coming in and play the other songs. The bishop was under the impresson I could play because he heard me play a song I had memorized all the years back when I played the piano. Luckly I just played the right and for people to sit down, and the other songs well we sang acopella. Sometimes the singing here isn't the most in tune with the piano but without it was a little more like yelling.  At this time I can say I looked back wish I would have been prepared more for this moment. I have been practicing for a month in case something like this happened but I am still not able to play any hymns that way.

Durint the Sacrement we realized the person who was going to give us lunch this fast sunday was not there, and we would not have lunch. We did a lot of work but eventually found a family who is in a very humble situation who shared with us which was amazing, but before we had found lunch we thought we could just eat at the house. Unfortunatly they had ate the emergency food the change before I arrivied so we were caught unprepared if we couldn't find anyone.

In the end I really thought a lot about how we need to be preparing for time of oppertunity, and time of crisis.  In the end it reminded me of Alma 34 verse 32 to 34 which takes about how our life is a time to prepare to meet God and we can't wait till the last minute.  In the end it was a really good experince.

A Week of Last Minute

This week not a lot really happened.  My companion has had some healthy problems and has had to stay in the house for the week. Fortunately for a majority of the day he would stay with a member and I would try to leave with other members.

This also happened to be the week where we would be going to parts of the area I have never been or even really knew how to get to, or find people that he knew that I didn´t. This made it really hard but in the end it all worked out.

One things that was really hard working with members is when really a problem with working with anyone is when they say they can help but then they can´t, and don´t let you know until you are already there waiting form them. Being where we have to be with each other or a member made this really difficult when this happened and it happened a lot, this would usually happen after we had called everyone in the ward who could leave with us.

Reminded me of a scripture of how the Lord never took the burdens away from the children of Isreal but made there burdens light. This week was really hard but something always happened and I would leave with the other elders and they luckily wouldjn´t have plans so they could accompany to a reference we found which was really good. Sadly it is very far and we weren´t able to follow up with her after to invite her to church again after giving her a baptisimal date so sadly she lost that date and we will have to give her a new baptisimal date.

Another good experince was last minute a Hermano dropped everything to help and this was the last day of the week a week of no success and we basically were just going contacting but went to visit some people who usually aren´t there and we had good lessons and it was great to have him there because he actually knew them and we had amazing lessons.

In the end sometimes we have to do somethings that are difficult and it might seem till we have no other option but if we keep the faith something will appear at the last minute.

Have a good week. we hare having a double mission confrence this week and hopefully will have a lot more to say where I will be working with my companion again this week.

Love you all

Living in a screen

This week has been really busy. I have thought a lot about sharing the gospel online in word council they talked about a facebook group they are using. I am talking a lot with president about using social media for missionaries.  We have one investigator who well it is just hard to teach her because she is always on her phone on facebook.

It reminded me of someone I was talking about in the communcation department at Dixie and how people these days are always on Facebook and if they aren´t they are on the phone. He even gave an example how when people go to concerts first thing they usually do is pull out the phones and watch the concert through the phone while they are recording rather than living in the moment.

There was an article on lds.org about internet safety and it said two things I thought were really intresting is first using the technology for good, and sharing the gospel. The second was to unplug.

I can honestly say in an hour and half I am amazed at what I get done and only using the computer once a week it has been really nice. I can say yes I will love to use my facebook when I get back and it really can help the work here but at the sametime it dosen´t need to control our lives.

This is one of the hardest parts about teaching people here because it even if they are really poor they still have a TV or Facebook. This week has been a lot about alignign our priorities. I have also noticed how much of a distraction it is. If a TV is on it is amazing how long we are at a house if we aren´t careful.  I guess with this I want to give 2 challanges first make a mormon.org. and second someitme in the next couple of weeks take an unplug day turn of facebook on the smartphone or even leave it off for a while and not watch tv and go spend time out doors or something with the family or even reading the scriptures if you haven´t done that for a while. Remember to live life and not live in a screen. It is amazing how even in a country here in Uruguay where there are tons of poverty and problems how much people still live in a screen.

Have a good week everyone,