Who We Teach and Why

 In this post you are not just going to find pictures that look like we are having tons of fun but a family that was really fun.  The family below is a family that were recent converts when I got to the area. They are one of the strongest famlies I have seen in the gospel. 

Hermana Otonelli is a recent convert, She was found by missionaries knocking doors. The missionaries past her house several times and were about to give up on her when she let them in and they found her and her three daughters two which are twins and the other in the picture below in the purple sweater. The one in the pink is actually thier cousin. Anyway with time they all accpted the invitation to be baptized including her husband who was sadly out of town when we took picures.

They are very faithful, and you can see that the gospel has changed their life. I don´t believe they had tons of problems before they were baptized becasue they are an amazing family but you can tell they went from content to a joy beyond all measure.  Hermana Otoneli reguarly gave us amazing food, but also would leave with us and has given us many refrences of her huge family that at the point when I left were just starting to meet with the missionaries.

One really cool thing, that Elder Call and Elder Muller did while teaching them was give them the challange of Elder Ballard and invite a friend or make a new friend and invite them to meet with the missionareis every three months. Every member in this family has beein doing that. I really liked how Elder Call explained it to them. That they willl have a new friend in the gospel or they will just have a new friend. Currently they are working with there family members and as you can see their cousin is enjoying the time with us just as much as we are enjoying the time with them.

 

Through the mission we have the oppertunity to talk to many wonderful people, and famlies like the family Otonelli. In some cases like them we have seen content families obtain more happiness, and some families who have had hard times come to this truth. In the end yes what we teach is important because the message of God and it is true, but just as important is the message is they why. We are teaching our brothers and sisters and so they can enjoy of the same blessings that we recieve. We are not teaching just to have more members in our church we are teaching and helping our brothers and sisters. If everyone in the world thought this way the world would be a whole diffrent place.

In the end I just had to put this picture of another family we taught in Dolores they are not members but are on the road to be members the last I heard they were progressing and I am hoping within the next few weeks they will be baptized. Best part is the little girl Mataina already told us she believes the Book of Mormon is true. Looking over this post the words can´t even describe the moments I spent with these famlies, and just seeing how the gospel can make a family happier even if they already thought they were happy.

In the end I invite you all to take on Elder Ballards challange and in the next three months find a friend you already have or make a new one and in 3 months the worst thing that can happen is you will have a new friend, but even better you will have a new friend that is enjoying the gospel.

The Importance of Feedback

If you look in a Preach Gospel you will see in Chapter 8 about planning if you go through the steps the last step I do not know what you would call it in English but here we call it Paso Trece. In this step is where we talk about difficulties we are having with the other, things we need to do better, and so forth. We had a training on this chapter in planning from Preach my Gospel and President Smith taught us a method to give this feed back. This is how it is translated.

What I most value about....(Your work, efforts, the way you teach, etc.)
What I think you can do more efficient is.....

When President taught us this he taught us not only how important it is to give and recieve feedback. This has really changed the mission and has really helped me and companions get a long better and resolve problems and help us be a lot more effective. This week we have had a lot of these some more intense than others, but It has really helped out and this last week has led us to be way effective in the offices and in the field. We have given two of our investigators baptismal dates! It has been great feeling, but it has been a trial of our faith and work. It is really an answer to our prayers. I can really testify that prayers coupled with obedience, faith, and of course trials of faith well prepare us for the moments God has set up for us to suceed.

This week has been a huge turn around becasue of the feedback. Because of our contact with finances we have been blessed to have meeting with President Smith everyonce and a while and some times getting feedback from him can be a very humbling experince, but the feedback has blessed our companionship, our area, the lives of the people we are teaching, and has impacted me and made me a better person.

I would just like to conclude this blog post asking for your feedback about the blog I am writing and things you like about it, and things you would like to see or how I can improve it.  Please post your feedback for me in the comments so I can see that and tomrrow when I get on for Pday can apply your feedback for me. Hope you all are doing well and enjoying your day!

Being a Perfectionist vs Becoming Perfect in Christ

 I have been thinking a lot about doing my best lately. The constant debate in my mind has always been either I did not do that perfectly and I need to be perfect or I use the excuse I am not perfect, I can not be expected to be perfect, so why try. In short I found an article that I really want to share that was my answer to this question. For me though more important than the answer was the timing.

In the offices we are always doing something, and I mean always running around doing something that needs to be done to help the missionaries focuson the lords work. I was having a really hard day and well sometimes even though we are on the mission the mission offices is just like the office and can be very hard to feel the spirit. We had recently had been talking to president about how we do not have enough time to do all or our studies and it is hard. He told us we need to change our mindset and make it a priority.  This morning I had not had my personal study because we had to go get my Uruguyan ID card. and number very early in the morning and we did not have time to study.  In all the choas I decided I just needed about 30 minutes to have a my own personal and with everything going on the question of being perfect and doing my best was at the front of my mind and I found this article on the homepage of lds.org.  I can not describe 

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2014/07/young-adults/becoming-perfect-in-christ?lang=eng

For those of you who are short on time I am just going to paste the a few parts I really liked but I know Gods loves us and he answers prayers and through the atonement we can recieve the motivation to do better and our weaknesses can be filled through his mercy.


Hope you all enjoy and have a good day.

"As we act and are not acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2:14), we can navigate between complementary virtues and achieve much of life’s growth. These can appear in “an opposition,” being “a compound in one” (2 Nephi 2:11).

For example, we can cease to be idle (see D&C 88:124) without running faster than we have strength (see Mosiah 4:27).

We can be “anxiously engaged in a good cause” (D&C 58:27) while also periodically pausing to “be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10; see also D&C 101:16).

We can find our lives by losing our lives for the Savior’s sake (see Matthew 10:39; 16:25).

We can be “not weary in well-doing” (D&C 64:33; see also Galatians 6:9) while taking appropriate time to refresh spiritually and physically.

We can be lighthearted without being light-minded.

We can laugh heartily with but not haughtily at.

Our Savior and His Atonement invite us to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.” As we do so, He promises that His grace is “sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ” (Moroni 10:32).

For those burdened by cares to find perfection or to be perfect now, our Savior’s freely given atoning love assures us:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“… For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28, 30).^7"