04 March 2013

Time Flies

Hey, Everybody!!

Time seems to be moving quicker lately. I hit my nine month mark and I have half of my mission left but I don´t feel like it´s much time. 

Yesterday we had a conference with Elder Waddell from our area presidency. I think he´s from California and in one of the quorums of the seventy. He is amazing and it was such a privilege to have him here to speak with us. He served his mission in Spain and later was a mission president there. His Spanish is a bit different (Spaniard) but he speaks really well. Some of the things he touched on yesterday (all of this is my translation to English)...

He asked the question: ¨Why do we meet together in church?¨ And I think this is a question that a lot of people have---why do people need to go to church if they can have Jesus in their heart wherever they go? We looked at a lot of scriptures to come up with the answer to this question... Jesus Christ taught His gospel when He came to the earth. There are a lot of doctrines very specific and precious. It´s important that we learn together to obey His commandments with exactness. Like it talks about in 1 Samuel 15--sometimes we think our way is better than the Lord´s. But really His way is always best and we need to follow His commandments with exactness to receive His blessings. For this, we have to study the pure doctrines, strengthen and prepare ourselves together so that we can do His work in His way and not our own.

He mentioned a story of the Martin and Willie handcart companies that were stuck in the mountains in the winter. The prophet sent a group to search for them. After making an effort they couldn´t find the companies so they headed back for Salt Lake. They met up with Arza Hinckley and a group that was also going to search for the companies in trouble. They told Arza that it was in vain to continue on because they were nowhere to be found. His response was, "I have been called by a prophet of God... I will find them or I will die trying." Wow. It really makes you think about your responsibility as a missionary... or even in any other calling. We need to have this same confidence and drive--that this is our responsibility and we need to give everything we have to complete our calling.

Sometimes I talk to people here about my "real life" before the mish. But Elder Waddell made a comment about this too... How sometimes we think that the mish is just a period of time that we serve but I love what he said... "Life doesn´t get any more real than this. There is nothing more real than the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing more real than the priesthood and the power to seal families together for eternity. There is nothing more real than Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel. There is nothing more real than the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This is real life."

Those are just a few of the highlights from what we went over yesterday. It was such a good experience. I love the gospel. I hope everyone is doing well at home. I love you all!

Love,

Helena

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