I hope you are
having a wonderful time in Disneyland! Try not to get heatstroke. :) Maybe if Jadyn says
that she is just too hot, you can buy her a pair of shorts? ;) That probably would
have helped me last time…but oh well! I guess it made it more memorable for us.
I can’t believe how close the wedding is, but I’m glad to hear that
preparations for it are going well. Promise me to take LOTS and LOTS of
pictures! That way it’ll be like I was there. OR, maybe a better plan, last
minute location change to the Gilbert temple?? It’s dedicated and they already
have 100 weddings booked for March and 100 more for the following months. I’m
sure they could squeeze Ben and Kate in. J
Food for thought.
As for the details
of my week, it started off with a very interesting P-day Zone trip to the Greek
Monastery that’s in In-The-Middle-of-Nowhere, Florence. It was great getting
there because I got to go like 65 mph and I haven’t done that in almost 10
months! We got there and we proceeded to having them give us ankle-length
skirts and scarves to cover our heads. Some of us had to put on baggy shirts
too because what we were wearing was too tight (but not really because we are
missionaries and we don’t really wear tight things…). But it’s fine because I
knew that we were coming in to a place that is sacred to them and I was willing
to do what they asked. The grounds were beautiful, but walking into the
churches there was just this off-feeling, like something was missing. They were
very kind to us and we got to hear them speaking Greek so that was awesome!
That night we went
over to our investigators house because she wanted to feed us dinner. It was
delicious, but I ate entirely too much.
Her face just looked so hopeful as she offered me more and they were
homemade flour tortillas that she had told us that she hadn’t made in a long
time…so I had to. There was no other option really. :)
Wednesday morning
was an early one! We went to the Mesa temple for one of the last times. We got
to see the new, new video so that was cool. Have you seen that one yet? If not,
go check it out! Might as well drive down to San Diego. :)
Thursday was MLC
all day. Sister Chavarri volunteered us to go up there and role-play in front of
everyone. So that was fun. But Elder Peterson (one of the Assistants) was
staring me down telling me to do it so if she hadn’t done it, I would have. Then
that night we went to Edgar, Mayra, and Brandon’s baptism. It was so beautiful!
Mayra is one of the sisters in the Garcia family and then she and Edgar just
got married last week and Brandon is their oldest son. It has been so amazing
to see how they have come to accept the gospel when just 6 months ago she wasn’t
even really interested. The Church is true!
Friday was a great
day! We had to wake up early to go teach Seminary at one of the high schools.
It was so much fun! The youth here are so amazing! So many of them took
non-members to the Open House and a handful of them have friends who are taking
the lessons, some of which are on date to be baptized! It was so fun to teach
them and to see their excitement about the work. I definitely won’t forget that
experience. Then that night we had a lesson with Naty (our investigator) and
her cousin Gissel (our recent convert). They had asked us to come over to talk
about what they have been reading in the Book of Mormon. They showed us the
study journals that they had made and told us that they were ahead of their
assigned reading that we had given them. Love them both so much. :)
Then we went to go
do service for Valerie and that’s when she unloaded on us. Instead of doing
service, we sat at her kitchen table for at least a solid hour with her telling
us about her past. And it’s been really rough. Like bad. We testified
powerfully of how the Savior loves her and knows exactly what she has been
through. We told her that this gospel is what will bring her the most peace and
happiness in this life, more than anything else. The Spirit definitely was
there, but she said that she just has some differences in her views on certain doctrinal
aspects. We went back Saturday afternoon and did service for her. We washed her
dogs and dusted and swept her apartment. I just hope the service will help her
and that she will realize what she really needs.
Saturday we also
had a lesson with our investigator Karina (one of the sisters). Tangent: We
were talking the other day about how Karina and Concha (both are our
investigators) are the only ones out of the 8 kids who still haven’t been
baptized. When we got here, only one of them was baptized!!! It has been one of
the greatest blessings of my mission to watch that family come into the gospel.
It’s beautiful. Back to the lesson. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and it
went pretty well. We talked to her about baptism and it sounds like she really
wants to receive the confirmation that it is true, like the rest of her family
has, but she just hasn’t yet. We’ll keep working on that. :)
Now for the
Cultural Celebration. So rewind to last Saturday when they had their first
practice with the 13,000+ youth all-together. They had some complications with
everyone running around because it caused a lot of dust to come up and that
caused a lot of allergic reactions. The police/fireman/ambulances had to come
and take some kids away. So this whole past week those 13,000 youth have been
praying for rain. It hadn’t rained in 76 days, but on Saturday, it poured. When
they first came on the screen they were all huddled together waiting for
President Monson to get there and when he got there. It stopped raining!!!! For
the opening bit it was dry, but when they started the celebration it poured
even harder. The youth said they were freezing and cold, but that it didn’t
matter because they felt the Spirit so strongly. The Celebration was beautiful
and it was so great to see all of the youth sharing their testimonies through
song and dance. They showed the clip of the lowering of the age announcement and
we all just got so emotional. It’s because of that announcement that I am even
here! In Arizona. On a mission. What a wonderful blessing it is.
Then Sunday was
the dedication of the temple and it was amazing too! We went to two of the
three sessions. The temple president mentioned how so many people ask why
temples are so expensive. He said to try and put a price on broken homes and
broken families, on pornography and infidelity, etc. and then tell me that it
isn’t worth every penny we put into the temple to try and prevent those things,
to rather unify families in happiness for eternity. What a wonderful way of
looking at it. Several of them also mentioned how when we dedicate a temple we
are really just re-dedicating ourselves to the Lord and His work. So that is
what I promised to do. J
Work a little bit harder at serving with all my heart, might, mind, and
strength.
I love where I am.
I love this work. I love the temple. I love my Savior and feel of His love for
me and for all everyday. I love you!!! Have a great week and remember Moroni
8:3 :)
Con amor,
Hermana Baria
