There is more

Well Family. Travel plans have come. Oh wow. I have exactly 1.5 weeks until I get on a plane and jet out to TEXAS.

So much as happened this week, like every week, but it's been a good week.  It started basically on Sunday night, We watched a old devotional from Elder Bednar talking about the character of Christ. So basically my favorite things. I was talking notes in such a panic so as not to miss anything important that the rest of my district was laughing at the mad scribbles flying from my hand. It was good stuff. Basically, he defined Christ's character by how he always turned out and focused on others instead of himself.

This week, we taught Amalio and Consuela twice each. During our second lesson with Amalio, he was trying to explain to us that he just didn't have time for the gospel. That he couldn't be a fanatic about God like we were. That he had a life working 12 hours a day to provide for his family and parents, and he didn't have time to study the Book of Mormon as much as we could. Before we had went into the lesson, we had prayed to be be able to know what to say in the moment. Now, as Amalio was talking to us, I felt prompted to share the quote in our kitchen by Ezra Taft Benson that says "when we put God first, everything else falls into place, or falls out of our lives" and I sat up right there said no to that thought. "I can't say that in SPANISH! It's too hard. I can't do that." Through out the lesson, other scriptures, quotes and thoughts came to my mind, but I turned them down because I didn't know how to say them in Spanish. After our lesson we had class, and our teacher talked to all of us about how Amalio was progressing. Our teacher, Hermano Hopoate, is Amalio, but he is basing his character off of a real investigator that he taught on his mission. Hermano Hopoate told us basically that for Amalio, we needed to show him the relevance of the gospel to his life. He told us more about Amalio, and what his character was, and the more he taught us about Amalio, the more guilty I felt. I had prayed and asked, been impressed upon to teach Amalio, exactly what we were being told he needed, and I had said no. Said no straight up. It was really humbling to me. I realized, again, that if we want God to help us, we have to have intentions of meeting Him half way. If we ask for help, we need to get up and follow Him when He is telling us what to do. I hope that I can do better following His instructions and promptings in the future.

Consuela. She hasn't been progressing. Mostly she doesn't understand how she needs God in her life. Why does it matter if he has a plan of happiness, if she is already happy with everything that she has? And so after much studying, scribbling on the board, praying and discussing, my companion and I came up with a lesson plan. We wanted to talk about faith, and having just a small desire to have faith. And we also wanted to talk about how having faith helps us to see the bigger picture in life. And so we had a little object lesson. We found a picture of a flower, in one of my ensigns, that I knew would come in handy, and we cut it out. During the lesson, we showed her the picture and asked her if she thought it was beautiful. She said yes. And then my companion ripped the picture into little pieces. As she ripped I watched Consuela's face. She was absolutely astonished, flabbergasted  taken a back, in short, shocked that we would show her a beautiful picture and then rip it. My companion handed her one small piece of the picture, and said "oh these aren't important" about the other pieces and put them underneath her scriptures. We again asked Consuela if she thought the picture we had given her was beautiful. She said "yes...but I want the whole picture." YES. Our lives may be great, they may be perfect, but without the gospel and knowledge of God's plan for us, we have only a small piece of the grand picture. The picture is beautiful. Why would we want to be content with just one small, ripped piece of the picture? Conseula is starting to understand why it matters. There is more. There is more than this life. There is more that just school , status and money. There is more than just us. There is a plan. God's plan. And it is beautiful.

Part of that plan for us, is gaining experience. And boy did I have an experience this week. We were role playing, and teaching in English. Weird. The topic we were practicing was Christ's Atonement and time on Earth. I thought to myself "I got this. I know how to do this in English." And so I taught. And talked a lot. And when we came to the feed back part, I got pretty good feedback. BUT. I didn't have the Spirit. I said what I wanted to say, and what I thought, not what I was prompted to say. I think I realized that day one of the reasons why I'm learning Spanish. When I speak Spanish, I depend fully on the Spirit for what to say. When I speak in English, I rely on myself. It was really humbling to me.

I realized that I didn't really say anything about the pictures that I sent last week, and so I will say something about my pictures this week.

(See Left) You should all know and appreciate the fact that I haven't given up my drawing skills. This is my latest project of stick figures. My district. They are TOO FANTASTIC. This is my rendition of us. And Elder Jensen, our district leader, says that oddly enough, they all look like us. I was told I was an artist. You know it. Nobody can one up my stick figures.

Well, that's about all. I'm glad that I had time to finish telling you about my week. Keep writing. I love you all. 

Hermana C. Montgomery