It's the Season to Believe - Dec 2, 2013

And it's December. Oh wow!

Your Thanksgiving sounded awesome! I'm glad y'all had a good time.

We got to spend thanksgiving with the Crapo Family, who are actually from Washington, and have family in Kennewick. Looking at a screensaver picture I thought I saw Heidi Bradshaw...in the picture...it's a small world after all...but anyways they were awesome. Sister Crapo served her mission in the Spain Portugal Mission and so she learned both Spanish and Portuguese. She gave us the most useful Spanish tips that I have ever received and it was fun to talk missions with them. The dinner was exceptionally good, and they sent us with left overs. Over all, it was a good day.

On Wednesday, right before the Border Van came to pick up Sister Lund, she and I went to say goodbye to a few of our investigators. While visiting with one, Marilyn, she asked us something along the lines of "girls, you know, I've been saved already, so I was wondering why it is y'all keep coming back here and don't spend your time helping other people who haven't been saved." After a minute of a quick prayer, I asked Marilyn what she thought that our message was for her, that if she could pick one central point, what would it be. She thought about it for a minute, and then she said "well, I guess you came to share the Book of Mormon with me." Sister Lund then asked her what she thought was the message of the Book of Mormon, what was the point of the writers. Marilyn was stumped, she told us that she hadn't read enough of it to know, and so we asked her if she would. She got excited thinking about it and committed to read it with that question in mind: "what is the point of this book?" we'll be going by her again this week, and hopefully be able to read more with her and help her understand. Since that lesson I've been thinking about that question myself, and where we could read in the Book of Mormon with her to find the answer. Hey family, what is the central message of the Book of Mormon?

So since our areas down here have merged, we've had a lot of things to go through and organize. It's incredible the kind of build up and area can have after so many missionaries going through it. So Hermana Pond and I have been decluttering and rearranging and organizing and sketching out and mapping out and making lists and goals and all kinds of head-ache-causing cleverness. In Spanish. We've had to oraganize and get rid of a lot of things, and make room for others. We converted the extra bedroom into our study room and to make more space, we stacked our beds. Yesssss. We both have two box springs and two mattresses now. And sleeping has gone up a few levels. Not that sleeping has been really hard lately since we're both so mentally exhausted by 10:30. We've also attacked our closets. There is a LOT of stuff in those things...on the bright side, we found not one but two small Christmas Trees and lots of decorations. We also made a Christmas count down chain a little while ago. And have been listening to Christmas songs since like October...or earlier... Chrsitmas is in the air!

We figured the most effective way to merge the areas was by complete submersion. Since we have two area books already, we'll be splitting them into our English and Spanish Branches, and adding a few more colors to our map quadrants. We cover all of Del Rio now and the amount of people that we have to go through contact and reengage in coming unto -or back to- Christ is daunting. So what did we do? The Hermana Montgomery thing to do. We got a Texas-big white board. I've been taking pictures of other area's white boards as I've seen them, and have been perfecting the art of organizing an area into useful information. So we were able to have our Branch Mission Leader bring his truck to help us cart it home. But on the way to Home Depot, we took a detour...

So since Hermana Pond and I are still a bit iffy on the area, we were using my GPS to get us there, expect, I must have had it on a strange setting, because it took us to a back road, if you could even call it a road, and then behind the Home Depot Parking lot. Like the very, very back of Home Depot. On the grass on the otherside of the curb. And we had no way of getting into the parking lot without a) jumping the curb, or b) going back the way we came and going to a real road. We chose the latter. After taking pictures :) Oh the adventures you can have when you don't know where you are going!

But anyways, we got the board, and it has turned out quite nice. And, it is the best one I've done if I do say so myself :) we fit both Branches information on it, and lots of room for goals and other important information. It's the BESSSSSST.

So Hermana Pond is pretty good at HSI (Hable su Idioma, or Speak your Language) and so we've been using our Spanish skills a lot more. She's very good at using the different tenses of the words, and so it helps me pick up on it a lot better. I already feel better at it. We've developed a pretty awesome language study plan, and we're pluckin along. Plus, now that I'm also in South Del Rio, I'm speaking/hearing Spanish a lot more. Me encanta Espanol. My tongue actually hurt a lot yesterday, and I thought it was maybe swollen, but I thought it was jsut from lack of water since I was fasting, but then I mentioned it to Hermana Pond and she said it could be speaking Spanish more. In the MTC my mouth did hurt a lot, like literally, from speaking Spanish. Lots of muscles in use now that I don't normally use when I speak English. Ouch.

I've also set the goal to read the whole Book of Mormon in Spanish in December. I challenged a Sister, Anna, whose been struggling, that we've been meeting with to read the Book of Mormon all in Decemeber. She's a reader. Like, Jubilee on steroids. Probably. But anyways, I said I would do it with her. Elder Bednar style. Ya know, I really can't read it any other way now. So she's reading it in English with a question, and Hermana Pond and I are doing it in Spanish. Oh wow. that's about 20 pages a day in the Spanish Book of Mormon. Anyone want to do it with us? Dad, you could do it in Spanish... :) The more I read the Book of Mormon, the more I believe that I can't live without it. It's true, and it changes your life when you take the time to read it. Speaking about believing...

This week I read something interesting in my personal study. It was in Mosiah 26:2-3. It's talking about those who were not members of the Church, and were actually persecuting those who were, como Alma the Young and the Sons of Mosiah. It says:

"They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ. And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God;and their hearts were hardened."

Sometimes, the people that we meet and teach, simply don't get it. They can comperhend the things that we are saying and how to make a difference. This has always frustrated me, because well, IT'S TRUE! Why wouldn't they get it?! But thinking about what these verses said "because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened" sometimes people literally can't understand it because they don't believe it could be true. According to the doctrine of Hermana Montgomery, I think that God is not going to give us new knowledge and understanding, until we are prepared to believe it, accept it, and live it. It's a protection, because if we understand something, and we don't live it, it's sinning against the greater light. Sometimes we don't receive further knowledge and understanding, because we're not ready for it. I think that's why it's so important to have the Spirit in our lessons, because we can talk facts and bible bash and all that junk, but it's not going to help them understand it better, because it's not helping them believe it or even want to believe it. The Spirit has to be in our meetings. It really is the converting power.

Entonces, we had a lesson with a man, Mauro, who had been baptized a few years ago, but now he's not sure what he believes at all, and it's causing him a lot of anxiety and stress in his life. Hermana Pond and I started out a little rough, and almost lost control of the teaching situation. Well I did anyway. I had been working with Mauro for about a month, and not much progress and been made, since he wouldn't really upon up to us, he would say things that he thought we wanted him to say and not really things that he really felt or thought. We didn't know what to do, and he was not really interested in learning more. I'm not even sure how the lesson switched...actually I do. Hermana Pond shared her testimony of faith, and that allowed the Spirit to come. Then we started over at his level, reading Alma 32 and talking about having only a desire to experiment upon the word. Once the Spirit was in the room, I was able to think clearer about what we could do to help him. We talked about how God confirms truth to us by the power of the Holy Ghost and read several scriptures with him, explaining how he could ask God, and know for himself what was really true. Towards the end, he was sharing how he had received a witness from the Holy Ghost once while praying before his baptism, and the Spirit was thick in our lesson. We walked out of the best lesson that we had ever had with Mauro, and he had committed to make changes. He started to believe, and then we was able to understand.

I love this area, and I love my mission. There is no where I would rather be right now than Preaching the Gospel to the people of Del Rio with Hermana Pond. It is the life. I might have a crisis when I go home. Im fact, I had a scare last night. No one in our District got new planners for the Transfer yet, and so we're having to figure out something in the mean time. While trying to plan for today without a planner last night, I was struggling. What am I going to do when I have to go home?! I've watched missionaries go through a crisis here when they go home and don't have a planner. Who'd have thought, Cheyenne learned how to actually use a planner. Yes, yes I did :) I might just take one or two home with me to help me transition.

I'm doing great Family! I love y'all and wish you a Merry Christmas!

PS. Did y'all check out the Hastening the Work of Salvation Wed site yet?! If not, make it a family home evening :)