Maywood: Semana 9‏ Mon 4/05/10

Hola Familia. :)
 
I don't have very much time to write this week. It has been kind of rough. We had a beautiful family progressing towards being baptized that told us that they can't- the mom decided for herself and her two daughters that they are only going to be baptized once in their live, and they already were in the Catholic church. She has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and knows the church is true, but she has convinced herself in her mind that both our church and the Catholic church are true. It is so hard to see someone decide not to change their life and accept the gospel, especially considering both of her daughters want to get baptized, but because the mom is afraid of changing her traditions she won't let them.
 
On a happier note, General Conference this week was so incredible! I hope you all listened and found knew guidance that you can apply to bless your lives. I love how candid the speakers were, especially with the importance of teaching and sharing the gospel in your home, and being open with your children in all aspects. I felt really blessed to have such a wonderful family- a father and mother that have taught me the gospel and shared their testimonies with me often. I love thinking about the family testimony meetings we would have. Everyone would kind of grumble and not want to do it, but I am so glad that I was able to hear your testimonies and feel the spirit in our home.
 
One of my favorite talks was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk about love. It is so true- Satan is so evil. He is changing the way we see love by making other things seem more permissive. It doesn't matter what you do or how bad it is- if it is motivated by lust than it is destroying your perception of real, pure, Christlike love. The longer I am on my mission and the more I learn about the atonement the worse I feel about my former transgressions and things I have done in the past. Satan can only protect you from feeling the guilt through rationalizing for so long; everyone is going to have to face their sins someday. They don't just disappear when we pray and accept the atonement- we have to give them to Jesus Christ. A mission really is such an incredible opportunity to be able to see yourself fully and completely for who you really are. Our society focuses so much on individuality being the most important thing- but Christ tells us to "lose ourselves to find ourselves." When we are selfishly looking for just the things that make us happy, we miss our opportunities to sacrifice, turn ourselves over to the Lord, and learn who we really are, the person we have been for an eternity before this life, not just the "natural man" that we are here and the desires and appetites of our bodies. if we give in to everything we want, then we become "enemies to God" and we love any true and lasting eternal happiness. It is so important to have that eternal perspective.
 
I love teaching people about the plan of salvation- how God has a plan for us, and how there is a purpose to this life. With this plan you can overcome all fear and doubt. You don't even have to fear the earthquakes or natural disasters. It was kind of funny because we were tracting yesterday talking to a man in his doorway, and he was telling us that he doesn't want to study religion or learn about the bible, because he knows that what is says is true, and it tells all of the scary signs and things that are going to happen and he doesn't want to be afraid of what is going to happen. We told him that that is why it is important to prepared- so you don't need to fear. He wasn't really that interested, but then right at that moment we felt the earthquake ( the big one that happened in Mexico.) It was just a little shake here, but it was enough to get this man's attention and he really wants to learn about the gospel now. Sister Salazar likes to joke that when a natural disaster hits, secretly missionaries are happy because it turns people to God. Well, i love you all!

Sister Dansie