12-12-13

Hola!!

It's been tres semanas!!  I can't believe it!  We are almost at the half way point!  Our district is technically here for 7 weeks so I can't believe we're almost half way there.  So much has happened and I've been learning so much.  I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for letting me have this opportunity to serve a mission and to learn Espanol!  I know it's not about me, but I truly feel so lucky and blessed to be apart of the Lord's work.  It is such a privilege.  I want to give my 100% focus and effort and time.  And even when I do that, there's still so much more to do, but I know when we are diligent the Lord blesses us.  I know that God is the Father of our Spirits.  I know that he is completely aware of us in every circumstance in life we find ourselves in.  I heard that you can actually google "The Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar and it will show up.  Look for it!  It is an incredible talk - I guess he gave the same talk when He was at BYU Idaho.  We went again and watched the recording of the talk "The Character of Christ" that He gave at the MTC a couple of years ago.  He talks alot about testimony verses conversion while talking about the Character of Christ.  Character is made up of moral qualities, strongly developed, strikingly displayed and consistently lived.  When we have a testimony, that is when we receive a knowledge and a witness from the Spirit that these things are true.  Conversion is when we consistently live by and are true to what we know.  When you are truly converted, you strive to develop the Character of Christ...you consistently strive to live by what you know and follow the example of Jesus Christ.  We need both testimony and conversion.  Conversion is also a turning AWAY from the natural man and a re-turning outward away from self, just as Christ turned outward and served everyone around him.  Have we truly received a witness of the reality of the living Christ?  Are we truly living by what we know?  These were questions I asked myself after hearing from Elder Bednar.  I sure hope you can find this talk and read it.  You will love it!

I also wanted to share an experience I had yesterday with my companion, Hermana Masters.  So we now have 2 investigators, Juan and Diana.  Diana has been our investigator from the beginning and we have taught Juan now about 4 times.  We were preparing to teach Diana last night (every lesson is in Spanish also...in case you didn't know) and we had asked one of the teachers to come with us to be a member of the church present in our lesson.  Hermana Masters and I were not feeling as prepared this time around.  We have been wanting to understand the needs of Diana and how we can help her come to know what the Lord would have her know, but because she is speaking in Spanish...we haven't been able to completely understand her and how we can truly help her.  Last night, having a member there, was such a blessing.  He spoke to her and could understand her needs more than we could.  During the lesson, my companion felt the Spirit so strongly and began to cry.  I began to cry.  After the lesson we thanked Hermano Clark, the member, for being with us during the lesson.  Hermana Masters was talking with me afterwards and was still feeling emotional about the experience.  She said something that really touched me.  She said how grateful she was that Hermano Clark was there and that when he was talking to them, she could tell that he truly listened to Diana and that is why Diana opened up to him more.  Ignorantly, my very first response to this was, "well of course Hermano Clark could understand her because he can speak the language well."  Hermana Masters looked at me and said, "but was that really the reason?"  She taught me an important lesson.  Yes - the Spanish language can definitely be a barrier, but it is only a secondary barrier.  The Spirit is the true teacher and if I am so focused and worried about speaking the language correctly, I can't and we can't successfully teach with the Spirit.  As much as I thought I understood this, I learned this again in a deeper and more meaningful way last night and I was grateful that Hermana Masters pointed this out to me.  I am so grateful she is my companion.  She is wonderful and I have been learning so many wonderful things from her.  I know that the Lord is aware of each of us.  He knows us perfectly, so why do we fear?  He is blessing us with what we need so that we can learn and become all that we were meant to become!  I know that exact obedience truly brings miracles and that when we are doing what the Lord has asked us to do, even if it seems too simple and easy, the Lord blesses us.  Do everything you can to be exactly obedient, and you will be blessed I promise that!

I love you all!  Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Carroll