Hello my wonderful family and everybody!!!
Wow! SO much has happened this week. SO much!
But first...DEVIN CARROLL CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING INTO BYU PROVO!!!!! I am SO happy for you! Go BYU! and go Dev!! Ahh!! You will LOVE it!
First off...here are some funny things from the week.
The other hermanas in our district now have an African investigator named "Love." Yes...Love. So when they call him to invite him to church or to meet up with him....they say, "Hi Love....or, "How´s it going Love." Africans have some awesome names here! They have another one named Queen, and we have one named Friday. We hope they continue to progress!
Also...the Relief Society here wanted my companion and I to help them sing a song that they made up for the Relief Society to sing. It is to the tune of "We are the World" by Michael Jackson. I took a picture of the lyrics...they are hilarious! They wanted me and Hermana Nydegger to teach them how to say it all in English and this is what they translated it to be from Spanish to English. (see the picture) - my personal favorite was... "We are the princess, we are the beautiful children of God who makes green tartas." We helped them change the lyrics a bit, to have it fit better and make a little more sense :) They are singing it for an activity coming up...it´ll be great! :) I love the Torrejón ward so much!
I forgot to tell you! Last week we had a really successful missionary mutual night! My companion and I were in charge of this mutual and we put together a cool, interactive missionary mutual night! Alot of the youth here (especially the Young Men) don´t go on missions. We were in charge of putting together an activity that would encourage them and get them excited to go! It was super successful and everyone was involved! We made a list of lots of things that missionaries do that they had to go out and do as if they were missionaries. We made it a competetion and they got a certain number of points for each task they completed. They had about 45 minutes to go out and get as many points as possible. (I included a picture so you could see all the tasks) We gave them each a little mini mission call (English speaking and somewhere in the states...they loved that!) and then if they contacted or shared a message in English with someone in the streets or with us (to practice in English) they got more points! They got more points if they tried it in English :) It was so fun! And it was so cool to see them get excited about sharing the Gospel! Afterwards everyone shared the experiences that they had, and so many of them had really great experiences to share. They loved it and it was a really fun night! The ward is wanting us to have missionary mutual nights more often....do you have any awesome ideas for interactive activities that will help people understand and get excited about missionary work? Let me know - I´d love to hear any ideas that you may have! We don´t have a ton of resources, and mutual here is different than in the states...so we need some simple, easy-to-put together ideas... let me know if you can think of any:)
Also...BIG NEWS! I got to visit Loli and Fernando this weekend!!!!!!! OH my gosh I LOVE THEIR FAMILY! Fernando and their sons Daniel and Gonzalo were waiting for me and my companion at the Renfe (the train) and they were so excited to see me! It just made my day and they were so cute to be waiting there for me! They also have another daughter, Laura, who is planning on going on a mission after highschool (she´s a senior) - she was so cute too! Dad! She kept your Bible that you sent her (the one that you used on your mission). She used it on her mission to! It had your name in it, and she had written hers in it, and I wrote my name in it to. She showed me the Bible and the bookmark you gave her and it just touched my heart so much! I cried!! It has been well used Dad! My heart was overwhelmed, feeling so grateful for your example of being a missionary. Because you shared the Gospel with her, she went on a mission and blessed the lives of so many and now she is raising her family in the Gospel. And they are an incredible family! It was such an incredible moment, to be there, getting to know their family, seeing the Bible that you used to teach her (with all of your handwriting in it..I took lots of pictures because I loved it SO much) and then to see how the Gospel has blessed their family! Wow!! My heart was full! We ate some really great food too! I had my first Spanish Paella with them! And then she made some really good cheesecake. And then we just talked after about lots of things! I wish that I could have understood more of their Spanish, but Fernando speaks really good English and my companion helped me understand most everything! It made my day to meet them and to get to spend time with them. It seriously reminded me of our family! I felt so at home in their apartment and my heart was overwhelmed with gratitude for the Gospel of Jesus Christ that blesses families in this life with truth and with goodness. We are better people because we follow the teachings of the Savior, and this family was evidence of that to me. I loved them so much!!! They said they want us to come over again too, so I hope that we´ll be able to go again soon before I leave this area! Also, they have a niece who is coming home from her mission (Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah) this week. It was so great to talk with them and meet up with them.
This last week we had an incredible "Mission Tour" where Elder Texeira from the First Quorum of the 70 and his wife (I think that´s how you spell it) came and spoke to us. It was an all day event! All of the missionaries got to come and listen to it. All the missionaries from the North did it on another day than us, but most everyone was there! It was SO good! Oh and I saw Elder Dampt from our Stake so that was cool! President and Sister Jackson also spoke to us and I learned so much. Something that I keep learning here and being reminded of is that you should never underestimate your influence and the power that comes because of your faith and your Spirit. Our faith truly does make a difference. Sometimes we might not understand how it does or how it can, but our faith in others and love for others truly does make a difference. Another thing that I keep learning everyday is that everything we do as missionaries centers around bringing people to Christ to be baptized! Baptism is SOO important and that´s why we are here as missionaries...to help people make the commitment to be baptized! It is the first ordinance that is needed in order to enter into the Kingdom of God. That´s pretty important, don´t ya think? :) We are constantly learning as missionaries (at least I feel like I am) how important it is to help people understand the importance of making this commitment - to make this covenant with God, to be baptized with the correct authority, to take on the name of Christ, because they NEED His cleansing and strengthening power that comes from His Atonement. We help them understand God´s great plan of happiness for us and that He wants us to return to live in His presence again, having a fullness of joy, with our families for eternity. It sounds to good to be true...or some people think that it´s just a nice idea or that it isn´t really real. I want you all to know that I know, with all of my heart, that God does have a plan of happiness for each of us. I just want to burst out of my skin and convince everyone that following the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the ONLY way that we can be truly happy! God wants us to be happy in this life and for eternity with our families. He loves us so much that He restored His Gospel to the earth, the same Gospel that Christ himself established on the earth when He lived here during His earthly ministry. All throughout history, God has called prophets to teach his Gospel (Adam, Moses, Noah, Abraham, etc.). All of these prophets were given the priesthood authority of God, the authority to act in the name of God to direct us and teach us the Gospel on the earth. People have continually rejected prophets and their teachings of Christ, throughout history, but God always reaches out in love to call prophets to guide us. Christ himself came to the earth to establish His Church, and was rejected and killed. He suffered for all of the pains, sorrows and sins of the world, of all of mankind. This sacrifice is the Atonement and it is central in understanding our need for the Gospel in this life. Jesus Christ and His Atonement are central to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need His Gospel and His Atonement to cleanse and strengthen us and to enable us to return to live with God again after this life. After Christ and His Apostles were rejected, persecuted and killed, the priesthood authority of God was taken off the earth and we know that this was a time of Apostasy...where the authority of God was lost. There was much confusion, and people lived in spiritual darkness. Many people established their own churches and claimed to have the authority to do so. We can see this throughout history, with the Reformation of so many churches. But, because God always calls a prophet to guide and direct us, to have the correct priesthood authority to teach and establish God´s church, we know that He called another Prophet to guide and direct the church on the earth. I know with all of my heart that Joseph Smith was the man that God called to be the prophet of this final dispensation of time. I know that Joseph was called to restore to Gospel of Jesus Christ back to the earth and that through Him, we have the Book of Mormon, another Testament of Jesus Christ. Everyone on the earth can come to know that this is true for themselves by praying directly to our Heavenly Father and asking Him. I know with all of my heart that the Spirit testifies this truth to our hearts. The Spirit has testified of the truthfulness of this message to my heart. I wouldn´t be here, for a year and half, dedicating and consecrating all of my time to this work if I didn´t know it for myself! I hope that you can all pray for opportunities to share this with everyone! I know that if you pray for opportunities to share this message, that the Lord will open doors and give you opportunities to share it and you will be blessed more than you can possibly imagine. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all of my heart and I´m grateful to Christ for His sacrifice and Atonement. I know that the Lord knows each of us personally and perfectly and that the Atonement of Jesus Christ enables us to be freed from all of our sin and of the pain and sorrow we experience in this life. The Savior´s Atonement makes it possible for us to return to live with God again and gain eternal life.
I am grateful to be a representative of Jesus Christ, to be on the Lord´s errand, to share His Gospel with all those who are being prepared to hear it and accept it in this life. I love you all and I pray for you all every day. I´m SOO glad you all got to go to the Gilbert Temple Dedication! Ahhh! I´m so jealous...I wish I could have been there with you all. It sounds like it was an amazing experience.
Hope you have a great week!!
Hermana Ashlee Carroll
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