9-1-14

HOLA!!!!!!!!

Wow Elder Carroll is OUTSKii!!!!!!!!!  Oh and by the way THANK YOU SO MUCH for sending me his talk and Aubs talk!  I absolutely loved it!!!!!!!!!  I am so proud of you both, thank you for always being good and for choosing the right throughout your life.  I loved hearing your testimonies and I loved hearing your voices!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It MADE my day!  I love you!!!!!!

Thanks for forwarding me Dev´s email too!  I´m glad you made it there safe Dev, I´m sure your brain is just spinning but I´m so excited for you!  You are just at the beginning of something so amazing and life-changing, I can´t wait to hear from you after your first full week in the MTC!  Your comp sounds great!  Enjoy every moment!  I am so so happy for you!

Well, as far as this week goes....I was just actually trying to remember what all happened this week.  Lots!  We had a big Zone Conference with President Jackson in Oviedo (that´s what the picture is from in the Bulletin).  That was so good!  The Zone leaders talked alot about desire and how our faith and our desires are a team.  It just made me think about what it is that I really desire, as a missionary and as a person.  I know the Lord is always asking us what our desires are and He´s trying to help us understand that He wants to give us the righteous desires of our hearts, as long as they are in line with His will.  I loved that meeting! 

I have had so many desires as a missionary here, to be better, to overcome weaknesses and things I wish I was better at, to think less of myself, to know the language, to understand people and their needs, to listen to the Spirit and follow His promptings.  It´s overwhelming and I try not to think about all of these expectations we put on ourselves all the time!  But...to be real, it´s just hard sometimes :)  There are so many desires that we all have and sometimes we feel the desire to act upon our righteous desires more often than other times.  I know the Lord always knows our hearts.  He always understands us in our unique circumstances of life as we´re trying to find balance in all things.  We all have really unique circumstances and different experiences that cause us to see the world differently than others.  But, I know that the Lord, who is the Father of our Spirits, knows us so well and blesses us with the experiences we need in this mortal life to help us turn to Him and recognize our need for Him.  We have to continually keep our hearts and pray for the strength to keep our desires in the right place.  There are so many distractions in the world, and lots of people to compare yourself with.  The only thing that really matters is our personal relationship with Heavenly Father and the condition of our heart.  This life really is a battle for our hearts.  What are we going to choose?  Are we going to give into the perspectives and thoughts of the world, or are we going to choose the Lord´s way and continually obey Him and obey His prophets and leaders on the earth?  And once we have made up our mind that that is what we want, how are we going to demonstrate our faith to act and show the Lord that we want to follow him?  I know that all He asks us to do is keep His commandments. 

Something that I have learned as a missionary is that the simplest commandments really do bring us the greatest blessings.  I think too often, as members of the church...or maybe this is just me talking about things I realize that I´ve done in my life, we read the scriptures and think to ourselves..."Oh, that is something I´ve heard before, or I´ve already learned that, so what is something that is more important than that that I need to learn....something that seems to be more meaningful and more profound."  Well....the answer to ALL of those questions is that those scriptures and the simple doctrines we have learned throughout our lives ARE the solution.  Yes, there is definitely deeper doctrine and there are a ton of profound things that we learn from the deep doctrine stuff, but MAN!  If you can´t place importance on the simplest things, you aren´t going to understand the deeper things!  If I came on a mission just to understand that better, I am SO grateful!

Ok, I am running out of time, but today we are going on a little "excursion" with a family who we teach English to....they are SOOOOOO cute :)  They want to take us to a different part of Gijón that we haven´t seen and take us out for lunch!  We´re excited!  I´ll let ya know how it goes next week :)  We´ll take lots of pics :)

I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful day and week!  Good luck this week Dev!!!!!!!!  I´m so proud of you!

 

Hermana Carroll