Wow, what a WEEK! This week has been sooo long, but it´s been good. Right now in Los Cristianos donde nos encontramos (where we find ourselves) there is this big festivo called "Carnaval." And, well....let´s just say that in Brazil is where you find the largest Carnaval celebration in the world and the missionaries there have to stay indoors during the 10 day´s worth of festivities....Las Gran Canarias is the 2nd largest Carnaval in the world and well, we´re here :) And well, it´s like we live in Babylon! There´s just a lot of partying and crazies!! And they play super loud music till 2 in the morning right next to our house, so it´s been fun sleepin...haha :) But, more than anything, seeing all of these crazy partiers makes me SO grateful for the Gospel, for the knowledge we have of what truly brings us lasting happiness and peace in life. I know when we´re at home, especially growing up with the Gospel having been taught to us our whole lives, we are not tempted by drugs, drinking, and everything extreme like that. We have lots of good influences around us the majority of the time if we choose to be surrounded by good. But here, little teenage kids have so many tempations to be apart of these things because it´s just normal life here! They are immune and desensitized to all of these really bad things and they don´t know any different. It is sad to see it, but it strengthens my testimony of our living day prophet who truly guides and directs us so that we don´t have to look around us in the world searching for happiness...or what the world says brings us happiness. God knows what brings us happiness and he´s given us the knowledge to know how to obtain that happiness...The Restored Gospel!! Living according to the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to be happy in life. It really is that simple. It requires effort on our part and requires us to take responsibility for our actions, but when we understand the gift of agency that God has given us, and we realize that taking responsibility in every area of our life to live according to the manner in which God would have us live (using our agency well to choose the good) that brings us far greater happiness and peace than any other thing in this world.
On a happier note....some really great things about the area:
1) My companion, Hermana Shurtz is WONDERFUL! She´s from St. George Utah and is just full of life and is so fun...in case you can´t tell already :) She´s great, we get along great and I´m loving working with her. She actually told me she grew up being pretty less active, so the fact that she´s here is really incredible. She can connect with people in a way that I can´t and I´m grateful that I have her to learn from right now. She is wonderful :)
2) The ward here is wonderful. I love them already. I don´t know them super well yet, but they are so strong and I´m looking forward to getting to know them more. They have good hearts and have such strong faith and testimonies. I feel so grateful to be here with them to serve here with them. This last week we had a big luncheon with all the relief society and it was so fun talking to so many of them and getting to know them. There is one super sweet old lady from Uruguay! I told her that my brother was serving there and she got all excited :) She´s precious. Her name is Elsa! Also....Dev...there is another man in our ward from Uruguay and wow does he have personality or what! Are all Uruguayians just super loud and have a ton of conviction? Because this man does, he gave the best talk on Sunday and I loved it....especially thinking about the kind of people you are meeting and the kind of experiences you are having there in Uruguay :)
3) There are a TON of tourists here! I know it´s Carnaval this week, but when I first got here there were alot too! This is a big vacation spot for Europeans!
4) We have this Menos Activo lady, named Segrario who we are visiting. She is Canarian and she´s is a HOOT! I don´t know....Canarians...true Islanders who have never left the island in their entire life are crazy hilarious! They talk so fast and there spanish is different, but it´s been really fun getting to know her. Her husband has Alzheimers and so she can never come to the church like she would like to. She has such a good heart and it´s been really fun getting to know her and help her.
5) Right now I´m finally finishing Jesus the Christ! I´ve made a goal to finish it before I go home! That book is incredible. There is alot of information, but it has helped me understand more about the Savior´s life than I ever have learned. The Book of Mormon bears powerful testimony of the Savior from the testimonies of the prophets. This book doesn´t replace scripture, but it is such a powerful resource for learning more about the Savior´s life, the people of his time, the kinds of ideas of the people of the time, the things that he was faced with during his mortal minisitry, the reality of the tempations he faced, and is just jam packed with so much knowledge about so many details that I´ve never thought about before. I love it. Every day I read, I feel the spirit so strongly testify to me the reality of the Savior, what he did, and his role in our lives. Christ was truly a master, a sinless and perfect being, yet living a mortal life. I´m so excited to keep reading more and more. I wish I could study for 8 hours every day!
We are so blessed. I know that the study of the principles of the gospel improves behavior more than a study of behavior improves behavior. I´ve seen that within myself and I see it in others. Every problem we face in life can be remedied through our understanding of the gospel. It doesn´t mean we can control the actions of others or that bad things will not happen to us, but our understanding of the gospel really does give us greater ability to confront every circumstance in our life with confidence in the Lord.
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| Hermana Shurtz and Hermana Carroll |
Love you all!!!
Hermana Carroll
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