Week #40 The things that matter most

Another week has passed and transfers are coming up, I cant wait to see what happens. Part of me wants to be transferred because I have had  lot of time in this area.  I love it but I think I am ready for a change, new people, new streets, new companions. 

This week was stake conference, and it was really special because President Erickson and his wife came to speak as well as the Temple president. The temple president was awesome, he shared lots scriptures and reason why we should go to the temple. He also told the following story.

There was a women and an old man. The old man had a cave full of gold, silver, jewels,and jems, basically it was a giant jackpot of treasures. He told the women that she had 8 minutes to collect all the treasure that she could but the gate would close in exactly in 8 minutes and never open again. He reminded her not to forget what is most important. The women grabbed her bag and entered the cave. She quickly shoved all the gold and jewels into the bag. And just as 8 minutes was up she ran out of the cave and the gates closed. She was so happy that she was RICH! but after the adrenaline of collecting all of the gold passed she realized she had left her baby boy inside the cave. 

After the president told this story I felt haunted. The women was so preoccupied with other things that she forgot what was the most important to her! Her own son. It made me think about my life. Am I being to preoccupied with everything else that I am forgetting what is most important?. Where are our priorities?  Are they  focused on finding true happiness?  When we put our confidence and trust in God then we will prosper. Jacob 2Ñ18'19 says ¨But before y seek for riches seek ye for the kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain the riches, if ye seek them and ye will seek them for the intent to do good.¨ I love this. I know that If God is our first priority all of the other parts of our life will fall into place. Even if we have a million other things that are going on in our life we need to retain our focus on God.

 My sophomore year of high school I was taking tough classes. I had a lot of homework and never had enough time to study! I had commitments to soccer, piano friends and family. Basically, a lot of stuff to balance for a 15 year old. Normally  I saved up all my homework for Sunday night. I would be extremely stressed about studying for all my exams, finishing all my project and writing papers late Sunday night. I remember my mom sharing with me that on the Sabbath day and we should rest and remember God. Exod 20 8'10 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter...¨I decided that I needed to keep this commandment. That I needed to have a time to remember God within my busy schedule. I decided that I would not do my homework on Sundays. That I would keep that day as a day of rest. At first I was nervous that If I didn't do my homework on Sundays I would get bad grades and that the rest of my week would be more stressful. But what I found was the opposite! I ALWAYS had time to finish my homework and do all of the other things I wanted to do. I had a clear mind for all of my tests and I earned the best grades of my life that year. I know that if we put God first above all of the other things that we worry about that our lives will be smooth and that all of the other things will fall into place. We need to stop making excuses and do what we know we should do. I love the verses in Luke that state: 

57 And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whither soever thou goest.

58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of their have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

 59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord,suffer me first to go and bury my father.

 60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

 61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

 62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.¨Luke 957'69

We need to stop giving excuses like these people in the scriptures and always do what we can to put Christ first. 

As far as everything else in my life.  I'm crossing my fingers for a transfer next Monday. I have   a lot of time in this area so its a possibility that i get transferred but hermana pin doesn't know the area very well yet so maybe ill have to stay to teach her a little bit more. But I am just hoping for a transfer. 

Saul is getting baptized this week! Wahoo Ill send pictures next Monday!

Week #39 Forgiving our enemies

Hola Familia, Hola Amigos! 

Another week has already gone by I cant believe it. This week we have been teaching a lot of new people and I noticed a theme in all of my investigatores. Many of the  people were holding grudges. It made me contemplate why it is so hard to forgive, and why we hold on to these feelings of resentment, frustration and anger. These negative emotions are dangerous and come from Satan. When we give place for them inside of us it leads us to do harmful things. We often try to seek revenge or justice because we want that person to suffer how we have suffered. But is this justice?

The story of Herodias and John the Baptist in the Bible illustrates the dangers of grudges. Herodias and Herod had an illegal marriage. Herodias was previously married the Phillip, the brother of Herod, and the divorce had not be finalized under Jewish law. So the secret marriage with Herod and Herodias was illegal and adulterous. John the Baptist being a powerful prophet and not fearing to speak out against man called out Herodias saying "Ït is not lawful for thee to have thy brothers wife.¨Herod respected John the baptist knowing that he was appraised by the people and a man of God. He let the rebuke go without punishment, however Herodias was furious with John for calling out her marriage. She began to form her grudge against John the Baptist and hatched a plan revenge against John. She desired justice. So she convinced the king to have him imprisoned. As he waited in the prison Haerodias continued to plan, and continued to grow in her hatred for John the baptist. When the king had a giant feast for his birthday she set her plan in action. Her daughter danced before the king, and he was so enchanted by the dance that he promised her "Äsk of me whatsoever thou wilt, and i will give it unto thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it to thee, unto the half of my kingdom.¨ The daughter went to her mother, Herodias  and Herodias demanded the head of John the baptist. The king being surrounded by all of the high captains, lords, and principal officials could not reject the oath for the sake of embarrassment. Herodias had won. She was brought the head of John the Baptist. 

But is this justice? This is what Herodias wanted, but this is not justice it is revenge. Justice is the unalterable law that brings consequences according to our actions. And this law of justice is brought by God. ¨But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted which repentance mercy claimeth otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment if not so, the works of Justice would be destroyed and God would cease to be God.¨Alma 42.22 "And it is requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged for their works and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also at the last day be restored unto that which is good. And if their works are evil they shall be restored unto them for evil. Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order, every thing to its natural frame mortality raised to immortality, corruption to in corruption ' raised to endless happiness to inherit the kingdom of God, or to the endless misery to inherit the kingdom of the devil, the one on the one hand, the other on the other.¨Alma 41.3,4 We need to trust that God can work out the justice, this is not our responsibility. In the day of judgement all things will be restored to their proper order. Individulas will receive the  consequences for their works. God has commanded us ¨that ye ought to forgive one another for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the lord for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I the Lord will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men. And ye ought to say in your hearts let God Judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.¨

We should not desire to bring justice or revenge to the people who have rebuked or hurt us. We should leave that judgement up to God. Each of us will receive our recompense  and God will judge righteously. 

God has commanded us to forgive one another. In Mathew 5.43,45 Jesus invokes a new rule. ¨Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them taht curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.¨Jesus has directed us to love our enemies. That if some one has done something against us we should pray for that person. This scripture gives us the perfect advice of how to dejar our grudges. Prayer and service. If we want to learn to love those that we hate we must do the opposite and love them, serve them, and pray for them. If we can start with small acts of service to put aside the contention we can prevent the build up of anger like Herodias, and learn to LOVE. We can replace the feelings of contention and vengence with love and peace. Let us not be like Herodais and hold these feelings of hatred in side of us. Let us be like Christ. Let us forgive and love our enemies. Christ set the perfect example. As he suffered and died on the cross one of his last remarks was ¨Father forgive them for they know not what they do.¨Lucas 23.34. He set the perfect example of love and forgivness. Let us all be like Christ love our enemies.

So this is my little spiritual message of the week. But as for everything else in Peru, we are great. We have found many new people to teach who are AWESOME. We are teaching S and her Husband J. They are so wonderful, we were at their house everyday this week. Its a fun young couple who  are hungering and thirsting for the gospel in their lives! They read the assignments we give them and understand almsst everything. Its amazing when we go to teach lessons all we have to do is ask questions to verify their knowledge because they understand all the important concepts. Its awesome teaching them and I cant wait for their baptism. 

Also we have been teaching a man named J. He works driving a moto and we contacted him one day and have been teaching him basically everyday as well. He always has good questions for us. He had a hard time understanding why bad things have to happen on the earth but we explained that we are here to progress and learn from our mistakes. 

Yesterday a woman came up to us saying. I want to be baptized. We were like ohh wow we can help you with that. We taught her family for the first time yesterday and it went really well. 

Also S the son of V my recent convert changed his work schedule so that he can come to church!!! Wahoo! He has attended for the past 3 Sundays and as soon as we finish the lessons he wants to be baptized as well. 

All of our investigatores are working and learning which is exactly what we want. We are going to continue to grow their testimonies and help them down this path. I pray for them everyday and have faith that they will continue to progress.

It has been interesting working with my two companions.  I'm definitely learning a lot about patience, compassion and love.. We all went out to lunch as a zone last week and It was fun. This pday were going to play volley ball and other games. So things are going well. All normal Obra missional nada mas! Stay true! Miss yall!

See you next summer!

Hermana Huish 

Week #38 The half way point

I was reunited with my friends from the CCM at the Soccer tournament

All three of us are at the half way point (9 in and 9 to go)

Our zone won the tournament!

Hola Familia!

This past week has been really busy! Monday we had Mundial! And our zone won! Wahoo go Canto Chico! Hermana Molina, Hermana Apollo and I were the best cheerleaders ever. 

Later in the week we had a Sister Conference. It was sweet. All of the sisters in our mission gathered in the District Offices.  The topics were fortifying our companionship's, being good examples, and preparing for our future lives. What I liked the most was the talk about unity within companionship. (I really needed it!)

Right now I am in a trio. Hermana Frye is the mama of Hermana Pin so they are ¨Best friends¨ and it has been pretty tough to be the third wheel this whole transfer. My attitude with my companions has not been the best. Basically I just keep telling myself to put up with it and then hope for a transfer in a few weeks.I have  judged them based off  first impressions. I did make an effort in the beginning to put myself into  their shoes but I felt completely shut me out, three girls is usually never a good idea. Hermana Pin has had a difficult past and is not willing to teach some of the lessons.. I have looked at my companions as  burden to me and to the work here in begonias. They are new and dont understand the people that I have been teaching for a long time. They dont have the same love for the people. When I want to teach one more lesson before we go back to the room they both just want to go back and sleep. I know and love the people here, and know that if we don't go to the lesson they would be really disappointing. But because I am the odd man out we have to let the majority rule. I have had to exercise  a lot of patience. During my interview with the mission president this week he explained to me a little bit about Hermana Pin. That she has lived alone since she was 14,  and that her dad died recently. He explained to me the enormous personal progress she has made in the mission. He explained to me "Hermana Huish I have heard from your past companions that you are patient and a peacemaker. I hope that you can be the same with Hermana Pin." This completely changed my mind about her, and about my responsibility as a companion to her. I shouldn't be viewing her as a burden or her problems as baggage. A good companion would do everything they could to uplift and try to help them. I am going  to do my part to bring unity to our companionship and to help Hermana Pin with all of the things that she is dealing with. Every person is like an iceberg. At first we can only see the top part. And from here we make judgement's about the person based on what we see in the first impressions. But what we dont know is the giant part that hides under the water. We shouldn't be quick to judge others, because we never know what they have gone through and the reasons that they act the way that they do. I am going to make a better effort to get to know my companions and learn to love them.

Luego we had room checks and interviews with President Erickson. We passed our roomcheck. Our room is tiny, especially for three people I don't know how we are doing it. Our entire apartment is smaller then my bedroom that I have at home. But we are making it work, and luckily Hermana Frye is completely willing to sleep on the floor. 

Last week elections were held  in Peru and it is illegal to hold reunions during voting so we couldn't watch General conference when it was broadcast. So this week we all went to the stake center to watch it. 

I think my favorite quote in conference was from Hugo E Martinez. Ël que sierve sierve, y el que no sierve no sierve¨This was so awesome and so true. Its so simple and clear. I loved it. This week I will reach my half way mark in my mission. WOW i cant believe it I am half way through. I know all the basics. I can speak spanish, teach the lessons, and navigate my area.  The next 9 months are really my time to make a difference, to serve, and to change peoples lives. This morning I read in the Liahona about starting new, and setting goals. Dice Ähora es el mejor momento para empezar a ser la persona que queremos llegar a serñ no solo de aqui a veine anos, sino por toda la eternidad.¨In English it goes right now is the best moment to start to be the person you want to become, not only in 20 years from now but for the eternities.¨I really believe that now is the moment to start new for me. To make goals plans and to start to become the person I want to be. I have worked hard, I know the basics  and now I just need to put everything in practice.

Love yall and see you next summer!

Hermana Huish

My new Trio!

Hola!!

My post is early this week because our entire mission has a huge futbol (soccer) tournament on Monday. I am looking forward to playing soccer and seeing some of my friends from other zones.

Last week I was put in a trio and so far it is teaching me a lot of patience.  Hermana F and Hermana P have been together for a while so I kind of feel like the third wheel but I know this will change and we all will adjust, I need to give the situation a little more time. Hermana F. is actually a GREAT teacher and I am learning so much from her. This week we found a new investigator named J. The first lesson we taugth him went very well. We focused on all of his needs and answered his questions. He told us that he has never felt like this before about a church. He said that he has attended many different churches and that his whole family is Christian but he has never  felt at peace with any of the religions he ahs investigated. We explained to him that the peace he was now feeling was the Holy Ghost testifying to him. He accepted that and agreed to watch general conference with us this weekend. I think God was preaparing him because about a month ago J said that he had a dream and that an angel came to him in the dream to teach him the truth. During the lesson, he pointed to me and said that he felt the spirit of truth when I spoke. It is so gratifying to be able to bring light into other peoples lives and to share the gospel with them. God prepares us all in different ways, some through dreams, others through trials and life experiences. Each persons path is unique. We invited J to think about being baptized. He was willing to listen and pray for his own answers which is perfect.

This week also we had an experience with Hermana L. She has had a lot of hard things pass in her life. Her daughter is special needs, her son just left rehab. She had a broken arm and couldn't find work. She has had a lot of bad things happen and this past week her husband died in the hospital. I felt awful for her. All I could think of was to share with her the story of Job. That he had every thing he ever wanted. Satan tempted him every way possible. Satan took away his riches, his family, his home, he even had diseases. But we can all learn from Job because he never turned against God. In fact he actually drew closer  to God for help. When bad things happen in our lives we have to option to go to God for help or we can give into Satan and resent God for what has happened. I know that if we can go to God we will be blessed. After the trials of Job he was blessed more than ever. her had more flocks, and more children than before. I know God sometimes gives us trials to test us, and that if we can get through them we can become better than ever before. its also important to rembember that God will never give us something that we cant handle in Corinthians 10:13 no os ha sobrevenido ninguna tentacion ue no sea humanañ pero fiel es Dios, que no os deara ser tentados mas de lo que podeis resistir, sino que dara tambien juntamente con la tentacion la salida, para que podais sportar. 

Hope you all have a good week!
See you next summer,
Morgan