October 21, 2013

mexico city

i was going to send you this picture of the clouds and tell you i made it to minnesota! its lovely here! haha cuz it looks like snow

cow tongue tacos!

these are for you mom 

minneapolis (:

the awesome library here

biking with sis peterson

this is one of the members, hermano benjamin

Hey! So this week has been truely awesome. I know i say something like that every week, but it's true, it just keeps getting better and better!

Okay so this week has been fun! Today is the first day it snowed! woohoo! bring on the minnesota winters! haha so this week we taught one of our investigators about sacrament, and I was trying to explain that after a week of work and being tired and making mistakes, sacrament is a time to be able to refresh our souls and renew our week. well i didnt know what the word refresh was in spanish so i just made one up and i said the sacrament "refresca" our souls. In spanish that means soda. so i just basically told our investigators that the sacrament is a soda. haha she gave me a funny look about that. good thing we have companions who straighten things out haha we laughed about it for a while. ah man gotta love it. 

So I want to talk more about why members are so important in the conversion process of friends and family. Last night was my first lesson with a member present who was a friend of the investigator. Let me tell you that it was the best lesson I've had so far. To have someone you trust in when you are learning about the gospel is so important. As I teach lessons to investigators I know that this message is true, I've been born into this gospel and so the things I teach are things I've known my whole life. These people here know very little or even nothing about Jesus Christ and God. So to be taught all of these new things is very different and very difficult to understand and accept, especially from people that you don't know.

As representatives of Christ we do all we can with these people to gain their trust and to know that the message we share is about Christ and that we truely want nothing more than for them to be happy in this life, and we do gain their trust and their confidence, but to have someone who they already know and trust makes the message we have to share so much more important and they are so much more willing to accept what we have to share and see the example of their friends or families life changes and that they can truely see for themselves that this gospel really does make us happier and live better. It's so cool.

I've realized how important it is to have a support in going through immense changes in life, especially for something that could be totally new to them. I've learned that in being a missionary how important a companion is because in a similar sense, I'm just like the investigators, I'm in a whole new setting, with so many alterations in my daily life that without the support of my companion would have been so much harder to get used to. I could be done, but I'm so glad to have someone as a guide to make it easier for me to do whats right.

So, members, I invite you all to be that guide to those who need that help, It truly is so important. I know that we all feel like life is busy, but we have to take time for others who are lost in this world. You are the answer to their prayers and they could be answers to your prayers as well.

Love you all! until next time!

Love Hermana Ficklin