(video isn't working. coming soon)
First things first. This was an awesome experience.
Before
After
Spanish tradition to egg/flour departing missionaries!
Spanish tradition to egg/flour departing missionaries!
Well geez. You know what? It's never over till it's over. Normally people say that about that about a girl when she's engaged to be married and some guy at the dinner party night before the wedding is missing out and his buddy leans over and says, 'It's not over till it's over, man. Go get her!" Yeah. That's the normal context. In this situation, however, I'm talking about a mission.
It wouldn't matter if I had 365, 25, or 10 days left. It's just not over till it's over. This morning a member called asking us for helping finding a scripture story. Since we didn't really have anything to plan for today we jumped at the opportunity to study it out for her. I love studying for people's questions! I love piecing it all together so that it's teach-able. You know when you get a feeling that is so strong that you can't find the words to describe it? I hate that. That's not okay with me mostly because I love to talk and anything that restrains that is therefor an obstacle. But from the teaching's of the church we know that there is no challenge that we cannot overcome. So. There is a way to take all powerful feelings and create them into a format that can be shared with others. It happens every day that I study the scriptures and then take what I find and teach it to others. I am hit so strongly by the answers that I find and I can't wait to help someone figure it out for themselves! It seems that I will continue to have this desire through till the last day of my mission. And man, is it a good mission!
You wouldn't believe how much fun Hermana Lewis and I have together. We love walking through the tree streets of downtown Nashua and make friends at every corner. Last Thursday we saw one of our old friends out on the porch with some friends so we stopped by to say hi. We stayed for a little while, long enough for a cop car to come rolling down the street. I turned around and said, "Oh! Cops. They love us!" And one of the friends said, "No, don't draw attention! He knows me!" so I replied, "No really, watch this." and I gave that cop a good hard smile-and-wave as he drove on by. He waved back and we told her, "Good. He should be off your case for awhile." It's amazing how much people really do desire the love and protection of their Father and Heaven and yet won't do anything to receive it. It doesn't matter, though, because he will always send help in one form or another and they will always have what they need available to them. As we left we said, "Alright then, same time next Thursday? We'll wave off the cops for another week." and they all laughed. Seriously, though. We have a good rep.
Obviously we have fun with the Lopez Carrasco family. We love them so much and since they've adopted Hermana Lewis into the family and call her "hija", we think it's a two-way kind of love. Late last night after the egg fiasco Heydi took me over to her house so I could shower off and gave me clothes to change into. We got back to the group again and after awhile Heydi came over, grabbed my hands, looked into my eyes and asked "did you two eat dinner today?" We tried telling her yes, because Hermana Lewis ate at 11 and I had a bowl of cereal at 3, but sweet mami saw right through it. Her and her husband cooked us up an incredible meal and said, "You can always come home for dinner, okay? This is home." Gawl we love them.
It's not just them, though. We love everyone here! The Candelario family got sealed in the Temple last week. We went through with them on Friday and back again on Saturday to see Ana, Luis and their 5 kids kneel together and be sealed for time and all eternity. It was beautiful, and I've never seen a happier family! I sat next to a sister named Kadis and we talked and talked about her family and her husband. I love her, too.
So here's what I really want to tell you today. Kind of how I was describing being able to share strong feelings that initially are hard to explain. It's how I've felt for the past six months and this morning I found the scripture to back it up! I have learned that we are here on Earth to learn. (Funny, huh?) It's the best thing we could do with our time. I have also learned that the best way to gain knowledge is through teaching others. But that's beside the point. The point is, we come to learn. If at any point we give up on learning, though, what happens? It's not a secret that life brings challenges. It's not a secret that you're not perfect (sorry) and it's definitely no secret that I'm not perfect, seeing as the past 18 months of my life have been publicly documented. We're not perfect! So we can't keep it up all the time! We can't do everything we need to all the time. So what happens when we give up on learning?
I think that we lose it.
That being said, giving up on learning could be the absolute worst decision ever. We don't just plateau when we stop practicing, we lose it. It's a pretty harsh thing, but it's gotta be true. Look at it.
If you start piano lessons at age four, rapidly learn the notes and blow away all your family and friends, but drop out by the time your 8... will you be able to even read music when you hit 20?
If you give a remarkable public speech as Valedictorian your Senior year of High School but then never go to college, never excel past your job as cashier at a fast food joint, never interview, never apply yourself, and never push yourself to learn... will you be able to stand up and run for a local office with as much persuasion, vocabulary, and class as you once had?
Or take a more extreme example. Imagine you have a stroke or get in a horrible accident that enables you from moving, talking, writing, or remembering. This isn't even a social thing anymore this is a genuine, scientific fact. You must retrain your body and mind. You relearn to take a step, you learn to swallow your first bite of solid food, and you utter your first words at extreme effort. Even sitting in a cast for a month requires rehabilitation to re-teach your limb how to move like it used to.
You just can't retain knowledge like a twinkie. It doesn't last forever. You have to keep going! It's SO much easier to just keep walking then to spend 6 months in physical therapy. It is equally so much easier to just keep reading then to run out of time and leave your scriptures on the shelf for a year.
Here's what the scriptures say about it. This is 3 Nephi 26:9-10.
It wouldn't matter if I had 365, 25, or 10 days left. It's just not over till it's over. This morning a member called asking us for helping finding a scripture story. Since we didn't really have anything to plan for today we jumped at the opportunity to study it out for her. I love studying for people's questions! I love piecing it all together so that it's teach-able. You know when you get a feeling that is so strong that you can't find the words to describe it? I hate that. That's not okay with me mostly because I love to talk and anything that restrains that is therefor an obstacle. But from the teaching's of the church we know that there is no challenge that we cannot overcome. So. There is a way to take all powerful feelings and create them into a format that can be shared with others. It happens every day that I study the scriptures and then take what I find and teach it to others. I am hit so strongly by the answers that I find and I can't wait to help someone figure it out for themselves! It seems that I will continue to have this desire through till the last day of my mission. And man, is it a good mission!
You wouldn't believe how much fun Hermana Lewis and I have together. We love walking through the tree streets of downtown Nashua and make friends at every corner. Last Thursday we saw one of our old friends out on the porch with some friends so we stopped by to say hi. We stayed for a little while, long enough for a cop car to come rolling down the street. I turned around and said, "Oh! Cops. They love us!" And one of the friends said, "No, don't draw attention! He knows me!" so I replied, "No really, watch this." and I gave that cop a good hard smile-and-wave as he drove on by. He waved back and we told her, "Good. He should be off your case for awhile." It's amazing how much people really do desire the love and protection of their Father and Heaven and yet won't do anything to receive it. It doesn't matter, though, because he will always send help in one form or another and they will always have what they need available to them. As we left we said, "Alright then, same time next Thursday? We'll wave off the cops for another week." and they all laughed. Seriously, though. We have a good rep.
Obviously we have fun with the Lopez Carrasco family. We love them so much and since they've adopted Hermana Lewis into the family and call her "hija", we think it's a two-way kind of love. Late last night after the egg fiasco Heydi took me over to her house so I could shower off and gave me clothes to change into. We got back to the group again and after awhile Heydi came over, grabbed my hands, looked into my eyes and asked "did you two eat dinner today?" We tried telling her yes, because Hermana Lewis ate at 11 and I had a bowl of cereal at 3, but sweet mami saw right through it. Her and her husband cooked us up an incredible meal and said, "You can always come home for dinner, okay? This is home." Gawl we love them.
It's not just them, though. We love everyone here! The Candelario family got sealed in the Temple last week. We went through with them on Friday and back again on Saturday to see Ana, Luis and their 5 kids kneel together and be sealed for time and all eternity. It was beautiful, and I've never seen a happier family! I sat next to a sister named Kadis and we talked and talked about her family and her husband. I love her, too.
So here's what I really want to tell you today. Kind of how I was describing being able to share strong feelings that initially are hard to explain. It's how I've felt for the past six months and this morning I found the scripture to back it up! I have learned that we are here on Earth to learn. (Funny, huh?) It's the best thing we could do with our time. I have also learned that the best way to gain knowledge is through teaching others. But that's beside the point. The point is, we come to learn. If at any point we give up on learning, though, what happens? It's not a secret that life brings challenges. It's not a secret that you're not perfect (sorry) and it's definitely no secret that I'm not perfect, seeing as the past 18 months of my life have been publicly documented. We're not perfect! So we can't keep it up all the time! We can't do everything we need to all the time. So what happens when we give up on learning?
I think that we lose it.
That being said, giving up on learning could be the absolute worst decision ever. We don't just plateau when we stop practicing, we lose it. It's a pretty harsh thing, but it's gotta be true. Look at it.
If you start piano lessons at age four, rapidly learn the notes and blow away all your family and friends, but drop out by the time your 8... will you be able to even read music when you hit 20?
If you give a remarkable public speech as Valedictorian your Senior year of High School but then never go to college, never excel past your job as cashier at a fast food joint, never interview, never apply yourself, and never push yourself to learn... will you be able to stand up and run for a local office with as much persuasion, vocabulary, and class as you once had?
Or take a more extreme example. Imagine you have a stroke or get in a horrible accident that enables you from moving, talking, writing, or remembering. This isn't even a social thing anymore this is a genuine, scientific fact. You must retrain your body and mind. You relearn to take a step, you learn to swallow your first bite of solid food, and you utter your first words at extreme effort. Even sitting in a cast for a month requires rehabilitation to re-teach your limb how to move like it used to.
You just can't retain knowledge like a twinkie. It doesn't last forever. You have to keep going! It's SO much easier to just keep walking then to spend 6 months in physical therapy. It is equally so much easier to just keep reading then to run out of time and leave your scriptures on the shelf for a year.
Here's what the scriptures say about it. This is 3 Nephi 26:9-10.
"And when they shall have received this, which is expedient that they should have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe these things then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them.
And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from them, unto their condemnation"
If we apply it, it gets greater and greater. If we stop, we lose it. It doesn't just plateau. You have to keep going. And if we've already stopped and we realize that we shouldn't have, it's okay. God is a fan of regaining what's lost. Like in Alma when the Nephites fight back to reclaim their land and their possessions, it says that they had "miraculously prospered in regaining". If you've already fallen and it's a long journey back to the top, you can be assured that you will be miraculously prospered in regaining what you lost. There is never a loss of hope, only of desire.
I guess I'll have to put my words to action in a few days when I come home. See if I can't regain what I've learned on my mission. I'm still learning, though! It's not over till it's over!
Hope you all have a great week!
The confetti popper popped 10 feet. Much more than we predicted.
Baseball with Daniel
Makin' faces. He's 3. He's huge.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HNA LEWIS
Got my hija Sister Tantillo to come up for the celebration!
Saw Hermana Ruiz at the Temple!!! (From Revere)
What I deal with.
LIFE IS A MISSION!
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