Hola familia y amigos! (Hello family and friends!)
How was your week? How was General Conference? I LOVED Conference this week! It was exactly what I needed (ironically that is exactly what her brother said! haha!), and was an answer to many of my prayers. And, I got to watch it in English! What a blessing!
Alright, first things first. I got a virus from the water this week...so I was SUPERRRR sick, and literally wanted to die! So, three weeks in Chile and I have already had my first water sickness. Yes, I am using my filtered water bottle, but I guess some stuff still doesn't get filtered out! I will be buying water that is already filtered AND re-filtering it in my bottle from now on! haha!
We had a great week of teaching, and had Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with the family of Sofia and Catalina (the sisters that we are baptizing), and another family in the ward. Sofia and Catalina were not baptized yesterday because Sofia broke her arm. They are rescheduled for the 26th of this month. They are still excited to be baptized though! For Family Home Evening we talked about needing to believe and have faith in all things. It was based off of a talk given by Jeffery R. Holland titled, "Lord, I Believe." It was great, and just what they all needed to hear! Afterwards, we made pizzas together, which was a lot of fun!
We started teaching a man named Romelio. He is about 70 years old and he has been Catholic his whole life. We have had three lessons with him. He keeps telling us that he doesn't want to be baptized or attend our church because he feels that it would show disrespect to his mom (who was also Catholic), and so... that is a challenge. But I pray that he will at least feel the love of Christ and understand that the gospel can bring him more happiness. Hopefully the Spirit can touch his life in some way...soon :)
My Spanish is getting better, and I am starting to have more patience with myself in learning it. I have been really hard on myself the last few weeks because I can't communicate very well. But I have faith, and I take it one day at a time. Nothing comes all at once, and nothing is going to be easy. But it is worth it, and the Lord never puts us through anything that we cannot handle!
So from Conference this week, there were a couple of talks that really stood out to me. The first was by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. I loved when he said, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." How true is that?!? I so needed to hear that this week. It has been a hard week, and I have doubted myself a lot. So I learned that I need to have more faith and really try to be more patient with myself. The Lord sent me here for a reason, and I just have to be an instrument in His hands in the best way that I can!
The next talk I liked was by Jeffery R. Holland. I loved that he said that we need to not run faster than we have strength, trust in God, be patient, non-judgmental, and kind. Happy days will come to pass!
Well, I am out of time. I am so sorry! I will make sure to have more news for you next week. I hope that you all are doing well. Know that I love and miss you all so much, and that you are in my thoughts and prayers always! Stay strong, pray, and read your scriptures! I LOVE YOU! Until next week!!! :)
XOXOXOXO, Hermana Avery
I Had to Whack Him and Start Running! (September 30, 2013)
"I was praying to my God!" (October 14, 2013)
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| Making pizza with Hermana Mori, Catalina, and Sofia |
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| Our house in Ovalle, Chile |
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| Hermanas Mori and Avery, and Catalina Making pizzas for Family Home Evening |
