Hermana Kelsey 12:2 -email-Dear family,
Como estan? Espero que todo esta bien con ustedes. I’m doing pretty good. This week we found some really cool new investigators, so I am excited for some of the upcoming lessons we will have with them. 🙂
Some things that happened this week were:
Monday: Sister W. got really sick and was throwing up and stuff, so we didn’t go out and work. I did some work in the apartment while she slept. The elders were so sweet and got her soup and Sprite and stuff. They are so cool. They really take good care of us. 🙂
Tuesday: I was feeling kind of sick, but I only threw up a little. We were also in charge of the Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening), that we do every week here, so we did that later in the evening. We talked about adversity. We shared the story about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail, and how if we turn to the Lord, everything works out okay, and we can make it through all our trials. We also shared a quote but I forgot the paper to I can’t remember how it goes right now. But it’s a good one. 🙂
Wednesday: We had this really cool member/recent convert come out on exchange with us, and she was awesome. I sat in the back with her little 4 year old boy. He was cracking me up. He was playing Super Mario on his Nintendo DS, and he was teaching me all the names of the animals in spanish, and teaching me how to play the game, even though I already know how. It was funny.
Friday: We had a really cool lesson with our investigator, L. She is really young, but she kind of seems to get what life is all about more than some people who are older and have more life experience. We taught her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and when we said the first vision, she paused for a moment, then said, “Wow, that is amazing.” She just really got the meaning behind it, and what a special/important event it was. Then she told us she was for sure going to read the Book of Mormon. We are pretty excited to see what happens with her. 🙂
Sunday: We talked about the Creation in gospel principles, and we went around the room telling something that God created that we are grateful for. I talked about the trees, and also sunrises and sunsets, because I love both of those.
From Mom: Church was awesome! Elizabeth A. gave a great talk. She told the story of the guy who has to do push ups so everyone can have a donut. It is a example of the atonement. Your cute little dad was tearing up. He is so tender. I love that. Brother W. gave an awesome talk on forgiveness. He gave part of the story in that book “Return From Tomorrow”. The book about the guy who died and then came back. The story he told was about the guy who was in a concentration camp. Everyone thought he hadn’t been there long because he was in such good shape, physically and emotionally. They found out that he had been there the longest. The guy in the story wanted to know why he was doing so good. He told them that the Germans had killed his family. His wife and two daughters and three little boys. He asked them to kill him too, but they wouldn’t because he spoke German and they could use him. He knew that what killed his family was hate. He didn’t want to have the same feelings that the Germans had when they killed his family. So he chose to forgive.
Mom: I love that analogy of the push ups for the Atonement. It makes it more real, because you see someone suffering. Sometimes, i think we overlook what really happened because it seems so abstract, and impersonal, but it really is so very personal. I never had a lesson like that in seminary, but I heard they used to do one with a really strong jock guy, and he would have to do the push ups for you whether or not you decided to take the treat. It’s true, because Jesus Christ really suffered for our sins, even if we choose not to repent of them. He still felt the pain of them happening, and then we feel it too, if we choose not to repent.
So questions:
1-any new investigators? 1. We have a few new investigators with real potential. One of them, J., has had a lot of really big drastic changes in his life. His wife and him recently seperated, which we could tell was really hard for him, and he had a death in the family in December in a really bad car crash. These things aren’t really good or desirable, but they humble people, and make them more opne to receive the gospel.
3-what’s your favorite color? (Buddy the elf wants to know) 3. Tell Buddy my favorite color is still kelly green. And tell him I miss him, and can’t wait to come back so we can make snow angels together. 🙂
Special question:
4-How do you forgive someone, if they have done something unforgivable?
4. Forgiviness is somethign that is really hard for a lot of people. Forgiveness is something that is a choice you make for yourself. The person you are hurting the most when you can’t forgive someone is yourself, and most of the time, the other person doesn’t even know they have hurt you. Something I have learned on the mission, is that when you cannot forgive someone for something they have done, you are making it so the Lord cannot forgive you when you do something wrong. There is a scripture about that, but I can’t remember where it is. Also, another question is: Are you going to let other people’s actions keep you from salvation? Because that is what you do when you are unforgiving.
From Dad: The story your Mom did not tell you from Brother W’s talk also. It was about a couple who brought their blind child to see if he could be healed. The man who was going to give the blessing had the impression that the parents of the boy had a lot of hate and that the boy could be healed only if they would give up the hate. The parents talked and said that their son would have to go through life blind because they were not willing to give up the hate. I find it unbelievable that they cared more about holding on to hate than curing their son. The contrast between the two stories is stark. I love going to Church and refilling my tank.
Dad: That story makes me sad. Sometimes people put their own selfish desires/problems in the way of something good, and then the good cannot happen. I have seen that a lot with people on the mission. They care more about winning the argument than solving the problem. It’s really hard to watch people that could have such great things in their lives, but because they are ignorant or they cannot move past a problem they have had, they prevent themselves from progressing and receiving blessings. It’s really sad. But we just pray for them, and know that the Lord will take care of it how it needs to be. I realyl liked how you talked about refilling your tank at church. That is something we use when we talk to people about church attendance. Either that or recharging a battery. That is truly what it is. All week you get worn down by the world, and people, but then you get to go to church and focus on your relationship with God, and renew your convenants you made a baptism. It’s awesome! 🙂
Emmy: Man, I can’t believe you gave up on the hair challenge! On well, I am still going to do it. But I am still waiting for a letter from you. 🙂 🙂 🙂 So this will be all I am writing. But I would also like an update on my Facebook if you could be so kind. 🙂 Love ya! Bye! Peace and blessings!
Gotta go now. I love you all a lot.
Love, Kelsey XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
It’s probably safe to say that Grandma Ruth lost her marbles.
Give us a smile!
