Hola! January 12, 2015
Que
pasa? Lol I hope you're all doing good in the Great White North. It's been
raining here instead of snowing which is super weird for me, but I'm not
complaining haha!
We
had 3 people baptized this last Saturday. First was Maricielo, she's from Peru.
We were co-teaching her with the YSA Sisters, Sister Samartano and Sister
Goormastic, because she speaks Spanish, but she wants to attend the YSA ward
because she has more friends there, and she came to Utah to learn English so
she has been going to the YSA ward, but we taught her haha. It was an amazing
experience, the Sister Samartano is from Milan Italy, and Sister Goormastic is
from Connecticut. Maricielo has such a soft heart and I am so blessed to know
her! She's going back to Peru in a few months but she's already a strong
member. She's an amazing person and I honestly love her so much! (not in a
creepy way haha)
The
other 2 people were Teresa and Marlon, they are also amazing people. Marlon is
only 8 years old and is slightly autistic so we had to teach him in a very
visual way so he would understand. He's a really smart kid, he just needed to
be taught in a different style and it was a blast watching him grow and mature.
After Elder Firpo baptized him, he yelled "I DID IT!" It was super
cute and super funny, he told us afterwards that he felt really good. Teresa is
Marlon's Mom, she's a single mom with 4 kids all under the age of 9, it's crazy
how she does it! She works during the night while they're sleeping and then she
sleeps during the day while they're at school! She is an inspirational lady for
all of us, if she can endure all of these problems in her life and still be
able to come to church, and keep the commandments then most of us have no
reason not too. Her kids are Marlon (8), Madison (6), Nate and Lexi (Twins that
are both 4), so she's really busy all the time, but she's very humble and
grateful for Christ in her life.
The
Guadarrama family were blessing and passing the Sacrament at church yesterday,
it's been amazing to watch them grow too. I also gave Teresa and Marlon the
Holy Ghost at church, and it was in SPANISH! It was my first time giving
someone the Holy Ghost and it was also the first time I've given someone a
blessing in Spanish. I was super nervous, and I messed up a bit but it's all
part of learning a language. I did better than I thought I would haha but It
was amazing to give them that precious gift.
I love the Lord and all the blessings
he provides for all of us. He's very gracious and loving to all of us, and it's
never too late for us to change. The atonement of Jesus Christ is eternal, and
so are our covenants. We must always fulfill them and use the atonement in our
lives. None of us should be satisfied with how we are, we should always want to
improve. God always wants us to progress, we either progress or fall. We can't
stay at the same level anymore, the world is just to wicked for that. We either
progress or fall, so I suggest we choose to progress. We're all in this
together, just like a team in basketball. When we work together and help each
other overcome our trials and difficulties, we will all progress together
faster.
As
for NFL Picks, I've only gotten 1 game wrong in the playoffs so far. I'm 7-1
right now, pretty good considering I don't watch the games. This week whoever
wins the NFC Championship between the Seahawks and Packers will win the Super
Bowl. That's a guarantee. The Colts and Patriots don't have good enough
defenses to beat the Packers or the Seahawks. I'm picking the Seahawks and
Patriots to win this week. Seahawks win in a close hard fought game by about
3-5 points, and Patriots win by about 10-14 points.
I
love you all and thanks for all the support you guys always give me!
My
companion is a boss and I love him! We have very similar personalities and we
both love the work of the Lord. Clothes are fine and shoes are good. Yes we
have access to washer and dryer whenever we need it. I'm not sure if I'm
gaining weight because we don't have a scale that functions in our apartment,
but just looking at myself in the mirror every morning I think I've gained a
bit of weight, like maybe 10-15 pounds on my mission but I'm tall and slim
still, like I think it's more muscle I've gained than fat honestly. I exercise
most mornings. The knee is pretty good, there's the occasional day that it gets
sore but as long as I wear my brace it usually holds up fine.
Ok
normal stuff now haha. I can't believe Sarah is getting that old either, that
is insane! Holy Cow! Sounds like basketball is going well, good job Miranda!
Thanks so much for your constant love and support so here's an interesting
story quick.
So
there's a priest that comes out with us a lot, his name is Reuben Salas and
he's a boss. I like him a lot, he plays football and is an Offensive Lineman,
he's about 5'10ish but he weighs like 240 I'm guessing, he's super strong and
super big and he's only 16 so I like him a lot. Anyways, he was baptized when
he was 10 and his family loves missionaries, but one day his Mom (This is the
family that gave Elder Berrios and I toques) told us about their conversion,
after this story my respect for Reuben went way higher!
Reuben
was born with a heart disorder and the doctors told his parents he would die
when he was 11-12ish because his heart would beat too fast and would eventually
fail. When his family was investigating the church Reuben was around that age
where his parents were starting to get worried, because they knew it could be
the beginning of the end for their beloved son. Sister Salas was driving her
son, Reuben, to school one day and he told her that his chest was hurting a
lot, so she told him to go get it checked by the school nurse. She got a phone
call about 5 minutes later and the principal told her to come to the school
ASAP because Reuben was being taken to the hospital, his blood pressure was way
too high and so was his heart beat. The doctors were able to calm Reuben's
heart down, but they told her this was the beginning of the end, which was
exactly what they feared. They told Reuben about it, and he asked them about
the missionaries. They were really confused because Reuben was only 10 years
old, and he even admits he didn't know exactly what was going on during the
lessons.
The
Salas family was very uncertain about this church and whether they wanted to be
baptized or not. They liked the missionaries and stuff, but they weren't sure
yet whether they were true messengers from God or not. Reuben told his Mom to
call the missionaries and have them come over. When they came over Reuben
looked at his parents and told them, 'I know they can heal me, but if they can
heal me we're all getting baptized on February 27th, ok?" His Parents were
like, ok whatever you say son! The missionaries gave him a blessing and through
his great faith he was healed, the heart disorder is still there but the
affects of it is very minimal, and now he is playing football at a high level.
They were all baptized on that day and are some of the strongest members I've
ever met in my life.
I
hope that story touched you, it definitely touched me the first time I heard
it.
Oh
yeah I've been a missionary for 5 months now, where does the time go?
Love
you and Good luck with everything!
Love,
Elder
Strate
1st Picture is Maricielo with all the missionaries that taught her.
2nd Picture is Teresa and Marlon and their family.
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