The Best 18 Months!!: Hello Everybody!!

So this past week I had a tiny, little breakdown. Ya I guess you could call it that. Haha! I was just getting really frustrated with myself because I feel like I learn new things about the language, and then the next day I forget. My district was really helpful though and reassured me that I'm doing great and need to just have more confidence in my ability. It really is like I have eight more brothers and a sister here! My teacher was also really helpful and I love her!

My district is amazing and we are continually growing closer together! There is one particular district in our zone that is a little rambunctious and everyone in my district is grateful that we're all not like that. It's great to have people here that you can talk to about anything whether it's silly or spiritual.

This week a district from our zone left and they gave us a bottle with notes they wrote to us inside of it. Apparently it's something that the old district 5D started (before us). The note said that at the end of our stay here we pass the bottle on to our favorite district and it will just continue to be passed throughout our zone.

This past Sunday Hermana Pratt gave another beautiful Relief Society lesson on the process of conversion. Remember, "faith without works is dead."

For one of our devotionals we watched a talk by Elder Richard G. Scott that I've heard before. I loved it and what happened at the end of his talk was something I really needed to hear. So Elder Scott had already finished his talk and sat down but after the closing song and right before the closing prayer was said he got back up and said this,

"Remember, the Lord has called you to succeed, not to fail. Sometimes it may seem terribly hard, but He wants you to grow. He will not abandon you. He inspired your call. He knows who you are. He knows what you need. He knows what He wants you to become, and this mission experience is an opportunity He has given you to discover things about yourself you never knew; capacities you never knew you had, strength beyond what you felt you had, and the capacity to love and serve which will sustain you throughout the rest of your life. Remember, you have been called and He will fit the task to your capabilities. I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I really love this quote and even though it is aimed towards missionaries you can apply it to everyone in their own lives. Elder Scott had already talked about this in his talk but he felt the need to say it again. It was awesome to see an apostle receive revelation and follow the promptings of the spirit right in front of me.

In class with President Pratt we also watched a video on the priesthood and I learned some very interesting things! I loved though that in the video Elder L. Tom Perry said that he did not feel worthy of his calling as an apostle. I was shocked! This is an apostle who helps lead and guide the church and he doesn't feel worthy. That was very humbling to me.

Another video we watched was called The Story of John Tanner. I encourage you all to watch it! John Tanner's amount of faith was incredible and he truly endured to the end! John Taylor couldn't walk because he had some kind of infection in his leg and he wanted to be baptized but knew it would be impossible to do so with his leg. So the very faithful missionaries who were worthy of their priesthood power blessed John that he would be able to walk. It was amazing and John had the faith to be healed! Then that same exact night he insisted on being baptized and walked...I think 3 miles, on a leg he hadn't been able to walk on for years to a lake to be baptized! I was amazed!

The last video we watched was about Christ, His crucifixion, and the atonement. Many thoughts and feelings came to my mind as I watched but one of them was, "How could Judas betray Christ?" How could one of Christ's apostles, who witnessed the miracles Christ performed and who witnessed the blessings Christ gave others do this?! Judas was an apostle! He must have had a testimony!

That just made me think that even the best can fall. We need to seriously start thinking with an eternal perspective and get our act together. We need to constantly take advantage of the precious gift of the atonement because we all make mistakes. We need to continually strive to cultivate Christ-like attributes and live as He did. We need to be examples to others and share our testimonies.

I love you all very much! I especially missed Dad this week!

Love,

Hermana Soliz :)