August 18, 2011 Hey Vosotros!

August 18, 2011

Hey Vosotros!

 So it has been another awesome week here at the CCM! Working hard, praying harder, and just doin’ my very best! As of yesterday I have officially been on a mission for 3 weeks! One third of the way done with my stay here at the MTC! The MTC is great but I just am more excited about getting to Argentina cause that is gonna be AWESOME!!!

So from my last email I got some questions about who Gloria is. Gloria is actually one of my instructors. My instructor acts as her. She taught Gloria on her mission and brings up the same doubts and struggles for when we teach her. It is super cool and real in the sense that we are dealing with real problems from real life. We teach her EVERYDAY in Spanish for about 45 minutes, and we’ll do that for all nine weeks. Every Saturday we go to the Teaching Resource center, TRC, and get to teach two people we have never met for about 30 minutes also in Spanish. I'm getting to the point where I can do almost all the lessons in Spanish pretty fluently.  It is super exciting!!!! I'm really excited every opportunity I get to teach someone. I realize they have heard it all before, but the Gospel never gets old, and since the Atonement of Christ covers EVERYTHING it never hurts to hear it again and recognize where you can apply its healing power in your life.

For my mother and Grandmothers and all the mother figures in my life, I just want to tell you that I eat a salad or wrap for lunch every day. I'm starting to enjoy veggies more with the help of a lot of ranch and bacon. So no worries! I'm eating well and staying healthy!

Something I read this week that really struck me was Moroni 10: 3-8. It is an amazing promise to us that no matter the question, we can receive an answer if we ask in faith. Going on in vs 7 and 8 Moroni pleads with us not to deny God's power in our lives.

 3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

 6 And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.

 7 And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.

 8 And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them.

 So that is my message for all of us this week. Simply that we must not limit God's influence in our lives by the things we do. I heard a quote that said "You are not entitled to lower God's standard, neither are you entitled to raise it. Never expect more or less of yourself than God does." The beautiful thing is that God only expects us to give our best, and only I and the Lord know what my best is. So only I can be a judge of how I am doing and see if I am limiting how active God can be in my life by expecting too much or too little of myself.

I've really had a lot of time to think about how awesome the atonement is lately and the lessons I have learned is that we are all great sinners but God is an even greater forgiver! So head up and just keep truckin’! That's what we as missionaries tell ourselves every day over and over.

Also something to check out is my Mom's SWEET mormon.org profile. I searched Jennifer Colorado and it popped up. Super Awesome Mom! Thanks for being such an awesome missionary!

Thanks to all of you that sent pictures! I have them all up in my room and it is fun to practice my lessons to you! I sit there and talk to ya'll about the atonement all the time!! Hope you hear me once in a while!!!

Got to go to the Provo temple again today! I'm not gonna lie, I think it looks like a spaceship and is not very attractive in comparison to other temples, but inside it is so cool and you can really feel the Spirit there just like any other temple. God has walked those halls!

 Tuesday we got to hear a devotional from Bro. Evans of the Quorum of the 70. Super awesome! He talked about just being really good missionaries and never giving up. It was good to hear.

 A fun thing that happened this week was the birthday of one of our roommates Elder Wadmen! Super awesome! We ate smashed cupcakes and "splurged" and went and bought sodas. It was the best 15 minute party before lights out I've ever had. This place is crazy ‘cause you go to bed exhausted and wake up even more tired than when you went to bed. I guess that is good ‘cause it means we're working hard but it is still a trip!

Some quick P.S's.:  If you gave me your address so I could write you....I don't have it anymore. So yah, sorry, whatever you wanna do about that… Also I'll send pictures as soon as I can!

 I love you guys!   Elder Anderson