Hola!! Como estan?? You will be happy to know that I know more Spanish now than I ever did from the 3 years that I took in highschool. Thank you for your letters and e-mails! You don't know how amazing mail is until you become a missionary. Mis companeras son muy divertida, y icreibles! Me amo a ellas mucho. The Missionary Training Center is amazing! It is truly the happiest place on earth because the Spirit is so strong all the time. I feel like I constantly have a blanket of warmth wrapped around me!
This past fast Sunday, we watched a talk given by Elder Bednar entitled, "Characteristic of Christ" It was amazing! But it was different from the one he gave in Conference. This one was given at the Missionary Training Center. He began by stating that the work is more about who you are and what you are, than what you say. He said, preach my gospel is not a manual, it is what you become. Then he turned to talking about the Savior. He said, there would have been no Atoning sacrifice without the characteristic of Christ. The characteristic of Christ is that Christ turns out when the natural man would turn in. He then gave examples from the scriptures about times in Christ's life when He showed this most important characteristic. When the Savior was being tempted by the devil, He was fasting and had His own adversity and temptation. But in Matthew 4:11 in the footnotes we find that although He had His own adversity, Christ sent angels to comfort someone else, John. When He was in the upper room and He knew that He would die, He prayed for others. In the Garden of Gethsemane, after suffering for all of our sins and pains and afflictions, and after bleeding from every pore. After, finding His apostles asleep and not with him, after being betrayed, He healed the guard's ear that Peter cut off. On the cross, He asked the Father to "forgive them for they know not what they do," and in concern for His mother, He made sure she was taken care of. On the cross, He also comforted the thieves next to Him, saying that they would be in paradise with Him. All of these are examples of the characteristic of Christ. He turns out, when all of us would turn in. Elder Bednar then stated that a testimony will never be enough. We need to be truly converted. The only way to be truly converted is to develop the characteristic of Christ. And if we are truly converted, we will never fall away. He said, the church is never not true, you are just not being true to the church. He gave an example of someone with the characteristic of Christ. A woman called him saying that 3 young women had been in a horrible accident and one had died but the other two were being transferred to a hospital. She asked him on the phone if he would go identify the girls. She was the mother of one of them. While he was on the phone he could hear that she was on the phone with the hospital and he heard them identify her daughter as the one that was dead. She immediately said to Elder Bednar, we need to call the other moms and tell them that their daughters are alive and are being transferred to the hospital. In that moment, she had every right to turn inward and focus on her grief, but she cared for those other mothers and turned outward. I just want to end by letting you know, and especially the kids, that we will never fall away or leave the church if we are truly converted and have the characteristic of Christ in our lives. We can do a little everyday by caring more about others than ourselves. That is what Christ wants us to do. If we care about others more, we will never need to worry about how strong we are in the gospel. Please always remember this, because I know it is true. I testify of it! and also, obey with exactness, not because you have to, but because you want to. Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles! I love you all! gtg! Adios mi family!
-Hermana Harris
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