April 28, 2014
Hola mi familia y amigos! Gracias por todas las cartas! Me encanta leer de sus aventuras y las semanas exitosas que tienen. Thank you for all of your prayers and support!
This week was great! Some highlights! We had English/piano classes that were actually successful!!! A ton of non-members came!!! Woohoo! We also had a sweet activity with the Relief Society. we ate sopaipillas!!! They are like fried bread, and you eat them with chopped up tomatoes, onion, garlic, and salt. They are so good! It was a great week with many blessings and it was so much fun! We are so excited for Cesar and Carolina, and their family! They are doing great! Cesar didn't receive the Aaronic Priesthood this week because he went to work out of town again, but he will receive it the upcoming week. They ward continues to fellowship them and help us teach them the new member lessons. We are so excited for the blessings they are receiving! Sadly, we didn't have another baptism this past Sunday, but we were able to help people progress towards baptism this week!
Our new companion is Hermana Montañez de México. But we have some sad news. She got transferred to another area this morning, so we are just 2 sisters again. I am so happy to still be here with Hermana Blau, because she is amazing!!!! But we are both sad that our trio ended so quickly. We had an amazing week with Hermana Montañez before she left! She taught us so much about following the Spirit, and being bold, and inviting everyone to a baptismal date... we had kind of lost the focus of always doing this. But now, we are refocused and we are inviting everyone to baptism and to a baptismal date!!! It is extremely important that we do this, because without the invitation that we have to give them, they don´t know how to repent and change, or how to find the happiness that we have. That's why it is so important for us as members to share the gospel with everyone we meet/know. They all need to make the sacred covenant of baptism, and the other covenants necessary for salvation.
That is something I learned a lot about this week, Covenants. What exactly is a covenant? It is a promise between us and God. God creates the conditions of the covenant and He promises to bless us as we follow these conditions. For example, with baptism we promise to always remember the Savior, Jesus Christ, to take His name upon us, and to always keep His commandments. In return for our obedience, God promises us the constant companionship of His Spirit. Without making and keeping the covenants, we cannot receive the blessings. There are a lot of covenants we can make. We make covenants as we participate in all of the ordinances that we need for salvation, but there are also other covenants. I was studying the Book of Mormon this week in Alma 53, and this chapter talks a lot about covenants. Here is the story of the stripling warriors, but I want to point out a few of the covenants that were made. In verse 10-15 it talks about the covenant that their fathers has made. It reads:
"10. And now behold, I have somewhat to say concerning the people of Ammon, who, in the beginning, were Lamanites; but by Ammon and his brethren, or rather by the power and the word of God, they had been converted unto the Lord; and they had been brought down into the land of Zarahemla, and had ever since been protected by the Nephites.
11. And because of their oath they had been kept from taking up arms against their brethren; for they had taken an oath that they never would shed blood more; and according to their oath they would have perished; yea, they would have sufferend themselves to have fallen into the hands of their brethren, had it not been for the pity and the exceeding love which Ammon and his brethren had had for them.
12. And for this cause they were brought down into the land of Zarahemla; and they ever had been protected by the Nephites.
13. But it came to pass that when they saw the danger, and the many afflictions and tribulations which the Nephites bore for them, they were moved with compassion and were desirous to take up arms in the defence of their country.
14. But behold, as they were about to take their weapons of war, they were overpowered by the persuasions of Helaman and his brethren, for they were about to break the oath which they had made.
15. And Helaman feared lest by so doing they should lose thier souls; therfore all those who had entered into their convent were compelled to behold their brethen wade through their afflictions, in their dangerous circumstances at this time."
Here we see that they had covenanted not to fight against their brethren ever again. They had made this covenant and it was so important that they kept it because when we don't keep covenants, there is always a consequence. But when we do keep covenants, there are always blessings. In this same chapter, it talks about the covenant their sons made.
"16. But behold, it came to pass they had many sons, who had not entered into a covenant that htey would not take their weapons of war to defend themselves against their enemies; therefore they did assemble themselves together at this time, as many as were able to take up arms, and they called themselves Nephites.
17. And they entered into a covenant to fight for the liberty of the Nephites, yea, to protect the land unto the laying down of their lives; yea, even they covenanted that they never would give up their liberty, but they would fight in all cases to protect the Nephites and themselves from bondage."
These righteous young men made a covenant as well, a different covenant, but one that was so important, and they kept their covenant with exact obedience and all diligence, and because of this, all of them were spared in the war, and they were victorious. We all have made covenants or will make covenants. We make covenants at baptism, we renew our covenants every week. We make covenants in the temple. The righteous men of the church make covenants when they receive the priesthood. I made a covenant when I chose to come on a mission, as do all other missionaries. We all make covenants, and we all need to keep covenants. The most important work we can do in this life is to help others make and KEEP their covenants. That is our role. I know that as we invited others to come and make covenants, and then we work with new converts and less actives so that we can help them keep their covenants, we will all be blessed, and we will all return home to live with our Heavenly Father and our Savior.
This week we worked hard to help people make and keep their covenants. We worked with less actives, and the Familia Alarcon is becoming active again!!! we worked with our new converts and others and were able to help them come to church! We also taught Javiera, and she is preparing for baptism on the 17th of May! We also taught Carlos, an old investigator who came to church for the first time!!! He didn't accept a date, but we still invited him! We hope to work with him and a few other news we found this week. Please pray for Vanessa and Fernando, Carlos, Javiera, Cecilia, and Marcela.
Thank you for all of your prayers and your love! I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, where we can make and keep eternal covenants. I love you all! Thanks for your examples of missionary work this week! Keep giving away Books of Mormon! I love you all! Have an amazing week!!! Hasta luego!!!
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