Swimming Thru the Rain

November 11, 2013

Dear family and friends,

I want to quickly share what I studied this morning. 

I had just gotten off the phone with the zone leaders. They wanted to know why our numbers were so bad. And obviously it makes me feel this big. - - I hung up the phone and complained to my companion. Then I realized that I needed a lot more humility. So I knelt down and opened up my scriptures. I looked up the definition for humility. 

To be humble is to recognize gratefully our dependence on the Lord—to understand that we have constant need for His support. Humility is an acknowledgment that our talents and abilities are gifts from God. It is not a sign of weakness, timidity, or fear; it is an indication that we know where our true strength lies. We can be both humble and fearless. We can be both humble and courageous.

But in the Spanish version I have, it mentions the word meekness. So I looked that up too. 

God-fearing, righteous, humble, teachable, and patient under suffering. The meek are willing to follow gospel teachings.

Or what I got out of both: Humility is recognizing that we need God. Meekness is accepting His will instead of our own. 

Anyway after that, I wanted to just read out of my BOM. I´m in Mosiah 28. King Mosiah taught me a great lesson about humility and meekness. (By the way, as I write this a little girl is petting my arm. her fingers are really cold so it feels good. I think I got sunburnt today. we played with my new pink shiny soccer ball and taught the Latinos how to play real football. it was fun (with our district ps.) 

So King Mosiah is a good family man. Great leader. The people love and respect him. One day his sons come up to him with a proposition. Dad, we want to go to a foreign land to teach people far away that want to kill us and our people. So...can we go? 

Poor Mosiah. What a difficult position as a parent to be in. Nobody could deny their request was noble. But these were his sons! What would happen to them? Among other concerns, I´m sure he was worried about who would take over the kingdom when he left? 

Vs 5 Says: 

And it came to pass that they did plead with their father many days that they might go up to the land of Nephi.

I assume Mosiah said something like, ¨Not a chance. No!¨ And I imagine they kept bugging him. Wanting to go. ¨Please dad?¨¨No.¨¨Come on!¨Haha. Yes this is Megan´s point of view. They asked him many times, throughout many days. I´m assuming they had to do this because Mosiah said no with the knowledge he had at the time. So finally, he humbles himself and decides to ask the Lord. 

And king Mosiah went and ^ainquired of the Lord if he should let his sons go up among the Lamanites to preach the word.

(Vs. 6) And then you know what happens next? Meekness. And the Lord said unto Mosiah: Let them go. 

 Can you imagine? Well I´m sure you parents out there can. For you missionaries or future mishies out there, I really love this part too. 

 for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life; and I will^adeliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites.

I know that there will be many out there that will believe on our words. And I know that if we keep working hard we will have eternal life. And I know we´ll be okay. That the Lord is watching out for us. He did not send us out here to fail. 

You know what Mosiah did next? 

And it came to pass that Mosiah granted that they might go and do according to their request.

I´m sure this was no easy task for Mosiah, but He did it. I realized today from this personal study that I needed to ask God what I need to do to help this area grow. And I not only need to ask, but I need to meekly respond to what He desires. One of the hardest things in this life we´ll have to learn is how to put aside our own desires and accept the Lord´s. After this study and a nice personal prayer, I felt peace. I felt so much better. Scripture study is amazing. 

Anyways, that was a snip it on my personal study this morning. 

Tuesday 11-5-13

It poured rain today. I felt like I was swimming through it. My feet have blisters from rubbing against my rubber wet shoes. 

We ended the night with a FHE. It felt good being with a strong family in the gospel. We shared a message about the role Jesus plays in our lives. I felt the spirit and really enjoyed that. After we played the flour game and related it to the atonement. 

I´m grateful for this country. We walked home in a rainforest full of croaking frogs and mysterious night things. (Bray, picture the Garfield camping episode and the purple jaguar...I think I saw his eyes!) 

Wednesday 11-6-13

This week I´ve been able to feel and thus enjoy, the company of the Holy Ghost with me in almost every aspect of the work. I´ve been trying to figure out what changed. Ultimately the truth is, God views the desires of our heart. It truly is through small and simple things, and obedience, that God blesses us. 

We´ve definitely been in taking a lot of food and not been doing exercise. So today was the first day of breaking into the habit. We decided to run 2 min, walk 2. Seemed to work when Ash and I were doing it. My comp and I wondered if we could go work out at the stadium (giant futbol fans here.) we can! It was super fun actually. I´d like to return one day and film a zombie attack movie there-it´s the perfect set. And as you run, you catch glimpses of the rolling green hills, dark thundery sky, and the array of rainbow colored houses and chapels. This country is beautiful and I´m grateful I´m serving here. 

One of the ways I enjoyed the Holy Ghost today was studying for specific people. I had a good personal study and all throughout the day I could see that I´d studied that for a reason. I know that God knows each of our needs and truly answers us-usually through other people. We had plans to teach the law of chastity. I had a scripture come to mind-the one about putting on the armor of God and we connected it to chastity being our protection. We went to teach a menos activa. In her moms restaurant. I guess we got the time wrong because we ended up waiting a long time. Her mom gave us food, rice and noodles. Eventually we were able to teach her a very spiritual lesson. 

I love you!

Hi mom!

What a beautiful spiritual letter. I needed a little spiritual umph from you. You spoke about so many things that truly touch my heart and spirit. Thank you mom! About my bed. I had a smile on my face as I read that because you know what I´ve been doing lately? Making my bed. Everyday. Know why? Because it helps me to remember to pray. Real prayer. I´m working on not praying just to go through the motions but to have a real communication with my Father. It´s amazing how much he loves me. And you. And your diligence. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Hermana Meg. 

P.S. I was arguing about how English isn´t that hard. Yes it is, they said, all of your words sound the same! Like what?! I asked. Ice and eyes. haha

Say this sentence out loud. A bear with a beard drinking a beer.