Friday, January 2, 2015

La Familia es de Dios‏ Oct. 27, 2014

Dear everyone,
 
Another week. I keep not having much to say because the weeks are just flying by!
 
We have been helping our recent convert, Marlen, get married and this week we were able to go to the court and get the license!!!! It was a miracle. I call Marlen my Guatemalan mother because she looks like a Guatemalan version of my mom and a lot of their mannerisms are the same. It is so cute. On Sunday I told her "Hermana, voy a enviar un foto de usted a mi madre porque ustedes parecen bien similar. Y siempre pienso 'wow Marlen is como mi mama de Guatemala.'" She got a good laugh out of that.
 

One of the investigators this week who is waiting to be baptized told us that he downloaded The Book of Mormon on his families phones!!! And he gave out one of our pamphlets to a guy at work, and his wife is doing family history!!! Wow. They are so awesome.
 
These are my awesome companions! We got bluebell ice-cream this week (the best).
Later today, I'm going to sew them both skirts at a members house. I am pretty excited to get to sew again.
 
We also had our primary program this week which consisted of 2 girls and 3 boys. Yeah, our branch is pretty small. But is was so good!!! When they sang "La Familia es de Dios" I couldn't help but start to cry. Families really are the best. They also gave out little pins to everyone as they entered Sacrament Meeting that said "Las Familias son Eternas."
 
This week I've been thinking a lot about the Atonement too. Elder Holland once said of the Savior, "No one’s eyes were more penetrating than His, and much of what He saw pierced His heart. Surely His earsheard every cry of distress, every sound of want and despair. To degree far more than we will ever understand, He was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” ‍ Indeed, to the layman in the streets ofJudea, Christ’s career must have seemed failure, tragedy, good man totally overwhelmed by the evils surrounding Him and the misdeeds of others. He was misunderstood or misrepresented, even hatedfrom the beginning. No matter what He said or did, His statements were twisted, His actions suspected, His motives impugned. In the entire history of the world no one has ever loved so purely or served soselflessly—and been treated so diabolically for His effort. Yet nothing could break His faith in His Father’s plan or His Father’s promises. Even in those darkest hours at Gethsemane and Calvary, He pressed on,continuing to trust in the very God whom He momentarily feared had forsaken Him...Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel ofJesus Christ, they come.‍ Of that personally attest. thank my Father in Heaven for His goodness past, present, and future, and do so in the name of His Beloved Son and most generous high priest, even the LordJesus Christ, amen."
I too would like to add my testimony, that sometimes blessings seem to come late. But they do come. Sometimes repentance takes time, but we can be cleansed from every impurity and weakness. And that repentance really means happiness. Just take whatever it is you have and give it to the Savior and I promise He will return with something better than you can imagine.
 
-Hermana Ries

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