Hola! Buenos tardes!
So this week has been awesomely long and fast as all weeks are. I am finally getting down the language a little better! I can kinda have a conversation with natives :) Mi companeras and I have been doing days where we have "English fasts" and we have to say everything in Spanish. It is realllly hard but we all learn a lot. Sometimes I do not actually know if anyone else would ever understand us, but it is all good. One of our teachers told us this inspirational story about this new missionary. So here at the CCM you start teaching people within like two days and it is all in Spanish. Anyways this missionary, since he did not know how to say anything, said "Yo soy Jose Smith" and then, later, to try to redeem himself, he said "Yo soy JesuCristo." So, in Spanish saber is to know, and the yo (or I form) is se. So when you bear your testimony you say, "Yo se JoseSmith fue un profeta" or "Yo se JesuCristo vive." Soy is like saying I am, in a permanent form. So the whole time this missionary was saying I am Joseph Smith and I am Jesus Christ instead of I know. Ahhhhh the joys of learning :) Luckily I do not think I have done anything like that... yet. I just butcher every tense haha.
This week I have learned a lot about the Holy Ghost, or the Espiritu Santo.We had an assignment to read all these scriptures and study about it, then my district leader asked if I would do our district class and teach about the Espiritu. It is a lot like Sunday School but just for your district. I was kinda nervous since the most teaching I have ever done is... nada. Visiting teaching and teaching our "investigators" here. But I accepted and I learned a ton more. So... if you all want to open up your scriptures to D&C 130;22 there is this awesome scripture that I always looked over. It talks about how Dios y JesuCristo have a body of flesh and bones, but how the Espiritu does not, because if he did, he could not dwell within us. I never thought of it like that. When we live worthy and live our lives in a good way, the Spirit can literally dwell within us and help us. We will never be alone as long as we have the Espiritu Santo. I was also reading in Preach my Gospel (If you do not have a copy, it is the best book in the world second to the scriptures) and it said when we pray we should listen for the Espiritu Santo to tell us what we should pray for. This helps it be more of a conversation with God, and not just a list (which I am so prone to doing). So, I started doing this and it has been pretty amazing. Last week I was saying my nightly prayers and I decided to take time at the end before I closed to listen and see if there was anything more I needed to pray about. I got this really strong impression to pray for my roommate to adjust well to her new mission and to be able to get settled in. So I did, and later I found out that that week she had just arrived and was just getting settled in. I also was really upset about something, so again I said my prayer and at the end waited, and I got this impression to start thinking about something. So I did, and it completely answered my question. Last night I once again waited, and I had this feeling that I needed to pray specifically for someone, and then today I found out that they had had a really hard week. The crazy thing is, is that this is just a few of the things. Some of the things I have prayed for I do not know what was going on, but I know the Lord knew and because I listened to the Espiritu hopefully they have been helped. I would commit you all to try it! It is crazy awesome, and I know the Lord is waiting us to listen so that he can bless us and bless others in our lives.
Second awesome thing is that Elder Allen, who is in charge of the whole missionary department, came to the CCM this week and he talked to all of us and it was pretty amazing. He said something that struck me really hard. He said the Lord´s hands are outstreched, with nail marks in his hands as proof, that he has already paid the price for our sins and problems. He is waiting for us, and all we have to do is come to him. And yep, I started crying. He also talked to all of our maestros (teachers). Mi maestra said that he told them a story. One time he was talking to President Monson, and President Monson asked "How many missionaries do we have again?" Elder Allen responded 80,000 (or whatever the number is...) and President Monson got all teary eyed and said "that is a lot of missionaries, and the Lord knows each one of them." So beautiful. And I know the Lord knows each one of us.
It seems like a lot of my family and friends have had a really hard week this week. I want you all to know that I love you, and that I know that the Lord has suffered for our pains and hard times already. He has nail marks in his hands and feet to prove it. Most of the time he does not take the hard times away, but he will comfort us and strengthen us. "Draw near unto me, and I will draw near unto you." Also, never forget that Satan is as real as the Lord is, and he too is working on us. There is a reason that Satan came right before Joseph Smith´s first vision. If we pray though, the Lord will always protect us.
My prayers are with all of you!
And Happy Halloween!! The hermanas in my district and I are all dressing up as lady bugs, which means we are dressing up in red and black. Hopefully I will have pictures next week, or we might stop in the middle of emails to go take pictures so we can come back and send them. We will see :) I have also discovered the power of nutella. Yum yum. I am also into the Isaiah chapters of Second Nefi in Spanish. Wheeeewwww. I thought it was hard before... trying to read Isaiah in Spanish is beyond comprehension! But luckily I still have my English scriptures. So I am enduring :) And I am on my 13 day countdown!! Wheeeew.
Hugs and kisses to you all!!
PS... in the pictures with all the girls is my zone with the girls. Two of them just left this week :( the one with less girls are also our friends who left this week. The CCM is definitely getting small! But apparently this is a normal fluctuation.
Love,
Hermana Harmon
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