Light is Everywhere!

Hola Everyone! 

 

I am still loving the MTC.  This is a super great experience.  I am now 2/3 of the way done with my MTC experience.  It is crazy how fast it has been going by.  Only three more weeks, and then I go to Texas!  :D :D :D

 

On Tuesday, I say with the MTC choir, and I loved it.  The choir directors are so animated and so full of life that it is a treat to attend choir.  I really enjoyed it!  We sange Hymn 6, Redeemer of Israel.  The fireside was by David F. Evans, of the Seventy, who is also the executive director of the Missionary Department.  He talked about how our purpose as missionaries has changed from the older generations of missionaries to now.  Missionaries used to just teach until batpism, and then the members were responsible for the new converts.  Now missionaries are supposed to teach everyone, and help everyone.  We are to especially focus on the members of the church who are lost and the non-members.  He said that we will se a great flood of both people coming back  into the fold and people coming to the fold.  We are supposed to do everything the missionaries of old did and more.  We don't just baptize, we rescue.  Aparently President Monson has been talking about "the Rescue" lately, but since I am in the MTC, I haven't heard about it.  If anyone could figure out what he said, and send it to me, I would be so very grateful.

 

During Gym Time on Wednesday, I was watching Mormon Messages, y I had an awesome thought.  (It seems like I have a lot of moments of personal revelation and ideas during gym time.  I am not really sure why.)  On Mormon Messages, someone said, "Light and Darkness cannot occupy the same space at the same time."  And they showed a picture of the sky and the night stars. 

 

Light is everywhere.  When we look into the night sky, we see dark patches.  But when we aim our telescopes at  those dark patches we see more light than we could ever have imagined.  {Lisa, this would be a great place to insert a picture of the Hubble Deep Field if you feel like going beyond the call of duty.  Sorry everyone but you will have to look up your own picture.... I have a squawking baby and have to go visiting teaching soon--red was edited by Lisa.}  Truly the heavens are covered with light.  If you don't see any light in a place in the night sky, there are either clouds in the way, or you aren't looking hard enough. 

 

When we build houses and buildings, and cover the windows, we can create places where light cannot go.

 

If you can't feel God's love, either you aren't looking hard enough, or you have shut yourself away from it.

 

In science, there is really no such thing as darkness, rather it is just an absence of light.  The same way, there is no such thing as cold, only an absence of heat.  God's love will always be there.  There is always light and heat.  It is only how well we become able to feel it and measure it that makes the difference. 

 

I feel like I am getting much better at my Spanish.  We will have times when we will read El Libro de Mormon together as a district, and most of the tiempo I have been looking mostly at my English Scriptures, and only occassionaly at my Spanish ones, but on Wednesday, I mostly at my Spanish scriptures and found that I could understand enough to get the jist of what Nephi is trying to say.  I only had to look at my English Book of Mormon a few tiems.  It was really cool. 

 

On Friday, I was able to do mi pelo in a rope braid, and it was so super cute!!!  It is amazing how much better I am at doing my own hair.  I really have been blessed with the gift of doing hair as a missionary.  It is really cool that the Lord has blessed me with something that I need!

 

We had a really cool experience with Mari on Friday.  We asked her about her scripture study, and we found out that although she has a desire to read it, she also has been reading it like a history book.  Both my companion y I felt that our lesson needed to be on the importance of recieving revelacion through the Book of Mormon.  We decided to have an experiment right then.  We talked about how it is important to pray before we read teh Book of Mormon to ask God to help us understand what we are reading.  We also talked about how it is important to go to the Book of Mormon with a specific question in mind each time you read.  So we had her come up with a question, and pray.  Then we had her read 3 Nephi ii.  (We had no idea what to read, when I felt like the crowning event of the Book of Mormon is Christ's vist, so that is where we had her start.)  and we had her try to get an answer.  She started and then we asked her what she had learned, and she said that while we were establishing the background of Christ's visit to the Americas, she had read 3 Nephi 10:14, which talks about he who reads will understand if he diligently seeks, and her question was how do I recieve Revelation through reading, or something.  It was really cool.  God had heard her prayers, and he answered her prayers.  We knes that this would work, because there are answers on every page.  The Book of Mormon is to invite people to come to Christ.

 

We talked about how although the Book of Mormon is a history book, it is also much more than that.  It is the Word of God and it was written for us.  And God does answer our prayers through the Book of mormon.  It is not a textbook.  We then shared our favoirte scriptures.  We asked Mari to read the Scriptures now with the intent to recieve personal revelation. 

 

On Saturday we went to a workshop, and the maestro had us write letters to an investigator then he had us cross out the investigator's name and replace it with our own.  It was a really cool experience to get a personal letter for myself.  Here is mine:

 

Querido Julie,

 

Yo espero que est'e tenedo un vaccion muy divertido. 

 

Julie, est'a una hija de Dios, y 'El se ama.  'El quiere que venga a 'El.  'El quiere que usted sea feliz y tenga gozo.  Su Hijo, Jesucristo ha sufrido para usted.

 

Jesucristo se conoce usted.  'El sabe como ayudarse.  'El se conoce mejor que usted se conoce si mismo.  Y, ahora, Jesucristo se quiere que usted venja a 'El y ponga todos su sufrimientos, dolores, y pecados a los pies de Jesucristo.  'El no se quiere que sienta dolor unos m'as.  Jusus le ama, Julie.

 

Dase su dolor.  Let 'El se ayuda.  Jesucristo me ha ayudado, y yo s'e que 'El se ayudar'a. 

 

On Sunday, we had Sister Mary Cook, 1st counselor in the Young Women General Presidency talk to us.  She talked about how that we will touch people's lives because of the light that is in us. 

 

Yesterday, we started our second planners.  Each planner is good for 6 weeks, and it was really cool to start on our second planner.  It is a pretty big milemarker in our mission.

 

We were told to really prepare for the Devotional tonight.  We think that it is going to be someone super awesome.

 

(So when I write spanish on this computer, I can't figure out how to make the accents work in email, so you just get appostraphes were they are supposed to go. :D)

 

Yo s'e que la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los 'Ulimos D'ias es la iglesia verdadera, y el la iglesia de Jesucristo.  Yo s'e que Jesucristo es mi Salvador, Redentor y Creador.  Veo la mano del Se~nor en todos los d'ias de mi vida.  Veo 'El en matematics y en el cielo.  'El ha sufrido por todos mi pecados y 'El sabe como ayudarme. 

 

Best Wishes,

Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez