Dear Family,
This week was great! I feel so much better, like I know more of the
members, so we can better work with them.
We have on investigator on date, Elvira. She's planning for April 30.
She's a recent convert's mom! (The members are where it's at. 😉) She
is so sweet and so excited. I just love her so much already.
Sister Solis and I have a lot of fun together. She's such a blessing!
I just adore her so much.
A lot of the members here are from Mexico City and they talk with this
Mexican slang. It's hilarious. They call us all "Mijas". It's
hilarious. (I wish I could just show you how they do it.)
I bore my testimony yesterday. (Thankfully I didn't preach any false
doctrine this time.) I have accumulated such a weird accent, half the
branch was asking me if I was from Brazil. I'm taking it as a
compliment since there's a lot of supermodels from Brazil-haha!
The Spanish is good though. I just have a hard time understanding most
of the time. I think it's just mainly confidence now that I'm
companions with a native speaker. But most of the time when I don't
understand, it turns out I probably didn't want to understand. Thank
you gift of tongues. 🙌🏼
One of my favorite quotes from conference was by Elder Holland: “You
can have what you want, or you can have something better.” (I am a
Child of God by Elder Hallstrom)
This week we got on the subject about Lot's wife. Let's start from the
beginning with Lot. Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom and Gomorah,
which is kind of the equivalent of making your house face the strip in
Las Vegas. (Verses King Benjamin's people who pitched their tents
towards the temple Mosiah 2:6) When skiing, or running, or biking,
where you look is ultimately where you go. So Lot and his family wound
up in Sodom and Gomorah. (We can compare this to what we fill our
minds with every day. What pictures we look at on Instagram, what
music we listen to, what TV shows and movies we watch, all contribute
to where our tents are faced.) Because of the wickedness in the city,
God was going to destroy it, so he commanded Lot and his family to
leave and NOT LOOK BACK. While leaving, The city was being destroyed
and Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. The
sin was not only disobedience, but also that she looked back
longingly. She had left her heart and desires in Sodom and Gomorah.
It's interesting because her desires were in things that weren't even
there anymore. Had she stayed she would have surely been destroyed,
and because she didn't love the Lord with all her "heart might mind
and strength" she was destroyed. In Luke 17:32-33 Jesus tells us, "
32 Remember Lot’s wife.
33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever
shall lose his life shall preserve it."
We can lose our lives when we whole heartedly trust the Lord. Like
Elder Holland said, we can get what we want, or we can get something
better. The better things come from the Lord. Lots wife chose what she
wanted. And it destroyed her.
The first commandment is to love. To love the Lord. Mark 12: 30 "And
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the
first commandment.
31: and the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."
And to love our neighbor.
1 Corinthians 2:9 says "9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him."
When we love the Lord, we love our neighbor.
We can lose ourselves in the service/ love of others, and complete
trust in whatever it is the Lord wants for us. (Remember 3 Nephi
13:31-34: 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or,
What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take
thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil
thereof.")
The Lord loves us and wants to bless us! I can't think of anyone else
I'd rather give complete and total trust to. It is such a privilege to
be apart of His service and in the perfect environment to "lose
myself" in His work.
I love and miss you!
Love,
Hermana Wallis
