Monday, November 10, 2014

November 10, 2014 The Touch of the Master's Hand

Hola todos! Como estan? Espero que todo esta bien con ustedes y que mi español es correcto pero más probable no es correcto. 

How was your week? Are you all getting excited for Thanksgiving? I can`t believe it is already November and that Thanksgiving is approaching really fast...and that Christmas is around the corner then New Year`s then Mother`s Day, my birthday, Father´s day, independence day, then it is fall again and almost Thanksgiving again and then....I finish my mission... What the!? This can`t be real....

Well anyway, nothing super crazy happened this week and I haven`t fallen again so...it`s been pretty boring around here ;) naw no es cierto. It`s never boring in the mission field! There is always an adventure to be had, new people to talk to and lessons to teach :)

 We had three new investigators this week and their lessons went really well. I love working with Hermana Lara!! She is super awesome!! :) Victor Cruz is still in Mexico and so we haven`t had the chance to teach him for a while or commit him to baptism...and he obviously wasn`t able to make it to church...so we had zero investigators in sacrament meeting...and zero baptisms. But it`s ok because we were still happy and we still had a really great week! 

We had ELEVEN lessons with members present!!! That was the largest number for that category that I`ve had in my mission so far and so it felt pretty awesome to achieve that :) We also had 17 less actives in sacrament meeting on sunday which is a lot...and that felt so awesome too! Especially when I saw that Hilda came and that Elizabeth came as well because we weren`t able to see them all week and remind them to come to church but they came all on their own and it was awesome! :) It probably had something to do with the fact that this Sunday was the Primary program....haha but whatever, all that matters is that they came and it was all awesome :) 

The Primary program was so cute and I didn`t really understand what was happening for a lot of it but it is amazing that I could still feel the Spirit through their songs and sweet messages :) The Holy Ghost truly is a marvelous gift :) Did we have our primary program this Sunday as well? How did it go? (if we did have it :) ) I miss my kids...can you tell them that I miss them and that they are super awesome! And that I love them too :) 

We had one fecha bautismal this week :) Nati accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 13th of December! I hope that it doesn`t fall through and that she will be able to come to church and progress! And I really hope that we can teach with the spirit, that she will follow through with the compromisos and that she can gain a testimony of her own so that she won`t become menos activa...that would be the worst... ok not literally the worst because there are worse things, but it would be pretty sad. 

Oh! Cody, I thought of something else that you can do :) You can go visit and teach with the missionaries so you can get a feel for how it is to do the Lord´s work because...I never went with the sister missionaries and so it was a little bit of a change for me when I was thrown into the field....but even a little bit more weird because every one was speaking in Spanish and I basically had NO idea what was going on.... so yeah, you might want to try and prepare yourself at least a tiny bit so that you aren`t totally thrown for a loop like your sister... ;) 

Ok so now I will share something more spiritual and serious haha :) Last night we went and visited two families. One is less active and just a husband and wife who are older and the other is part active members and part less active. With both families we watched a short film called "The touch of the Master`s hand" but it was really cool how with each family the lesson was a little bit different. In this video, for those of you who haven`t seen it, there is an old man who is making a violin. It shows a little bit of each part and how the man makes the violin with care and love and then he plays a little bit of a song on it to make sure it works correctly and has a great sound. Then he lovingly puts it in its case. After that, it shows that a mother had purchased the violin for her son so that he could learn to play it. He tries to learn it but obvioulsy doesn`t like it and lots and lots of horrific things happen to this poor violin that cause pain to my heart when I see them...they really are so sad.... The violin is dropped several times, it is sat on by children, used as a bow with suction cup darts, and as a shield in a battle between two children. Lots of bad stuff. Finally, after severl years and several horrific instances, the violin is in an auction. It is the last thing to be auctioned off and at first nobody wants it. They bid $2 for it and the auctioneer is about to sell it when the old man who made the violin walks up ot the front, takes the violin, cleans it off a bit and begins to play a beautiful tune. After he finishes, he hands it back to the auctioneer and sits down. Suddenly everyone wants it and it auctions off for like 2 million dollars or something like that. 

After the video, we all went around the room and talked about what we learned from the video and how we could apply it to our lives. There were a few different answers but mostly it was the same (with the part active member part less active member family). It was a really beautiful family night and the Spirit was definitely there. 

I would like to just take a few moments and write to you my thoughts from the video. We can apply this video to our lives in the form of the atonement. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone has things pass in their lives that are challenging but in the beginning, we were with God. He made us and he made us perfect and beautiful without blemish. But as we go through this life we get a little banged up spiritually. We get scars, we have marks, we go through horrific experiences. At some point, we are no longer clean, polished and perfectly manicured. We end up looking like a beat up old violin. But, our Heavenly Father is so loving and merciful and he gave us something so incredible. He gave us the most amazing gift we could ever ask for. His Son, Jesus Christ. He sent his son to earth to atone for our sins, to take upon him our errors and faults, our shortcomings and temptations and all manner of uncleanliness. He sent his son to do all of that for us so that we would have the chance to pray for help, to ask for forgiveness and to be washed clean with the "touch of the master`s hand". Christ`s arms are always, always open to us. We can always come unto him with our burdens and ask for relief. We can always ask for strength and beg for forgiveness. The Savior will always help us when we ask in faith and through Him we can become perfect and clean again. I want to share a scripture with you but I don`t have it memorized in english and I only have my spanish scriptures but you can look up the verses after in english or put this in google translate ;) 

D&C 45:3-5  "Escuchad al que es vuestro intercesor con el Padre, que aboga por vuestra causa ante él, diciendo: Padre, ve los padecimientos y la muerte de aquel que no pecó, en quien te complaciste; ve la sangre de tu Hijo que fue derramada, la sangre de aquel que diste para que tú mismo fueses glorificado; por tanto,Padre, perdona a estos mis hermanos que creen en mi nombre, para que vengan a mí y tengan la vida eterna."

Yo se que es verdad. Se que todos los hombres, mujeres y niños quien creen en el nombre de Jesucristo pueden ser salvos y pueden obtener la vida eterna. Es una promesa de Dios y de Jesucristo. Ellos no pueden mentir. Se que por medio el Salvador Jesucristo, todos podemos ser limpios y recibir perdón de nuestros pecados. Él siempre es aquí por nosotros con sus brazos abiertos y listas para recibirnos. La expiación de Jesucristo es el don más bonita, más hermosa en todo el mundo y es la única manera en que podemos empezar otra vez con una pagina blanca. El evangelio tiene la plenitud de luz y todo felicidad y verdad para nosotros. Estoy muy agradecida por esta conocimiento que yo tengo y por la oportunidad para compartirle con mi chiquito parte del mundo aquí en México. Siempre recordar su Salvador Jesucristo y continuar en su fe y en la conocimiento tengan que él siempre esta para ustedes para ayudarles en su misión aquí en la tierra. Que tengan un bonita semana y espero que ustedes pueden trabajar con fuerza para que Dios les bendice en todas partes de su vida.

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Walker


(I hope that all of that Spanish was right or that it at least makes sense...for those of you who know spanish ;) ) 

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