querida familia mía,
How are things going in the great US of A??? Is it starting to get hot there? Here it is just starting to get cold. We are using tights most of the time now and never leave without a sweater or a jacket, but still it is not too cold. All the leaves are starting to fall here too. It is really pretty.
Many things happened this week. Monday, we had a great family home evening with Marcelo and a family in the ward and he seemed very happy and confident in his decision to be baptized. The next day he had problems in his house and he ended up on the street. It took us two days to find a member that would let him stay there for a few day, and we are pretty sure at least one night Marcelo slept on the street. When we met with him afterwards, he was so sad and hurt and felt like all of this suffering was just too much. It was one of the saddest experiences I have ever had on the mission, to see someone make such great changes and then change their mind. We tried very hard to explain to him that trials are to strengthen us, help us rely more on the Lord, and so that we can be witnesses of God later on. Saturday he said he was moving to another community and that he did not really care about listening to us but was grateful for our help. We had a lesson with a recent convert who went through A TON of trials before he got baptized too, and we were very honest and to the point with him. Afterwards he decided to stay put and try again to make a new baptism goal. We are praying A LOT for him but we know that the Lord is watching over him, and that he can do it. He almost made baptism once so why not again?
On a brighter note,Erminia, a grandma who is about 84, came to church this week. We passed by with an hermano to push her in her wheelchair to church and she loved it! She found some longtime friends there, that she did not know were members that hugged her and made her feel at home. She liked it even though she has atrocy or some disease that affects her bones and gives her a lot of pain. She is fantastic. THe Ruiz family is a part member family that is reactivating. We visited them with the bishop and he invited them to get married and after that the mom can get baptized. She did not act too thrilled in the moment (she said she would never get married) but they came to church this sunday which is a really good sign. we have a family home evening with their family today and hopefully we can help them be more united and help the hermana to accept the Gospel.
This week I was reading in Mosiah and every chapter captivated me. I read chapter 7 and likened it to family history. The people of Mosiah had this longing desire to know what happened to their ancestors that left, it was so strong that the king just had to listen. Often people feel this for their ancestors, that they just need to know what happened or where they come from. Ammon starts the journey to find his ancestors, and quickly finds himself with his group a little lost. I am pretty sure this happens to everyone in their search for their ancestors; they start out well, but quickly they get stuck and it is not so easy to find them (at least this happened to me). They he finds a people and he gets thrown in jail. Sometimes we think there is just no hope, that we hit the end of the road (at least I felt this way once). BUT then the people that threw him in jail are the people that he was looking for. Sometimes the Lord leads us down another road, and seems hopeless, but really He is just answering our prayers. I love the reaction of the people of Limhi, they absolutely rejoiced! When someone finds the name of an ancestor, their heart rejoices!!! It truly is a family reunion. Limhi´s people were in captivity. They had tried to get out, but there was no way to get out on their own. They had sent a group to go search out their relatives back in Zarahemla, but they returned without every finding them. I believe that our ancestors search us out because they truly are in captivity. D&C 138:50 says that the noble and great ones viewed the long separation of their spirits from their bodies was captivity. So then the people in spirit prision it must be even worse the separation! We here on earth are the people that can free our ancestors from their captivity. We can do their work in the temple and free them. I also loved that Ammon had to escape with the people of Limhi. We CANNOT be saved without our dead. We only gain exaltation with them, as a family. I had never really tried to get too much out of this chapter, but this week it taught me a lot.
Another thing that the Spirit taught me, was that peace in this life only comes from keeping the commandments.An investigator asked us why all these bad things happen as we do what´s right. I decided to look more deeply into this, and came to the conclusion that I needed to understand the Atonement more. I was looking in the Atonement when I came across D&C 59:3 I think that says that through Christ we can find peace in this world and eternal life in the next. Well, how can we truly have this peace? THe footnote goes to Mat 11:28 to 30 about His yoke being easy and his burden is light. Under easy it goes to a scripture about keeping the commandments. So therefore the Lord has given us his yoke which are the commandments or the Gospel. If we keep the commandments we will have peace in this life. There is no other way. If we want peace, happiness, joy then we keep the commandments. It is easier to keep the commandments than to sin, or maybe it is easier to keep the commandments than to repent.
Thanks for everything yall do!!! Thanks for your prayers!!! I love yall a ton!!!
love
hermana taylor
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