Dear Family,

Roysel was baptized this week! I cried when he was baptized. I have been working with him for so long and have had this amazing blessing to see him change as he accepted and applied the gospel in his life. He has such an enormous testimony of the gospel and I know he will never fall away. He is stationed very securely upon the rock of our Salvador.

This is something that I have seen at home and over and over again on my mission. People lack conversion. They arent continually trying to convert themselves to the gospel. That is how we fall away. That is why people dont go to church or read their scriptures or say their prayers. They arent converted. They dont understand the gospel or the Atonement and they dont understand how to apply it to their lives. I hope that every single one of you are not only doing the things that you should, but that you are active in the gospel, that you seek for it and notice it in your everyday lives. God made the earth and all things that are in it. There is evidence in every step that we take that the gospel is true, but we have to recognize it in order to gain a testimony about it. I am getting preachy, sorry, I just feel like we as members may be lacking and I hope that it isnt one of you.

This week we had a video conference with Elder Russell M Nelson. It was broadcasted from Honduras to, I am pretty sure, all of Central America. It was so great to recieve council from one of the Apostles. He talked a lot about the temple and (even though we shouldnt think about it because we are missionaries) how our ultimate goal should be to marry in the temple. He shared a lot about how we should love our investigators and how we should work with the members. He gave us some topics to study deeply, and told us that these things are things that we need to know to be prepared to teach and to be prepared to meet God. It was really awesome. He also mentioned how we shouldnt immerse ourselves completely in our mission language, but that we should also teach our native tongue to our companions and expound our knowledge about our own language as well as the language we are learning... so, yall can give a big "thank you" to Elder Nelson because he is the only reason I am writing this in English. 

Last, but certainly not least, I need to give a birthday shoutout to Britney. Sorry sis that this is the second time that I wont be there for your birthday... but you gotta know how much I love you. I cant believe you are going to drive... please be careful.. like seriously, be careful. I love you so much. I hope your birthday is amazing and that you enjoy every minute. I hope you know that you are in my prayers. I hope that you will feel how much I love you, how much your family loves you, and how much your Savior loves you on this special day. 

This week was very spirit filled, and I am very grateful for it. Thank you for your support and your prayers. They really help. I love all of you so much and never forget who loves you the most, our Savior Jesus Christ. 

With love, Hermana Eardley

P.S. sorry for the lack of photos... you will be getting some soon but I have to buy a cable first.

Learn Spanish

Dear Family,

Esta semana fue increible. Hicimos bastante. Voy a contarles todo... ó voy a tratar... ya no tengo tanto tiempo.

Primeramente! ¡Soy legal! Pueden creer? Me fui a migraciones esta semana y recibí mi carnet... aun que el foto es HORRIBLE estoy tan feliz porque soy legal aquí in Panamá... Wohoo! 

Martes, vimos el presidente de los hombres jovenes y él nos dijo que esa noche tenía una noche de hogar con los hombres jovenes y que nuestra investigador, Roysel, va a estar tambien. Nos invitó a pasar y compartir un mensaje con todos porque él tiene un video que nos dijo va a ayudar a Roysel (él tiene problemas con la ley de castidad)... Estabamos bien nerviosa. No sabíamos como a hablar sobre la ley de castidad con todo los hombres jovenes.. bueno, sí sabemos, pero, no estabamos preparados. Hicimos una oración antes de llegar a la casa de él y cuando entramos todos nos veían... cantamos, oramos, y depues vemos el video. Ni habla sobre la ley de castidad, habla sobre hablando con el obisbo sobre sus pecados y el proceso del arrepentimiento. FACÍL. Fue bueno todo.

Roysel va a bautisarse este Sabado! Estamos muy muy muy felices por él! Por favor pongale en sus oraciones esta semana. Él lo necesita. 

Empezamos clases de inglés. Es bien divertido a enseñar inglés y me ayuda con mi español tambien! 

We had a lot happen this week, but I dont have a lot of time. Sorry. I love yall so much and I hope your week is spectacular. You are in my prayers and my thoughts. Thank you so much for everything that you do for me! 

Con amor, Hermana Eardley

P.S. This message is in spanish for your benefit. Parents and sisters: learn spanish. :)


Translation via translator app.  You will have to make sense of it yourself. . .but at least its not in Spanish.

This week was incredible.  We did enough.  Im going to ? all. . . or I will try to. . .I don't have much time.  

First, I am legal!  Can you believe?  I went to migration this week and received my card. . .The photo is horrible. . .I am so happy because I'm legal here in Panama'.  Wohoo!

Tuesday saw the president of the young men and he told us that night was a night of home with young men and that our researcher Roysel will be also.  He invited us pass and I shared a message with everyone because the has a video that he said will help Roysel (He has problems with the law of chastity) . . .We were nervous.  We didn't know and talk about the law of chastity with all young men. . . Well, if we know but we were not prepared.  We said a prayer before arriving at the house of the and when we enter all we saw. . .we sing, pray and then see the video.  Or talk about the law of chastity, talk about speakiing with the bishop on his sins and the process of repentance.  EASY.  It was good to all. 

Roysel goes to bautisarse this Saturday!  We are very very happy by the!  Please put in your prayers this week.  He does not need.

We began English classes.  Well funny to teach English and I help with my spanish also.

The Scriptures are amazing!

Dear Family,

I will never get to a point when I have learned everything. The scriptures are so complicated and full of significance. It amazes me how we read the stories, learn the message that is sprinkled on top, but we never ask what more we can learn from this passage of scripture. For example, how many sons did Lehi have? Lamon, Lemuel, Sam, Nefi, Jacob, and Joseph. How many rebelled? 2. 2/6. 1/3. 1/3rd rebelled... how many people rebelled against Gods plan and followed Satan? The scriptures tell us everything we need to know. It makes me so sad how sometimes we read them without studying them. Dont get me wrong, the messages sprinkled on top are wonderful, and it is wonderful to read the scriptures, but why dont we have this intense desire to learn? How is it that we can be happy with primary school answers our whole life? We read the scriptures, and we think we know what they are saying, so we accept it and move on. That is not how it should be. I would like to challenge you to understand the scriptures more deeply. 

We had an amazing Stake Conference with Elder Alonso! He is amazing and I love the way he explains the gospel. For him, everything is focussed on the Atonement. He talked to us about the Sabbath Day on Saturday. He said, "Those who dont partake of the sacrament on Sunday dont have the spirit. You can pray, you can study the scriptures, but if you dont take the sacrament, you dont have the spirit". I love how direct he is! On Sunday he talked to us about the temple and family history work. Go to the temple. Do family history work. Keep your recommed. Never let it expire and always stay worthy to enter. He said, "I have this theory, its not doctrine, but its a theory, when Christ comes, where do you think he is going to go? To the chapel? NO, that isnt his house. He is going to go to his house, the temple. And what happens if he comes and you dont have a recommend to enter? The bishop isnt going to be there filling out recommends, he is going to take his family to the temple. If you dont have the recommend when he comes, your out of luck". Please. Go to the temple. 

During the conference he called all the missionaries up and said, "now we are going to sing like we practiced..." We didnt practice. We sang "I am a Child of God" and afterward he talked about how we wake up, happy, every morning at 6:30, exercize, study personally, study with our companion, study language, and we leave. During the day we are rejected, ignorned, and lied to, then, we go home, plan for the next day, kneel in prayer thanking God for the day, and it starts all over again. Then, like a cut to the heart, he asked everyone in that conference what they are doing for us. Do they reject us? Ignore us? Lie to us? or do they support us? I almost cried because we havent recieved support from our members here, and our area is really hard. We dont have many investigators. Contacting doesnt work for anything. Its really hard.

This week was really amazing. I loved it. I dont have a lot of time to write this week, I am sorry, but I want yall to know that I love you and you are in my prayers. I hope yall have a great week!

With all my love, 

Hermana Eardley

I would love to get some e-mails

Dear Family, 

This week was super great, but, I am not going to tell yall about it. If you would like to know something, you have to ask me. It seems that is the only way I will hear from yall.

Have a great week.

Sincerely, Hermana Eardley