Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Dear Family,

Hows everything going? I am doing good... This week was long, but really good. Would you like to hear about it? Okay, here we go.

So we have this investigator named Alison. She is the "wife" (They are a couple, live together, have a baby, but arent married) of a less active member. He is the son of a very active family. They invited us over for a Family Home Evening and she was there.. we talked about the Book of Mormon and she was so interested. She kept saying, "I never knew that" and "Why didnt you guys tell me about this sooner" she loved it! Later in the week we had another lesson with her and we talked about Eternal Marriage. She said, "It makes sense. I want to live with my family forever". She is so prepared and what is even sweeter is that her pareja is helping her read the Book of Mormon and has started to become more active in the church. We had a Stake Conferece this weekend (I will talk more about it in a sec) and she came with the whole family! It was so awesome and she is super excited about church. What a blessing for her and her family.

My companion is the cutest.. she has a problem getting up in the mornings... which is difficult for me, but today was so funny. I got up at 6:30 and went to wash clothes (we have to wash them by hand... and give them time to dry..) After finishing and eating breakfast I went and took a shower and then at 8AM I went to go wake her up... I just stared at her for a second... she sleeps completely face down... with the sheet covering her completely... I dont know how she breathes... Anyways, I stared at her and saw that she was waking up so I decided to wait a second.. If yall can imagine it: Just her sheet-covered head lifted up from the pillow, then fell back down like she fainted... I started laughing so hard... Maybe it isnt funny to yall because you didnt see it, but that seriously made my morning. 

Okay, before I forget, the Stake Conference. Elder Alonso came and I was so so so SO excited. His talks are super powerful and I feel like he just looks right at my soul and tells me exactly what I need to hear. I have this habbit of staring people right in their eyes when I talk to them, and he does too... He had a conference with the missionaries and when they went up to shake his hand he took a second and stared at each one of them right in the eyes... Later, he says, "looking at your eyes, I know all of the sins that you have commited, when you commited them, and how you commited them. After this conference I will tell Pte. Carmack who he should have an interview with and what question he will ask you." If yall think it was a joke, it wasnt. After the conference they called about 20 elders and 5 sisters to talk to president... I dont know what happened to them. Anyways, getting back to the conference. It was super good. The talked a ton about "El poder de la Divinidad" which is the Atonement of Christ. The talked a ton about our roles in the church. Like, for example, the role of a Primary President. Their role is to prepare children to take their first step in recieving devine power by helping them prepare for baptism so that they can recieve a remission of sins. Young Men and Women Presidents job is to prepare the young men and women to take the next step and recieve the Temple Endowment. It goes on and on... 

There was a story that impacted me greatly that Elder Alonso shared (and he has shared it before in General Conference) about losing his son. They were in Mexico and at one point on the street they realized that their son wasnt with them... They took off running up and down the streets looking for him, and didnt find him. They took off running in different directions and he got the impression that he should go back.... so he did and saw his wife coming down a street with their son. She had found him staring at some toys in a shop window. The message from this story that impacted me so greatly was this: "He didnt even know he was lost". How many are lost and dont even know it? There are obviously those who havent found the church yet. There are also those who have found it, but have strayed and wound up lost. I thought about that long and hard. How much do we love our family? Our parents, spouses, children? If one of them were lost, how hard would we search for them? 

There are some of us who are lost. We each know people who are spiritually lost. What are we doing to bring them back? or help them find the way? 

Wow, that really hit me hard. That is my purpose as a missionary, and that is your purpose as a member and representative of Jesus Christ. 

I love each one of you with all my heart! You can be sure that you are in my prayers. I hope that yall have a wonderful week and that everything goes wonderfully! Most of all, I invite you all to search for those that are lost, and bring them to the truth.

With all my love, 
Hermana Eardley

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