Week 35: "God responded quickly!"

Wow, I am still in shock of happiness from the news from last week that I am officially an Aunt! Congratulations to Garret and Cami, you two will be the best team in raising the newest member of the Bernal fam!!

This week was really great, we had a conference with all of the missionaries in our Zone and we had a pretty cool experience. Recently in Honduras there have been some strong rain storms and the electricity has been going in and out pretty frequently. For this conference, there was going to be a powerpoint presentation, but without the light, things weren´t looking so ¨bright¨, haha. The President of our Mission , President Bowler got up and reminded us that as missionaries, we testify that when we ask Heavenly Father for what we need in prayer, if it is just, He will give it to us. In this moment all 70 of us got on our knees to pray together so that we would be able to receive the direction of our leaders to learn to become better missionaries. God responded quickly! Through those that were working on solving the issue, they found the solution and we were able to carry on the conference as planned. Again we knelt down together to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the miracle that he had shown us! God works miracles, according to our faith!

Today for P-day we went to an island called Ama Pala in Honduras, here are some pictures!

Week 34: "What are those things called? Tacos?¨

Hi Family,

A lot of interesting stuff happened this week!! Someone´s cow fell over and the Elders had to help lift it up, we were given free ice cream because the vender said ¨he just felt he should give it to us¨, I tried some new fruits that I didn´t know existed (jocote and tamarindo, yum) and I just realized that also someone gave us a free watermelon. Lots of exciting things related to food, what´s changed right?

The food set aside, the most exciting part of this week when we taught a couple named Ismael and Carin, Carin has a baby on the way with one month pregnant! They have a portable little shack that they set up next to the hospital where they sell clothes. Awhile back we had met them in our everday contacting hour, we joked around that while they were offering clothes for sale, we as missionaries offer the gospel of Jesus Christ, but completely free! We set an appointment with them for this week and the day we showed up they told us that from the day we met they had been impatiently looking forward to the day of our next visit. As we began to teach about who we are and what we know to be true, Ismael asked us pulling out a necklace with the cross of Jesus around his neck, ¨¨I just have one question, in your church are you against the wearing of the cross of Jesus? My Mom gave me this necklace when I was younger, and I was planning to pass it down to my child as well. But if it´s not okay I can take it off,¨¨. We quickly assured him that it wasn´t prohibited to wear a cross necklace, rather that in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints we prefer to focus on the living image of Jesus, as we know that the third day he was resurrected, and continues to work miracles and direct his church in the world today. However all this time I was dumbfounded at his willingness to so freely give up a family heirloom, in hopes to put his life more in line with what he believed was God´s will. He taught me a great lesson of faith, and courage that no matter what we have been taught from our parents, or what traditions have been passed from generations back, our salvation depends on our willingness to give up our will for the will of God.

Also inspiring quote from my Mama that she wrote me today and I am going to put on my wall because she is wise and an all around wonderful human

¨¨do the harder right, not the easier (comfort) wrong.

the enabling power of the atonement makes the harder right easier¨¨

Here are some pictures of the family we have been teaching at this week´s District meeting and I will make sure to send photos of Ismael and Carin next week!

..and a picture of me eating a big taco

Also fun fact: In Peru they don´t eat tacos, or even tortillas! All of their dishes have rice. My compañion from the computer next to me just asked ¨what are those things called? tacos?¨ 

Love you, till next week!