A Week in the Life of Hermana Bernal

Monday, November 7, 2016

Week 55: "The love of God inspires us to be better people"

Hello!

My Preparation day has been changed to Saturdays, so now I will be emailing on Saturdays!

These past two weeks have been super crazy. The mission call of my companion Hermana Lara says that she will serve as a full time missionary- part time proselyting and part time in charge of the missionaries' health. As her companion, we receive calls from sick missionaries, we give them prescriptions, we go with them to doctor appointments, and we travel to different meetings giving health presentations to help them take better care of themselves. The funny thing is she is going home in December, so these weeks have been crazy learning the whole nurse drill as well as learning the area. But, it is so so fun.

Every time I have a companion that is going home, it gives me an opportunity to reflect on how much I have changed since I started the mission. I used to think that being humble only meant that you avoided recognition, so much that it stopped me from doing good works and I tended to judge people for their desires to do "big things". I used to think that avoiding conflict was more important than speaking my opinion, so much that I didn't defend even people I cared about. I used to think that being accepting of others meant withholding my ideas of how they could improve. I used to withhold from explaining clearly tough things that I was going through, but I've realized that the faster we recognize our weaknesses, the faster we can get a move on making them better. For example, when the woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, He, though being perfect, didn't judge her but DID tell her to change. Something important to note is that Christ didn't say, "It's okay to sin, carry on", which for me is a true example of unconditional love. The love of God is so big, it inspires us to be better people, it gives us a reason to change ourselves, to be better at self-monitoring. However, sometimes we don't realize certain things we need to change, we need someone to tell us with love STOP. Learning to receive this kind of correction as well as learning to give it, requires a BIG effort to do as Jesus did when he said, "Neither do I condemn thee, now go and sin no more". I am grateful for Christ's examples of humility and love found in the scriptures, because learning from other sources sometimes leads to confusion. Humility is not just avoiding recognition, conflict, or disagreements, it's accepting the fact that Christ expects us to start from where we are right now and to change to become more like Him.

Good luck this week in elections :)

Hermana Bernal

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Week: 54: General Conference is like Christmas!

Hi Everyone!

My brother Garret in an email told me that on his mission it really felt like Christmas on General Conference this weekend. That is true!

I figured no one wants to read another novel, so I decided to leave you the links to the very talks themselves. From what I understood of the talks, each speaker answered at least one question concerning our relationship to God. The following questions are not the titles of the talks, rather I made the questions so that you could select according to your own personal interest.

Week 53: Women's General Conference

This week was especially great because of the General Women´s Conference that was transmitted to the whole world in all different languages! Something that really got me thinking was a story that Elder Uhtdorf mentioned- A little girl is walking, enjoying the beautiful sound of a bird´s hum, when she excitedly tells her grandma, ¨Listen! Listen" , without understanding that her grandmother can´t hear, becasuse she is deaf. After being told that "grandmother can´t hear very well", she gets up close to her grandmother´s face and says, "Listen harder!!". As silly as it sounds, Elder Uchtdorf reminds us that not being able to hear, does not mean that there is nothing to listen to.

This Saturday and Sunday in the morning and afternoon we get to hear General Conference, when all the face of the Earth is invited to hear a prophet of God (and many other inspired leaders- men and women) But I would like to touch briefly (haha no not briefly, this email turned out to be really long) on the question, Why prophets?

In the book of Amos in the Old Testament, God revealed to the prophet Amos "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth his secrets unto his servants the prophets". What does this mean? That God will do NOTHING without before telling His "secrets" to his prophets. What are His secrets?

Around 4000 B.C. God revealed to Noah that there was a BIG storm coming.. one that would even flood the Earth, but because in those days it barely rained, nobody except his family listened, and a bunch of wise animals that got on His ark. For me that is a pretty big secret, a foretelling of the future. The prophet Noah promised that all who got on the ark would be saved, but the people were free to choose for themselves.

Another example is Moses. A famous one for his big tablets he had when God revealed to him the 10 commandments, and we know he talked with God face to face (Exodus 33:11). We know that just like God promised blessings to the family of Noah on the ark for being obedient, there are promised blessings for obeying the commandments revealed to Moses.

But why does God call a prophet? The same reason a coach has a captain for His team. Just like the Soccer Coach can´t play on the field with his players, God uses the captain of the team (all the rest of us are the players) to keep the game plan in order, because obviously it gets pretty awkward and there is a lot of confusion if some players are not in agreement with what the coach has explained is the plan.

Jesus Christ came to clear up all confusion- "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but the fulfill" (Matthew 5:17). or when He also explained to the people in the Americas "Behold I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets have testified shall come into the world" (3 Nephi 11:10). From the beginning the prophets explained a Savior would come the world, and He did. And just as they exaplined He would be rejected and crucified, He was. Luckily the Bible was preserved to give us access to many of "God´s secrets" from the beginnning to years after Christ´s death. But Christ came over 2000 YEARS AGO. That´s a long, long, time. What has happened in those 2000 years? Is all crystal-clear as it was 2000 years ago? Is everyone still on the same page about who is God, if He´s a spirit, a being of flesh and bone, is He, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost all one or are they 3 separate? Have the differences in climate, technology advances, home and family issues of the world today caused a change in the "game plan"? If so, what´s the coach saying to the captain? or was God just kidding when He said "Surely the God will do NOTHING but He revealeth His secrets unto His servants, the prophets". What kind of future events might we need to be prepared for that we aren´t currently prepared for?

An example. When I was living in Marcovia in Honduras, I lived in a colonia called "Renacer" (reborn), right next to "CARE", "Los Españoles", "La Paz", and "Cruz Roja". Around 20 years ago Hurricane Mitch had swept away homes and families. Shortly before that, Gordon B. Hinckley, the prophet at the time spoke in General Conference about the necessity of Home Food Storage. Those who followed that counsel here, were saved.

Before my misson someone asked me, "Do you follow the teachings of Joseph Smith?". To that I responded, "I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ". I feel it injust to talk about prophets of today without explaining a little bit about Joseph Smith. He lived in 1820 and as his age increased, so did the number of existing churches. The conflicts of doctrine were puzzling as he read in the Bible that "There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5). But with more churches than McDonalds on the Earth how could it be possible? Could God have multiple doctrines?

Joseph Smith took it upon himself to investigate further, and after reading in James 1:5 he learnedv that if anyone has a question for God, and is willing to ask in faith, God will respond, and will respond liberally!!

When Joseph Smith asked in prayer which of the existing churches was true, He didn´t get an answer from his mom, from his friend, from his pastor, God responded. God, with Jesus Christ on His right side appeared to him and began to explain the game plan that had gotten so confused over 2000 years.
A question I have pondered a lot on my mission is why Joseph Smith? Why did God have to appear to him when Christianity already existed? When we already had the Bible? The easy answer is- because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He called prophets from the beginning, so of course He will call a prophet to make the next move. But another answer that has helped me understand is found in 2 Peter 1:20-21. When the Apostle Peter has just explained that he was an eyewitness of the moment when God from Heaven said "This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased". In verses 20-21 he explains that "no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but Holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost". Up until Joseph Smith was called as a ´prophet, the people were left alone as far as interpretation of the scriptures. Without an eyewitness, someone who can speak face to face with God like Noah, like Moses, like Peter, the Bible was left to private interpretation.

Do we Mormons "believe in Joseph Smith"? We believe he was a prophet of God, but his purpose and the purpose of each prophet since then has been to help us be better believers in Jesus Christ. Prophets are not perfect people, because they are not Gods, they are humans- they make mistakes. We cannot base our faith on the faithfulness of other people. I feel a little sliver of their pain when I feel the frustration of hearing about someone who has stopped going to church because of a mistake or comment a missionary has made. I feel a fraction of a sliver of the dissapointment of rejection when someone (this week) ripped a pass along card of Jesus Christ yelling, "BUSQUEN A DIOS BUSQUEN A DIOS, NO A JOSE SMITH" (look for God, look for God, not for Jose Smith). I can´t imagine that it would be like to fulfill the task of not making one mistake, and receiving all the rejection Christ encountered. I´m grateful for a family who followed the prophet´s counsel of nightly family prayers, family scripture study, weekly family night. I am so eternally grateful to see the examples of my parents who offered me a safe home, who taught me the game plan as crystal clear as they could, to what the coach has revealed to His captain. I´m doing my best to be updated on what the challenges foreseen are today, and I invite you to listen carefully to what ways God has updated His game plan to his servants.

I love you all! IT WAS ALSO SO EXCITING TO SEE LINDY ELGGREN IN THE MTC CHOIR AHH!!!!! LINDY YOU ROCK

Till next week!

Also, here´s a bunch of pictures!! the couple in pajamas are Ivis and Josue! and the last two pictures are of my new companion and I, Hermana Gomez and us when we went to the beach today! Woo!

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Week 52: Story of Ivis & Josue

Hello family!

This was a fun week, in Honduras they celebrated "Dia de niños" and it was so cute to see all the kids with their piñatas and candy in the streets! Not to mention some precious moments when little kids offer candy to US! So precious!

Today we found out that I am saying goodbye to Danli, Honduras, and I will be shipped back to Southern Honduras. To shut close this chapter of my mission I want to share with you guys the story of the greatest family investigating the church, named Ivis and Josue.

Story of Ivis and Josue

We were doing visits with the Relief Society President named Igdalina on a nice day in Danli, when all of a sudden we run into an old neighbor named Ivis. Igdalina offers a visit from the missionaries to Ivis, and with no problem she invites us over and we get to meet Josue, her humble-tattooed-athletic looking boyfriend and their three little girls. As we being to converse with them they tell us that what they want most right now in this time in their life is just more unity in their family. We begin to teach them more and more and invite them to church, and they didn´t seem too promising because they didn´t show up a couple weeks until Ivis showed up one Sunday, with just her and one of the baby girls. Excited to see them show some interest, we begin to teach with them one of the most important commandments for having a united family, marriage. Josue was startled, but after getting their with Igdalina and sharing her story of how she and her husband got married before getting baptized as well... That Sunday they all showed up at church with their three daughters and the rest can be captured in a few marking moments...

The young women in the ward happen to need a basketball coach for a tournament that they were starting up, and Josue offers to be their trainer, showing up every night in the church building to train...

They finally put a wedding date with the huge help of another young couple that shared some of the same marriage stresses that they had...

Josue goes to church by himself when Ivis woke up too late to go to church and begins to commit himself more to getting straight home after work on weekdays...

We teach the Word of Wisdom, and Ivis responds "I heard you guys don´t drink coffee so I already stopped two week ago." Josue smokes and struggles to put a goal to quit.

Josue tells us that at work a bunch of people criticize him for going to the Mormon church "where they praise Joseph Smith" and he defends the church.

Ivis´s Mom as well tells her she is going to the church of the devil, and knowing it is not true stays strong to what she has seen with her own eyes.

In a class in church Josue passes by the baptismal font and says to me "ahh one day.."

Josue and Ivis have a struggle committing to the commandment of Tithing, but by the end of the lesson Josue responds "I know I need more peace, and definitely more blessings. I will."...

Then we get through a rough week. My companion and I don´t find anyone, and we hadn´t seen very much progress. In that Sunday Josue bore his testimony, and said "I know that the missionaries were sent from God, and I used to go out drinking and now I don´t have the desire anymore, I know this church is true and I´m so happy for the change I am seeing in my life"....

Later the storm hit, and when Josue´s brother´s house fell apart, he brought him to church and got to share with his family about the gospel.

Then, Josue starts getting nervous about baptism, we share how the blessings of repentance, and encounter that his Mom too wants to be baptized but doesn´t feel ready. Josue, himself, testifies to his mom how no one has to be perfect to be baptized...

Ivis becomes impatient because Josue hasn´t improved his smoking habits, we set some new goals...

SO MANY ISSUES with the papers to get married, not to mention the fundraisers and food sales that we did...

Until finally this week we see that Josue has now improved from smoking a pack a week to one cigarrete every other day, and their papers to be married will be turned in within these two weeks.

Their progress continues and the miracles keep coming... I am so crushed that I won´t be there to see their wedding day or baptism but I am so grateful for having been played a part in their efforts to unite their family for eternities.

Many photos to come next week!!

I love you all!

Hermana Bernal

Week 51: "We can be sure that we will live again"

Heyy!!

This was a really fun week!! I don`t have too much time today but just to keep you updated on our star couple, after one hamburger sale and two tamale sales they now have the funds to start taking out the papers to get married and be baptized!! Woo!!

This week I also found out that one of my Aunts had passed away, and I was reading a scripture found something that really gave me peace for her future.. A prophet in the Americas about 150 years before the first coming of Christ said:

"6 And now if Christ had not come into the world,speaking of things to come as though they had alreadycome, there could have been no redemption.

7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or havebroken the bands of death that the grave should have novictory, and that death should have no sting, there couldhave been no resurrection.

8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath novictory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. (Mosiah 16)

I really didn`t understand this in the beginning of my mission, and I certainly don`t feel like I will ever be able to understand perfectly what Christ did for us, but one thing for sure is that because Christ came to the Earth, died, and lived again, we can be sure that we too will be able to live again after we die.

Love you guys, here are some more photos from this week!

Monday, September 5, 2016

Week 50: The stormy season has begun!

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! You guys are so awesome, I felt especially loved!!!

This was a great week, I mentioned that the stormy season has begun and it has REALLY begun. This week three bridges by our house fell down overnight and many houses have been destroyed. In all of the commotion, an investigator named Benigna had a HUGE miracle happen to her. Benigna had a huge pile of sand stored near her house that she was planning to sell, and as the river water rose flowing by her line of houses she prayed literally all night that the flood wouldn`t sweep away her sand pile. Her faith and prayers were recognized, and in the morning ALL of the property around where the sand was washed completely away, but not one grand of sand was taken up! Here is a picture of Benigna attached :)

Every night it has poured, except one night when it began pouring as we were walking past the bridge to get to Ivis and Josue`s house (the star couple in the process of getting married) and we realized it wouldn`t be wise to cross because of the chance we would have no way of turning back. We waited a couple moments, with a prayer in mind thinking of what we should do, and all of a sudden the rain stopped completely, just like that. We raced to thier house to take advantage of the time, and when we arrived they shared with us a challenge that they had been experiencing, and it was so clearly divine that they needed us in that exact moment, and it could not have waited not even one more day. After arriving safely across the bridge, the rain started again. Cool huh? As if it was God protecting us or something.. :)

We also hiked up to "La Cruz!!" Enjoy the photos.

Hermana Bernal

Week 49: Last week we saw 323 people!

Hey family and friends!!

These two weeks have been the two weeks with some of the highest ups, and some of the lowest downs. Starting with last week- in this mission we have a goal as a companionshpi to contact 24 new people everyday in the streets. This means that in one week, we talk to at least 150 people, in the hopes of finding people wanting to make a change in their lives. Usually we have a lot of success, we get to talk to a lot of interesting people, we probably talk to lots of murderers without knowing it (hehe sorry Mom) and we are always invited in homes to share a little more, or to at least plan another appointment with them.

These last two weeks we talked to a total of 323 people (outside of normal visits) and found 3 new promising people to teach. 3 is a pretty low number, but hey that`s okay! 3 new souls, right? But at the same time we lost 5 different people that were making huge steps.... Not so great, out of the 323, we got negative 2. Although it was a pretty hard blow considering how much we`ve been trying to do our best, I thought it would be fun to make a list of the funniest rejections that we heard in these past two weeks-

- *little girl comes out to meet us at the door* "My mom says she`s not here"
- "Sorry, I`m never here at home" "Oh are you working?" "No...Actually I don`t live here"
-*Turns TV and lights off to make it seem like they`re not home*
-"Sorry I can`t, my baby just got the sickness that`s called "Eye". Us: "Oh, pink eye?" Them "No, it`s a sickness where if a baby starts laughing when they look in the eyes of a sweating man, that means they got the virus" Oh...

Ya... lots of fun stuff. Don`t worry, the next week I will give a report of what we`ve been doing differently so we can get more support from members again and find some more great people!

Some other things that have been just such "Only In Honduras" Moments of this week have been

-We have a ton of little geckos that just crawl around our house, and as I was tying my shoe to leave, one fell from the ceiling on the back of my neck! Ha!
-My awesome companion cleaned our pila (the water source for washing clothes, bathing, and washing dishes, I`ll send the photo so you can see) and we realized after that the water wouldn`t come for another three days so we were left with maybe three gallons of water to shower with that week. Ya! BUT this week now we have running water!!! HURRAY
-I ate an extra mini banana, here they are called "minimos", cute huh? featured in photo as well
-A member gave us "Albocoque", I think that`s what it`s called, and as we cut it we realized it must be star fruit because it makes the shape of stars!
- We are now in the season where in the morning it is SUPER hot, and then about mid day out of nowhere it will always POUR rain. so this week has been full of unplanned slipnslides.

I`m so greatful for this gospel, and I`m so grateful that I know that it`s true because if it weren`t, I would probably be depressed talking to 323 people that don`t care about it, or maybe dead from a stranger I talk to. Hahaaaa

Love,

Hermana Bernal