Week 38: Choose Your Own Adventure

Hello Beloved Family and Friends!

Wow so happy to be emailing you all right now! These past couple of weeks have been really great, incredibly humbling. I`m realizing that the mission is teaching me above all humility and patience! Anyways right now I`m in a really awesome area, where kids roam on the backs of horses, dog`s leashes are chains, their bath is a river, and their washing machine room is a well! Kinda crazy how the barrier between ¨inside the house¨ and ¨¨outside the house¨ doesn`t exist for some people. But, I am incredibly blessed to have my very own bucket don`t you worry!

Ok. This week was fun because my companion and I got to know a couple new areas, getting to know new people that we had contacted and meeting the members of the ward because my companion is fairly new to the ward as well. I was thinking about how our life here on Earth is kind of like the ¨Choose your own adventure¨ books, we have a variety of options that we can choose that will lead us to different paths, some that are good, bad, better, and best. In Honduras there are so many people here without a clue to where they've come from, the paths that they choose are based on what they hope will make them happy, when the only way to true happiness is by living a life according to the path that God has already prepared for us.

The people we are teaching remind me daily how blessed I am to understand this plan and to be able to share it with every human I meet. Because we are all children of God, all equal to him and all precious in his sight. As said by a prophet from the Americas,

  ¨For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come untohim, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.¨¨ (2 Nephi 26:33)

Hermana Bernal

Week 37: DANLI HONDURAS

Hello family!!

I am now in DANLI HONDURAS, with my first companion Hermana Nuñez!!! That almost never happens so I am super excited to be here!! In Danli there is a city called Paradise, the weather is a lot cooler, and we are living in a little apartment right next to some really kind members! My area is a lot more city-like, and I am officially in my first ward!


Love you all, hope everything is alright back at home!
Hermana Bernal

Week 36: Leaving San Lorenzo

Hey well today we heard about Cambios and I will now be leaving my beloved San Lorenzo, off to a different part of Honduras, East of Tegucigalpa. Really sad to be leaving the people here, 6 weeks goes by so fast, but I´m excited to serve and love the people in Danli and my new district. Here are some photos of this cambio´s events! Here are some photos from an activity for Mother´s day that we planned for the branch!

Love you all, getting to talk to my family for mother´s day was so special!!

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!

Week 33: Greetings from San Lorenzo!

Greetings from San Lorenzo!

Because my email from last week wasn´t sent, heres last week´s news!!

This week was my first week training mi hija Hermana Posso. She is from Peru and has such a fun and energetic spirit to her. It is so much fun being with a new missionary because she is incredibly motivated to work. Our area is called San Lorenzo which is a lot more developed than Marcovia- to give you a little picture in your head of what it´s like we are now on paved roads, we live near a hospital and hotel. One challenge that we encountered this week was that many of our appointments began to fall through because they weren´t home! We started to feel like we were spending a little too much time just walking from house to house, and needed direction as to where we should go. We knew that God knew exactly who was in need of our help, and so instead of guessing and we decided to go straight to the source, through prayer! We prayed together first to know whether we should continue contacting or if we should go to our next appointment.. no surprise we both felt the same impression to continue contacting. Next we asked which street to follow, received the same impression, and on we went! It was really exciting to see how literally every time, we would say at the same time where we felt we should go we had the same answer. And we have started to do it every day so that we can be sure we are exactly where God needs us to be.

This week we were invited into the home of a woman named Gabriella who we had meet in the street before and had a lot of questions for us like what was the Book of Mormon, who was Joseph Smith and what was so different that Mormons believe? We were ecstatic to hear questions like that and quickly set an appointment to meet with her. The day of our visit we sat down to explain to her about how God as a loving Heavenly Father had sent his son Jesus to come to the Earth to show us the way, and to establish his church. In the Bible we have the records of the prophets of old and Jesus´s coming in Jerusalem, but that there was also another set of records which contained Christ´s visit here! to the Americas! When we explained that this record was called the Book of Mormon, and that a prophet named Joseph Smith had been instrument in the Lord to translate it, she nearly leaped out of her seat to be able to read the chapter of Christ´s visit in which we spoke of. The funny thing was that this is something that we teach and explain all the time, but this time I felt different teaching it- I felt a tingling sensation start from my head to my toes, if it were possible it was as if someone poured light into my body, and in that moment I knew that it was the Spirit was testifying to me, and to her, that it was the truth. Because that is what the Spirit does- it offers undestanding, and for that reason it was no surprise that she was hungry to hear more because the Spirit had let her know, maybe not in the same way as it had let me know, that what she was hearing was true.

I would also just like to say that San Lorenzo is the cutest little town and the members here are so fantastic. This Sunday was my first Sacrament meeting (because of General Conference which btw WOWW) and it was testimony meeting (when the meeting is dedicated to whoever wishes to share thir personal conviction of the truthfullness of the gospel may share) and as a branch of about 30 members, practically every member got a chance to bear their testimony. Though the number are small, it reminds me of the blessing that no matter where we are in the world, no matter how big or how small the numbers are, the organization of the church is the same, doctrine of Christ is taught the same, so that we may ¨may come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God¨. God is not a God of confusion, He is the same yesterday today and forever and has revealed all possible to his children so that they may have a clear picture of how they can return to His presence. I know it not only because I chose to believe, but because I too have had questions, I too have had doubts, but one who has questions and doubts has two options: investigate the wisdom of man by checking out what Google has to say or by investigating the wisdom of God through his Holy Scriptures. The spirit that gave light and understanding to Gabriella and I this week is the same spirit that will give understanding to those who seek it.

My companion is a complete goon and has already peed her pants (well, skirt) like three times in the street from laughing so hard and I love her like crazy.

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and I´m praying for you all too!


Hermana Bernal

Week 32: Hallelujah

Hi family and friends!

Happy Easter!!! So good to hear that you guys enjoyed it, This week it was especially exciting to share with people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ because the day of his resurrection was already on everyone¨¨s minds! While contacting we have been sharing cards that have a video that is really beautiful to remind us of the gift that all of us are blessed to have- the gift to be able to live again after this life. And if we have done well, we¨ll be living with our families for the rest of eternity. I attached a link of the video :)

The past couple of weeks we¨ve been teaching three youngsters who¨s families are members and have been preparing to be baptized. Saturday they were baptized, and the morning of their confirmation we went to pick up one of the boys, named Bryan with 10 years, to wait for the bus that takes us to the church building. We arrive, knock on their door, and hear nothing until his mom responds ¨¨he{s sick, hes not going¨¨... This was incredibly unsettling because as Paul taught in Acts, a baptism without the reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost is incomplete, and if he couldn¨t go his baptism wouldn¨t count! Frustrated, we went back to the bus stop to wait until we both felt prompted to return to the house and try once more. This time as we knocked on the door his mom didn¨t even answer, and Hermana Avila and I decided it would be best for us to pray. We prayed that he might wake up, that he might remember this special day of his confirmation and open his little eyes to make it to church on time. After calling his name a couple more times with no answer, we called up a mototaxi to take us to church because at this point the bus had already passed and we were going to miss the Sacrament. We waited a good 10 minutes until finally it came, and took us a different route than usual and all of a sudden we see pass by a boy dressed in his white shirt and sure enough it was Bryan!! Seeing him was one of the most exciting moments, and we arrived in perfect timing at church not only for him to be confirmed, but also for him to be able to take the Sacrament. It made me so grateful to know that God had carefully prepared the means and timing for us to fulfill his work. It really was a miracle, and all because of one prayer! I know that there are no coincidences, and everyday we have the choice to see the blessings in our life as miracles or as casualities.

Also, today we had changes and I found out that I¨m leaving my beloved little town of Marcovia, now off to a more developed area called San Lorenzo where I won¨t get to see as many pigs, horses and cows everywhere, but the work is the same and I¨m so grateful the opportunity to be able to train an hermana from Peru! Tomorrow we meet, next week I¨ll send photos!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=p2wdMwpYByI


Hermana Bernal