Week 8

Merry Christmas!! We had our ward Christmas party this week. Oh my goodness, our bishop went ALL OUT! Apparently he has connections because it was probably the coolest Christmas party I've gone to. There were crazy lights and a projector that played Christmas mormon messages, and even an ICE SCULPTRE! It was pretty awesome :) 

Sister Zavala's new companion is pretty awesome. (we live in an apartment with another set of sisters) her name is Sister Heiner and she's kinda crazy. Like no joke. She makes me laugh so much! She's decided that we're all a family: she's the dad, my comp is the mom, and Sister Zavala and I are the children. It's great because she even has us do family prayers and fhe. 

I've decided that I want to do a 'deep doctrine dive' into humility this transfer. I chose this topic because all throughout the scriptures it talks about humbling yourself before the Lord. God can't work with an unwilling heart. When I finish my mission I don't want to come home the same person. My mission president suggested that we write God's purpose on our hearts. His purpose is found in Moses 1:39 - "For behold, this is my work and my glory: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." The Bible Dictionary has synonyms for humility, my favorite one was 'teachable'. I pondered that for a minute, what does it mean to be teachable? Some thoughts that I had went along with the scripture Mosiah 3:19 "the natural man is an enemy to God" The natural man inside of us often makes us believe that we know it all. We don't need God's help because life seems to be going great right now. False. 2 Nephi 9:28-29 says that being learned is ONLY good if we hearken to the counsels of God. We need our Heavenly Father in everything that we do. When we are humble we are able to recognize that we can do nothing without him. I just want to leave one more scripture with you, it's Alma 26:12, "yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." This is Ammon speaking. He's seen so much success as a missionary, but he also recognizes that it is all because of the Lord. 

This Christmas season I hope that each of us can recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives. As we humble ourselves and draw closer to Him, our hearts will be opened and he will pour out blessings that there will not be room enough to receive them.

love you all!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!