Goodly Parents

Hola a mi bonita familia :]

This week was a pretty long week haha. The Lord has blessed us with finding and teaching a couple new people who are interested in learning about the gospel. This past week we had the chance to help out with seminary at 6am. It was so early. As we were waiting for the seminary class to start I saw a man outside moving his trash to the front yard. Without even thinking my feet moved towards him to go talk to him haha. He was a sweet older man who said we could come back and visit with his family. As seminary started there was only 2 students, and one of the students moms. The teacher wanted us to sing "To Bring The World His Truth" and thought itsd be more beautiful with the help of missionaries. As we started singing the first lines of the song I got emotional, "we have been born as nephi of old, to goodly parents who love the lord". As we kept singing I couldnt help but think of my family back home. My heart filled with gratitude for being raised in such an amazing home. After the song the teacher talked about how majority of missionaries leave on missions because they were raised in good homes with good paretns. She asked us missionaries if we would share our testimonies. As I started to speak my eyes filled with tears. I shared of how grateful I am for all the sacrifices my parents have and are making for helping support me on my mission. I quickly seem to forget that as much as i am sacrificing here, my family back at home is sacrificing just as much to help me be here. 

From this experience I have reflected on the things my parents have taught me back at home that I've used on my mission. Like being compationate and sacrificing your wants to help others. I remember EVERY birthday my mom would ALWAYS wake up early in the morning and put up birthday decorations and cake and everything all set up and nice for our birthdays :] even spending one birthday away from home mom still thought of sending birthday decorations and cake to make my feel special :] Today we found out a lady in the ward had her birthday. she invited us to go out to eat with her on her bday which was a pday. We could have easily said we will go another day because we dont have enough time on our pday, but we felt we should spend time with her on her special day, even if it took time out of our day of rest. The lady, Hermana P, bought us jack in the box cause she heard we like hamburgers haha, We saw that she bought herself birthday flowers and birthday cake. I felt for her that she was spending her birthday time all by herself. As we sat and ate together we joked around and talked and just had a good time. We gave Hermana P a birhtday card and stuffed teddy bear, nothing big. As she read the simple birthday card she started to cry. She looked at both of us and said, "Thank you hermanas, for coming to spend time with me on my birthday. All my family lives in mexico and I have no one to come and visit me. Thank you...Thank you." 

Another life lesson i learned from my parents is to take the time and talk to those in need. I can recall the many days and nights mom would just sit and listen to what was going on in my life. I cherish the moments I had with just me and dad sitting in his big diesol truck and talking about my future and giving me loving advice. On Sunday I saw one of my missioanry friends struggling to hold her emotions back while sitting in sacrament. I couldnt ignore that she was sad and stressed. So I tapped her in the shoulder and we walked out side to talk. As I sat listening to all the things causing my friend stress I felt the saviors love. I know he would do the same to anyone he sees who is going through a hard time, wether or not he knew the person. 

Also many times back at home I have learned the important lesson of having patience haha. Usually I learned this lesson with my sister Kelsey ;p Today as we were washing our clothes we found out we didnt have enough quarters to put our clothing in the dryer. And every month we are given a specific amount of miles to use that we cannot go over. So since we are SUPER in need of more miles for driving and without any quarters my comp and I used a clothes line mom sent to me many months ago and we hung up our wet clothes. After an hour of stressfuly figuring out how to put up the annoying clothes line we started to laugh and take pictures instead of bicker. I remember many times at home when Kels and I would have moments of stress and in the end we just started busting up laughing because of how silly the situation was. 

Though life is hard I've learned the best way to go through out life is with a smile on your face and a laugh in your heart. Sounds kind of silly haha but the best way I deal with stress of anything that hurts me is by laughing. I remember the word of dad, "laughing is the best kind of medicine!" and i could picture him saying that while doing a goofy dance haha. I cannot express my gratitude and appreciation for my family members. You are the ones who keep me going, besides my Heavenly Father and Savior of course. Usually ill catch myself looking at a picture of the family or looking at something that was sent to me from home. How grateful I am for this moment I have to help others, to bring them into the light! This gospel is what makes me who I am. Sad to think I have a little more then 5 months left to be a missionary. But with that thought in mind it pushes me even harder to make a difference in everyone who passes my way. I love you all :]