KISSES *MWAAAAH* -Fabrizio

hellooooo everyone!! happy monday! back at it with another week of teaching, miracles, laughs, and a lot of pasta. 

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAa of the week:

• Theres a man in our area who saw a facebook ad from the church, and wanted to learn more, so we got his info and texted him. Once he saw our profile picture on WhatsApp, his interest immediately went from learning about Jesus, to learning more about us, specifically if we can get married while we are missionaries. He has sent us several videos of himself introducing himself and his little town he lives in, and several voice recordings complimenting us on our spanish and our faces and several other things. Really made me laugh a whole lot this week. Weve got a lesson with Fabrizio tonight so pray that goes well. (Not in person dont worry mom) 

MILAGRITOS: 

• We had a ton of travels this week, we went down to Montevideo (and woke up at 5am to do so) and got to see a bunch of mission friends, we had interviews with president which left me with a lot of zest to do the work better and more efficiently and diligently, and we had a district council that was phenomenal. I am just grateful for good missionaries that work hard and love the Lord and love this work. Its really cool to see. 

• We have had a really really hard situation this week with one of the families we are teaching. Its really complicated and really messy and really hard to watch. But we have watched as their faith has shaken for less than a second, and then grown exponentially. They are putting their trust in the Lord and watching Him work miracles in their life. It is inspiring and humbling and testimony building to watch as they have leaned into the Savior to heal their burdens. Their trials arent over. They probably wont be for a long long time. But even in the middle of them, our friend Laura called us, and told us she wants to be baptized even more now, to follow the path of the Lord, and help others to understand it too. She thanked us over and over for being here and helping her and her kids and for sharing the gospel and for loving them and being part of their family. It was one of those moments as a missionary that even when you're not seeing the "success" exactly, you realize just how grand and spirit led and God filled this work is. His hand is in every second of it. And sometimes its really cool to see just how obvious that is. So yeah, let's all be a little bit more like Laura. And send prayers for Laura, Dario, Belén, Thiago, Aaron, Geremías, Mia, Mateo, and Santino. They could really use some Heavenly help. 

• We had a really cool conversation with our good friend Camilo, and he is so full of questions, which are way fun to answer. It's kinda cool to see how similar our faith is to other religions, and also how many things we have that catch the attention of other people, such as temples, eternal families, the Book of Mormon, prophets, etc etc etc. I'm grateful for this gospel. 

• We got to testify of the plan of salvation to our friends Katherin and Richard, and it was really fun. My favorite thing when we teach about the plan of salvation is the comment "well it just makes sense" cause it DOES. It makes sense. Not only because it's a logical plan, one of love, one of hope, and one of joy, but because we KNEW this plan before this life. And everyone we teach it to, I get to watch as they remember this GREAT plan that God has for us. God is GOOD. 

SHPIRITUAL SHPEEL:

I was having a day when I was just kinda tired and feeling down this week, like I wasn't quite doing enough, so I woke up the next morning and had my personal study, and said a prayer to have Heavenly Fahter help me feel a little less down. And yall wanna know what I read? Mosiah 2:21 - "I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants." So.... yeah. Did I feel better after that one? Gonna be honest, not even a little bit. And I said, wow God, thanks a lot. BUT. Then I got thinking. It says over and over and over and over in the scriptures that God loves us. Wholly. Completely. Individually. Infinitely. And who loves an "unprofitable servant"? Those are the ones that get fired. The ones that get kicked out to the street without a job. Cause who are you if you're not gonna help around the house, and earn your way? And THEN I got thinking. Children. Hear me out. Babies are quite possibly the most unprofitable servants ever. Not only do they NOT help around the house, they CREATE work for other people around the house. But. Like. So many women just. Have babies. For what? They don't do anything. Well, it's because of their potential. A baby turns into a toddler, which turns into a kid, into a teenager, into an adult who does chores and has a job and does good in the world and has children of their own. So yes. We are still kinda like babies. Some of us are a lil more like toddlers. Doing some chores around the house (with the parents following behind redoing those chores). Others of us have worked hard all our lives, and we're more like teenagers. We have a job, we do our chores, at least half decently, but every once in a while we disobey or get mad at our Parents because "you just don't get it!". But at the end of the day, we're still living under our Parents roof, eating their food, using their phone plan. But like, parents still love their kids, at all stages. Because they have potential, yes. BUT also because parents know that they're kids are trying their best. They're doing absolutely incredible for what they know how to do, for the minds and bodies they've been given. So why do our Heavenly Parents love us? Cause we're doing really good, all things considered. Cause we have Celestial potential. Cause we're trying our best. Cause we're His KIDS, for Pete's sake. He loves us. A lot. No matter what. And He knows we're trying. He knows what we've been given, He didnt even give us all the resources to BE a profitable servant. Cause one day we'll have those resources. But for now, we need to learn humility. We need to learn trust. We need to have experiences that are hard. We need to rely on the Lord. We need to learn what it means to work hard, even if it doesn't seem like it's working out. We need to learn to find joy through all of it. We need to learn that God loves us. No matter what. Our divine potential and His divine love are eternally connected. And nothing we do will change that. So, like Elder Holland said "Don’t give up. … Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. … It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come." It's okay if you're a little unprofitable right now. God loves you anyway. And especially because of it. 

Thats about it. Have a good life! Dont do drugs or nothin. Love yall!!! 

- hermana allen