We killed a chicken for you! :D

Hello all!! This week was a great week, I hope you all are having a great life! Lets get right into it.

MILAGRITOS:

• About a month ago, we talked to this guy who didnt have time to talk, and told us to come back. Now usually, those people are lying and do not in fact want you to come back, but for him, I randomly wrote down his address so we could come back and talk to him later, even though he didnt seem interested. Well, this week we saw that address again and decided to stop by when we had a minute. Well, his wife answered and let us in, but was equally uninterested in listening to us talk about God. But at the end, I said "well is there anything we can do for you?" And everyone always says no, but she said, "hey can you visit my neighbor?" and we said YEAH and we had a lesson cancel right then, so we headed over to said neighbors house. And she opened the door and looked kinda confused and kinda shocked but told us to come in. We got talking and she told us that lately shes been having some suicidal thoughts and right before we knocked she was about to do something about it. And so we sat down, shared a scripture, said a couple prayers, and her literal whole countenance changed. She seemed genuinely happy when we left and also told us she felt so much peace since we came. So yay for God being with us a month ago and God being with our friend who wasnt interested and God for being with the person who cancelled the lesson and God looking out for Graziella and having us show up. God is real and God is good.

• I killed a roach the size of my fist. The me who lived in Maryland would be so proud.

• I have never in my life witnessed the amount of kindness as I did this week. For my birthday, like 8 of our members and friends threw a birthday party for me. I have had more cake this week than I have had in my whole life. Yay for good people and good cake.

• We taught a lesson this week, and this lady stopped us halfway through the lesson, and goes "wait. i have a question. my whole life I have gone to so many churches, but which one is the true church?" and we said... "now THAT is a great question". We then proceeded to answer the question and she was very happy with our answer hehe.

• Our mission had a conference with Elder Renlund and Sister Renlund. And oh my HECK it was just what I needed. It was almost like he has been called of God. He answered so many questions I had and let us know exactly how we can be better missionaries. One of my favorite things I learned was that if we want people to make covenants with the Lord, we need to first plan our invitations based off of what our friends need, and then base the lesson off of that invitation.

• Hna Rios got her patriarchal blessing this week and I got to be there and DANG. God is real and God is good.

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAs of the week:

• Sergio and Marita were in charge of us giving lunch on my birthday (bless their souls) and we showed up and they said "look we killed a chicken for you!" and there on a giant pan thing, just. a full chicken. dead of course, but fully all there surrounded by carrots and potatoes. And so we ate the chicken outside in their backyard surrounded by its alive friends. Good times, good times.

SHPIRITUAL SHPEEL:

This week, me and my comp were walking along from one lesson to another, and my comp out of the blue goes "why are all the people we visit not doing anything they should be doing (like, following the commandments and stuff) and they're so happy, and we're doing everything God asked us to do and it's so hard?" Well, I don't have all the answers, but in that moment I had one of those "God is filling my mouth with the words I need to say" experiences cause woah my own words kinda shocked me and answered my own questions. I gave her my (God's) answer and I have thought about it a lot since, so here I am sharing it with you.

In Elder Holland's most recent talk (like, three weeks ago) he said "In every land and age, He has said to us all, “If any man [or woman] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

This speaks of the crosses we bear rather than the ones we wear. To be a follower of Jesus Christ, one must sometimes carry a burden—your own or someone else’s—and go where sacrifice is required and suffering is inevitable."

Every one of us has a cross to wear, and a cross to bear. Life is hard because we have crosses to wear, ones we cannot remove. Wanna know how to make life harder? Bear an extra cross. The cross of discipleship. If we are true followers of Christ, we will bear our cross and follow Him.

And do you know what disciples of Christ generally tend to do? They bear other people's crosses as well. They take up the crosses of those who can't lift their own cross, those who don't know where to go with their cross, and those who don't want to carry their cross, and even those who are doing perfectly well on their journey, but could use an extra hand. As disciples of Christ, we LOVE people. (John 13:34-35) That means sharing their joys, but that also includes bearing their crosses with them.
And ya know what's interesting about this? Jesus said "take up the cross, and follow me" (Mark 10:21). And where did Christ bring His cross to? Calvary. He brought it up a hill and quite literally walked Himself into one of the greatest sufferings known to man. And He asks us to follow Him.

Who in their right mind would do that? Well, only those who have finished the story, those who know what comes after the cross on Calvary. Because what happened? He was resurrected. He was perfect. He was whole. He was joyful. He was peaceful. He was One with His Father. He was eternal. If we want to be those things, we must take up our cross, and bring it up to Calvary. Because after that, and ONLY after that, we will find those eternal blessings.

There are a lot of people at the bottom of Calvary's Hill. Some don't know that it's an option to walk up the hill. Others only see the suffering that happens at the top, not the eternal blessings after. Others are perfectly content to live their life at the bottom, never even thinking to figure out what may be found at the top. So they stay. They still must bear their crosses that they wear, but they don't have any extra weight of a cross to bear.

And that, my friends, is why it's so hard. Because we're walking towards an eternal reward. We're doing the things necessary to find joy. For eternity. And that involves a long path up a steep hill, adding an extra cross or two all the time.

Some crosses we bear may be light. Some of them we're helping with one corner. With other people, we've got half the weight, and sometimes, we're quite literally carrying a whole other cross that isn't our own.

You bear another's cross by giving a compliment, lightening their load. You bear another's cross by raising children, who need you to carry their cross a whole lot more often then you might like. You bear another's cross by listening to someone's story. You bear another's cross by sharing with someone what happens after Calvary. You bear another's cross by pointing someone in the right direction, showing them where they need to carry their cross. You bear another's cross by being kind to, helping, supporting, visiting, ministering to, hugging, sharing with, and loving another human. And sometimes, that's heavy.

The road of discipleship is long and sometimes, it is heavy. But every one of us needs to choose in every moment if we will keep walking, keep carrying other people's crosses, and keep adding on more. At any given point in our lives, we can choose to drop every cross we have and leave, or take on another cross and keep going. That is the choice between being a disciple of Christ or not.
Because I'm pretty sure that exactly what He did. There had never been anyone in the history of the world who has run up and down Calvary's hill more times than He has, carrying more crosses than He has. He's walked it billions of times over, carrying billions of crosses.

And while we can't do it a billion times, we get to experience the joy of doing it 1 time. Or 2 or 3 or 153 or 4927 times. So that's why it's hard. But! Imagine that cross bearing turned into joy. Multiplied by infinity. Something about that seems worth a walk up a hill.

I sure love you all! Have a great week!!

- hermana allen