January 26 in La Laguna

Well sorry that I didn’t get to the group last week everyone. I’ll try to do better. I’ll just do it first thing from now on. So in these past few weeks actually not much has happened. We continue to teach the family from the states. We’re going to baptize them this Sunday. If I haven’t already talked about them I will now. The members of the family here in Veracruz are: the mom, her brother, her son who’s nine, and her daughter, who’s 7, turning 8. They’re from the USA, of Mexican ancestry. The mom is living here, and her husband is working in a nearby town because there’s no work here. They’re here in Mexico so that their kids can learn Spanish, so when they come back to the states for high school and middle school, they’ll be bilingual. The mom and her brother speak perfect English. Their parents in the states are members, and have been waiting and praying a long time for them to accept the gospel. We’re super excited for them! 

In other news, the work has been absolutely dry this week. I’m a little disappointed.  But it’s okay. Everyone has bad weeks. We just gotta get up, dust ourselves off, and get back to work. And then we will see miracles.

Spiritual thought: So there’s this part in the Book of Mormon called the Book of Ether. In this book the Lord leads a family and their friends from the tower of Babel to the Americas, where they become a great nation. I focused my studies on the part when they cross the sea. The Lord says that they could not cross this great sea, with its grand waves and terrible tempests, without Him first preparing them, by instructing them how to build boats that would outlast it. He then says to fear not, for all the tempests and the winds have left from his mouth, makes clear that these things would propel them across the sea to the promised land. Like them, in our lives we are crossing a grand sea, and our goal is to get to the promised land. We cannot reach the promised land without the winds, and the storms, and the waves to drive us there. We must be tried, to be found worthy of it in this life. But the Lord has told us how to build the ship, He has given us the gospel to keep us safe, and if we build ourselves on that, there will be no monster of the sea (or great trial in this life) that can break us. When we are submerged we will be lifted up again, and we will have light and peace continually, even though outside there may be a raging storm.

In this order: Ether 2: 24-25, Ether 2: 16-17, Ether 6: 3, 5-12