Wednesday, July 18, 2012


Hola!!!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!!!
Congratulations Anthony!!!

Hope all is going well for everyone. I am so happy to hear about the things that are going on. The pictures are awesome. I can´t believe the difference in the backyard. The fruit looks gorgeous.

You all look sooo happy in the pictures at the temple. It´s an amazing experience. It´s ok if you don´t understand everything. I had almost no idea what was going on my first time, but as I went every week in the mtc, I saw the blessings and understood more. I can´t begin to explain how I feel about the temple. It is a place of peace where you can receive counsel and comfort. You are literally taught from on high. Right now I am 5 hours away by plane from the nearest temple and it´s not even finished. Let the desire grow within you to go to the temple every week and then keep it for your entire life. I have been speaking with a member of the Branch here who just got back from his mission 3 months ago and it surprised me how much he had forgotten about being on the mission. Make the mission your life, not just a part of it. Look for the talk about the Fourth Missionary. There is great help within this talk to teach you how to serve a full and worthy mission.  Then you want to be able to say that you gave the Lord everything in these last two years. The choice you made when you signed the letter and sent it back to the Prophet was that you would give everything to the Lord. These next two years are not yours. They are the Lord´s and he is still blessing you along the way to grow and become stronger. It is an amazing blessing to be a part of His work. I have made a lot of mistakes on my mission and continue to do so. Please learn from my mistakes so that you can have a better mission. I am still learning how to give everything to the Lord. I want to be in control, but on the mission you learn that He is in control.  Let Him mold you. He doesn´t make mistakes; you can trust Him with everything. My habit is to know everything before I do something and be in control. It can´t be that way. There is sooooo much that you learn on the mission. You draw so much closer to your Heavenly Father and learn how to talk with Him. You see the Atonement work in your life and can share it with your investigators. Your example will make the biggest difference. If you don´t live what you teach, the Spirit will not be with you. Study the basics. Study them again and again. You will never learn everything about them, and the promise we have is that as we study the basics, we will be able to teach them in the simplicity that our investigators need. Look for the good in your companion. You won´t always have a perfect companionship, but you can still learn from them. Talk openly with them. Remember that your first loyalty is to the Lord; second, to your mission president; and third, to your companion. You are your first convert and your companion, your second. Pray for charity every day. Never lose a day without praying for charity. Study Preach My Gospel. Become a Preach My Gospel Missionary, it will change your mission and your life. Obey with exactness. The president of the MTC counseled us that obedience brings blessings and exact obedience brings miracles. Write in your journal every day. If you don´t one day will turn into a week and into a transfer and before you know it, your mission is gone. The small moments and things that make you happy, make them a big deal. You will enjoy your mission more.

I am not trying to sound self righteous or that I´m perfect. I have a lot of faults and don´t do all the things I have just said, but when I have done them, I have seen miracles in myself and in my mission. These can be two of the best years of your life, or two of the no-so-good. It all depends on you. The mission prepares us for our life to come now and in the eternities. All of this, also applies to those who are not in the mission. Just as Preach My Gospel isn´t just for full time missionaries, the things we learn on the mission aren´t just for the mission. Read about Zion´s Camp and why they did what they did. I believe that it will help you understand the ways of the Lord better.

Life here has been interesting. It´s been hot during the day, about 40 degrees Farenheit. (yes I did just say that it was hot) Yesterday at about 7 pm, all the lights in the neighborhood went out. It was also cloudy so there was no moon or stars. We were in the chapel when it happened so we had the emergency lights, but we had appointments to go to. We prayed about it and decided that there was one appointment that we couldn´t miss, so we called the others and said that we wouldn´t be able to make it. This appointment was with Leonardo. It really was my first baptism. He was so prepared and I was excited to be a part of it. He was baptized on saturday and confirmed on sunday. The filter here in Rio Gallegos for the water isn´t working too well, so in order for Leonardo to have warm water (instead of freezing to death) that was remotely clean (instead of brown) we stayed in the chapel all day boiling clean water and filling up the font. We didn´t have time to do that for the entire font, so we had to use some of the dirty water, but we were in the chapel for 6 hrs. Hermana Alfaro was stressed out and she was surprised that I wasn´t especially since it was my first. It all turned out well. His wife had to work and she just barely made it for the baptism. It was awesome.

Friday we had an activity set up by the missionaries. It was a movie night and guess what we showed the members, ¨17 Miracles¨. I love this movie and I hope that you had the opportunity to watch it. Everyone who came loved it. We didn´t have permission from President Gulbrandsen to watch it, so us 6 missionaries stayed in the kitchen making popcorn and talking. We had a lot of fun.

I hope all goes well with the doctor dad. Let me know what he says about your nose.

We might be having interviews next monday so that´s when I´ll be receiving my mail. I noticed that I kept spelling Hermana Alfaro´s name wrong. There is only one ¨r¨. Thank you soooo much for your letters, packages, and prayers. They help so much. Can somebody send me the address of Anthony´s mission? or his email? And the email or address of Nathan? I´m trying to do better about writing.

The computer that I am on doesn´t have a way for me to send pictures. The USB drive is broken. (did you put the music on the USB drive?) I have a lot of pictures to send, especially abou the baptism. Next week I will be able to send the pictures.

Well, it´s that time to play fĂștbol again. I love you all aaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllloooooooooooootttttttttttt!!! I´ll talk to you soon.

Love
Hermana Alvey

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