Missing Teeth, The Plague, and The Character of Christ

Days feel like weeks, and weeks feel like days. Time has flown here at the CCM and it is a privilege to be here as a representative of Christ. 

Funny thing this week:

2 elders in our district have fake teeth on retainers that theyre able to take on and off at any given time. So one of them, Elder Kuhn (coon) and his companion played a trick on our instructor by slamming their hands down really hard on one of the desks and had Elder Kuhn come up without his retainer so it looked like he was missing a tooth. Poor Hermana Gutierrez! She kept yelling "que paso!?!?! que paso?!?!?" and was looking all around on the floor for his tooth. When she realized what happened she laughed and the whole class died for a solid 10 min. Pretty sure we all got 6 packs. 

The Plague:

We got a new group of missionaries this week, and apparently a few of them brought something with them so within the course of 2 days, 200 and something people were infected with some horrible stomach sickness. Our district was hit and 2 of our memebers are still recovering. It was so crazy seeing an illness spread that quickly to so many people. The Elders in our district gave some incredible blessings so that those who were sick actually experienced a milder sickness than everyone else, and we were all blessed to carry on with our work as missionaries. It was a really neat experience to see young men who are worthy and who have prepared themselves be able to immediately respond to the needs of those around them. Priesthood holders are such a blessing and the plague brought the best out of the missionaries that were here between all the service they rendered, and the blessings given. 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE ENTIRE WEEK 

On Sunday, we were able to watch a devotional given by Elder Bednar in 2011 at the MTC. If you're able to find it and watch it, PLEASE DO. Its an amazing talk and I can't do it a fraction of justice. It was centered on the character of Christ and how there would have been no atoning sacrifice without it. Elder Bednar began by finding examples all throughout the scriptures of how Christ always reaches OUT in love, service, and compassion instead of following natural man tendencies and focusing inward. This was a time of great self reflection for me for two reasons:

1) As a representative of Christ I need to be doing everything in my power to emulate him and having these characteristics.

2) By allowing His character to become your character allows you to become closer to Christ and more converted 

David A. Bednar said that a testimony is what you know, and conversion is consistently being true to what you know. In Alma 23:6 it talks about the Anti-nephi-lehies and says "as many of the lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away". It says AND were converted unto the Lord. The part where they believed on the words was testimony, and the second aspect was a conversion. The results of having both, as we later read in the chapter and through later chapters in the Book of Mormon, is that they never fell away. What more could a person want more for themselves and for those that they love? Through consistently following Christ´s example and turning outwards to others instead of inwards, deepens our conversion unto the Lord so that we too will never fall away. I made a list of goals of things I´m going to do to deepen my own conversion, and I hope that you will search the scriptures for examples of the character of Christ and apply them into your life. I know full heartedly that this gospel is true and that like Nephi and the ore, He´s given us all the tools that we need to return to our Heavenly Father and to attain a happiness that lasts.  I know that as we utilize the blessings He´s given us, fervently search the scriptures, and emulate the example of the Savior, we will become fully converted and never fall away. Thank you so much for the prayers and the support, I can feel them and assure you that Every. Single. Day. they are answered.  I hope you have a great week!!

Hermana Temple

It's been Rainy