May 14, 2012

April Showers, April 30, 2012

Hey there!

Thanks for the letters, eyres!  and thanks for dear eldering stuff, mom.  Maddi´s training!!   how good for her!  in her 4th transfer?  What a BAWS.  can you please send me the mission address for Maddi (Chicago Mission) and Landon (some Bolivian Mission) please?  thanks!  Happy Birthday to Stephen Patterson, Camila (who got baptized in this ward this past july), and today my COMP, ELDER GUZMAN!!!!  He´s a great guy.  keep going on that eagle project, Hayden!  and dad, I´m still always working on the language.  i´ll continue even after the mission working on it.  I did try to read this flyer that was given to us during this march, and i couldn´t understand half of it (All i got was that they were pro- liberty in every aspect of life, anti capitalism and anti government.... oh dear.....)

So, my ankle is doing better.   it doesn´t look like it did a few days ago, which is good.  Those pictures i sent were when it was bad and super swollen.  suuuuuper swollen.  but thanks to icing it a few times, this deep heat cream from familia Duran, this sac of beans that you microwave and it heats up- also from familia Duran--, and the priesthood, it´s much much better.  not perfect, but getting there.   It´s funny.  every Chilean is a doctor, or at least thinks they are.  you tell a Chilean your foot hurts bad, and they say, "I have a fix for that!  and it really works.  others will tell you something else, but this is really what will help."  Well, 6 people will tell you 6 things, and they all say theirs is the one that works..... "Icing it doesn´t work."  "I´ve already iced it and it´s helping."  "...oh... well what you really need to do is put a few spoonfuls of salt in there to help give it nutrients." (?!?) "no no no! vinegar!  You need to put vinegar in the cold ice water!"  yup yup.  pretty funny stuff.  So I trusted what Hna. Duran said and gave me because A) she has her head on straight, B) the cream was in English, from Australia, and C) her husband was raised in America (Provo), and he has leg problems.  and it actually helped.

It got pretty cold this week!  and it rained with a few thunderings!  how nice!  this week it´ll stay in the low to mid 70s, which is much better than high 80s and 90s.  but from here on out, it´ll be getting a bit colder, with  lots more rain.

Fabiola is... progressing.    Prayers are what are going to help the situation.  Prayers and animo.  But she loves reading the Book of Mormon, and knows she´s a better person because of what she´s applying to her life.    Time to whip out the proclamation to the world: the FAMILY.

I read "Cuarto Misionero" by Elder Coorbridge of the 70 (and the Chilean Area President) that he wrote when he was a mission president.  It´s incredible.  I´m asking the mission office for a copy of it in English, and I´ll send a copy home to you, dad (I think you´ll find it interesting, and it can also be applied to living the Gospel, not just as missionaries), and I want to send a copy to Andrew before he leaves.  it´s incredible and really made me think. a lot.  Man, I´ve gotta make some changes.  There´s always room to improve, because none of us are perfect.

God doesn´t change.  We do.  We need to change.  Constantly.  And why? because we´re not perfect.  We all need to change until we get to the point where we don´t need to change anymore -- perfection.  And if in this life we decide we are done changing, we´re wrong, because perfection is impossible to attain in this life.  But we can progress and get a lot closer to perfection here at the end of our lives than we were at the beginning, if we chose to learn and grow.  This perpetual process of Change towards perfection is made possible through Jesus Christ, the son of the Perfect God.  The perfect God chose his only 100% Obedient Son to be the means by which we can Change.  trials, temptations, afflictions, sickness, and everything HARD in our lives exist to help us either recognize the need to change or develop some attribute of perfection, whether it be obedience, humility, patience, love, submission, meekness, willingness to submit, etc.  As the prophet Amulek taught, "But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions."  When we have changed to perfection, we will have experienced all.  there will be no more trials or afflictions, just as God, in his perfection, has no trial or affliction he must bear in order to progress.  IF WE CHOOSE to use trials as an opportunity to apply the Atonement of Christ to change, we can have a firm hope that we will come to perfection, where we will rest from all afflictions.  This is called Eternal Life.  Que sea nuestra meta la vida eterna.

Elder Cole Moffat