Another Week in Las Avenidas, May 21, 2012

An OLD pre-mission soccer pic of Cole.

Hey family!  So here`s the deal.  on our Skype call you ask me if i`ve gotten sick since that one time. and I said no.  sure enough, this week I got a cold, my throat hurt, my nose was CRAZY, but i`m getting better.  I was able to play big boy soccer on a field of 11-- missionaries and a few members versus Members (all these super good Chilean kids and some old guys, still really good) with a crowd cheering and everything.  it was pretty neat.  I almost scored, and the missionaries won 4-3, two 30 minute halves.  it was legit and the member referee even had a whistle and called fouls and stuff.  YAY.

Usually I think of something to write about that happened during the week, and this week I felt like I was going to read an email today that would have big news and something to write about.  Turns out, I read that email.  and I got a little emotional.  Both what happened to Sister Labrum and to Mark Myers.  

It`s interesting that just last night we shared a lesson about tests and challenges with Mireya, and then went to another family and taught them about the need to endure to the end.  We asked Mireya, who has been really sick and had to have her heart shocked and restarted a few weeks ago, "why do we have trials in our lives?"  and the immediate response was because we were terrible people, that God was mad and is punishing us.  We had the opportunity to share with her the true and hope-filled doctrine of the purpose of trials and challenges.  That trials help us grow, learn, and appreciate the blessings we have, IF we have the right attitude.  Mosiah 23:21-22.  

Sometimes the Lord chastens his people to try their patience and their faith.  and if we trust in God, our faith with grow.  Our Patience will increase.  and those who rely on the Lord will be lifted up at the last day.  Maybe not tomorrow, but as we endure to the end, we will be developed enough to be lifted up at the last day.  Think of the prophet Joseph, a righteous man of God, unjustly cast into prison without reason, left with little food in the freezing cold for months while his family and his stewardship were being persecuted.  In answer to his heart wrenching prayer with patience and hope running low, his loving Heavenly father said, "My son, Peace be unto thy soul.  Thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment.  And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high."  

Labrum Family and Myers Family, know that "thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands."  

Trials are hard.  But, they give us an opportunity to come closer to Christ, to develop our relationship with God, our Father, and to apply the atoning blood of Christ in our lives.  May we do so.

Loves and prayers,

Elder Cole Moffat