Vaca Santa!
I hope you all enjoyed that good ol´american holiday! Ya know, we´re going to be celebrating 200 years of pure Mexico down here the 15. I think ill be sleeping, but isn´t that neat!
Anywhom
Crazy, sorry for all of this nonsense of late!
Im just now finding the time to write (though i shouldn´t be...) its ok, its a rule that we write home and i was throwing up all monday morning! who knows why, but i humbled myself and took some of the pink stuff for the stomach, you know that pink stuff with the jingle, and im ok again! and the week before, we had changes, and i got a new companion! Hooray! When he pulled up in the bus station with all his luggage he had like a big wooden ship model with a paper mache bird perched atop, and a teddy bear. and i was like, shyeah! Im afraid thats the coolest thing about him...
no! He´s cool, though in my evilness i always find a way to be just annoyed to all heck with my companions, i was hoping it was just with my first, but it appearsas if it is going to be a trial that i have to overcome.
no, all is well, i just have to learn more patience or something.
Other than that, not much is happening.Almost all of the people that we have been helping of late are starting to slip away. when sacrifices enter the scene, or when someone has to make a change in their life, in order to come closer to christ, you find out if they really do belive.
its a bummer, but i guess we just have to find other ones, which isn´t a bummer. entonces, tally ho!
PENSAMIENTO ESPIRITUAL!!!
the spiritual thought today is a quickie (yeah i know, shocker) but a good one!
Why? because nobody wants to talk to us! I first stumbled upon this scripture like a year or two ago, and found great solace in the righteous justification that it brought to the attitude i had had about schooling ( which i don´t expect anyone to understand, because im that smart or something)
but i heard applied again one day when i was on splits with another elder, when a lady told us she was too busy to talk about God.
Lucas 10
María and Marta! because i don´t have my english scriptures!
We find Jesus with these two in their house, Marta busy as all getup and mary sitting listening to the words of the Savior.
Marta, as one of those busy people would do, complains to Christ, desiring to have her sister help sweep or something super important like that,
and Christ says to her
Marta, Marta, afanada y turbada estás con muchas cosas. Pero sólo una cosa es necesaria; y María ha escogido la buena parte, la cual no le será quitada.
Basically (forgive my translation skills)
Martha, you a worried about many things, but only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good part, the which will not be taken her.
Weve got alot of junk to do, as people in this world stricken with unnecessary junkpiles, but we should never get caught up in it. Sift the junk, and find the good.
Its all too easy to get caught up in things ya know? no, its hard to know, but know it! even as a missionary, especially as a missionary! but it goes the same for everyone(forgive the deathly general wordage, its with purpose no doubt!)
Real things, lasting things, truth.
I like it.
but have to say goodbye. I LOVE YOU! forgive me!
goodbye!
o yeah! i got the letter! yeah!!!!!
sunday i believe! from July 11th
It was so cool you shouldve been there!
ok thanks mom, and dad, and everyone! ok bye!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
8-16-10
*Warning: This is a bit gross...
It just started dumping out of the blue last night, so yes, on and off at the flick of a switch are monstrous thunderstorms that pass in a few hours.
I don´t have everything I need! My face right now feels as if it is on fire, and i just got back from the pharmacist. I guess i had an allergic reaction to a bite of some sort or other, or food, or something, but there is like pussing bubbles around my lips that i can feel spreading up the side of my face and to my eyes! I feel like there is poison oak on my face (cause there is a little on my wrist as well) but we´ll see how the doctors orders work out.
i just took some medicine, and ate some fruit (all i can eat) and am fighting the urge to touch my face as i type. I guess i have to wear a hat and sunglasses or something, so im gonna have to get those!
Other than that all is well! Im not going to buy a harmonica here though, im thinking more a guitar, but we´ll see about that too. Letters had arrived from the stake president that were awaiting me when i got here from utah, but still not yours...You know im serious about the pictures of the virgin right? a couple of white missionaries just got some packages with pictures of Jesus on them, so there you go!
Speaking of gringos, i feel like im finally starting to look like the americans that serve here. they all have a distinct walking dead look to them, with like burned faces and red eyes... and they are all balding. I hope it is just the temporary inflammation that is causing my zombie appearence however, we´ll find out.
Excuse the brevity, but i think im going to lose my mind sitting here, typing and swatting flies, and dying to itch my face!
ill have to have two pensamientos espirituales next week.
I hope all continues to be super well with everyone,
I love y´all
ok bye!
It just started dumping out of the blue last night, so yes, on and off at the flick of a switch are monstrous thunderstorms that pass in a few hours.
I don´t have everything I need! My face right now feels as if it is on fire, and i just got back from the pharmacist. I guess i had an allergic reaction to a bite of some sort or other, or food, or something, but there is like pussing bubbles around my lips that i can feel spreading up the side of my face and to my eyes! I feel like there is poison oak on my face (cause there is a little on my wrist as well) but we´ll see how the doctors orders work out.
i just took some medicine, and ate some fruit (all i can eat) and am fighting the urge to touch my face as i type. I guess i have to wear a hat and sunglasses or something, so im gonna have to get those!
Other than that all is well! Im not going to buy a harmonica here though, im thinking more a guitar, but we´ll see about that too. Letters had arrived from the stake president that were awaiting me when i got here from utah, but still not yours...You know im serious about the pictures of the virgin right? a couple of white missionaries just got some packages with pictures of Jesus on them, so there you go!
Speaking of gringos, i feel like im finally starting to look like the americans that serve here. they all have a distinct walking dead look to them, with like burned faces and red eyes... and they are all balding. I hope it is just the temporary inflammation that is causing my zombie appearence however, we´ll find out.
Excuse the brevity, but i think im going to lose my mind sitting here, typing and swatting flies, and dying to itch my face!
ill have to have two pensamientos espirituales next week.
I hope all continues to be super well with everyone,
I love y´all
ok bye!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
8-9-10
Hola!
another one down! How are ya´ll? good? good!Its just me again, yep! from mexico! yea!but YELLOWSTONE?! what a time! Tell me all about it when you can huh? Welp, not much new round here....So im going to tell you more super cool things about mexico and my journeysprimero-the muffins here are called mofeens, and it cracks me up everytime my companion says he wants one.segundo-is like unto the first, the doughnuts are called donas, with a nice suavy finish! tercero-a few weeks back, we were running late for an appointment, and were with a member family. the son, a 15 or 16 year old kid offered to give us a ride, so we saddled up on the back of his moped...three guys on a moped!... Its not weird here in mexico, though i still felt a little ashamed.the worst/best part, i didn´t have anywhere to sit, nor put my feet (its hardly a two person scooter) and i had a great big backpack on, and the kid was insane, as are all the drivers here, so i was pretty positive i was going to die... but we popped the back tire after like 7 minutes and my life was saved.
Lastly, i ate tamales the other day, and have included a picture for your viewing pleasure. it was really good.but i dont want you all to think that all i do here is eat and hitch rides! So its time for this!
Pensamiento Espiritual!Im reading the old testament, and trying to make sense of it, and while i was trying i stumbled upon something that i could understand and think is pretty neat! We´re talking about the children of Israel, during the wilderness wanderings...The Lord had commanded his people to bring offerings in order to build the tabernacle, and ¨every one whose heart stirred him up and whos spirit made willing¨ brought offerings. Every morning they came out to give. and those who were building the tabernacle recieved so much that they had to tell moses that the people brought more than enough for the Lords work.in Exodus 36:6 Moses gives a commandment unto the people ¨Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary¨ and the verse goes on to say ¨So the people were restrained from bringing¨Can you imagine a commandment to stop bringing? to stop giving because it was too much? I don´t know, I thought that was something special. i reckon it goes in the category of magnifying your calling, or going the extra mile, or simply being Christlike. Serving, really serving, with a stirred up heart and a willing spirit. I figure i just thought it cool that they were so willing they were commanded to stop, and how neat it would be if i was more ¨willing¨ and someone was like, Hey! cut that out, you´re giving that person way too much! and the person was like, hey! stop! you´re giving me way too many hambugers, or tacos, or nuggets of evangelical wisdom! wouldn´t that be neat?Thats my thought....anywho, greetings from mexico and best wishes to all of you!
I love you! hasta luego! bye!
Elder ALBANO!
8-2-10
Wowee!
¿Another week already huh?
What a mind blower! Wow, everybodys off to yellowstone! im so jealous, you better not do all this cool stuff while im gone and then be all cool stuffed out on my return! But i guess im getting a tad more than my fare share of cool stuff, entonces...at ease. YELLOWSTONE! have fun huh?
good ol america!
anywho, thats pretty neat that kelly rhodes has returned triumphant, i remember when he left, as if it were two years ago! say hello to him! and to all those other neat people. k thanks!
i dont know whats happening with the letter! but we´ll be patient i reckon.
The Sam wolf celebration sounds like the best thing ever, with the cake, and william breaking the slide, and the minnesotans represented and all.
Happy birthday again Wolf! and happy Celebration and yellowstone to everybody else!
I have basically conquered the bathroom, i think i did so with the power of cereal. I command you all to count your blessings in flakes or balls or crumbs of cereal every day! The comforts we have back home! Carpet? what? water you can drink? huh? I dont know if the language is coming along, i think i have just gotten better at guessing what people are saying, i dont know, but what the heck, i guess ill keep practicing.
Fun stuff that happened this week...
one sunny happy day we hitched a total of 3 rides! to that little old ranch i believe i talked about before...and one of them was in a BIG RIG TRUCK! yeah, it was something. I totally sat on the bed in the back too. I couldn´t understand what the guy was dragging behind him, but it sure was cool.
Then after we got out, it started to pour (rain), and then hail, and we were days from our house, and by the time we got back we were drenched and had walked in streets with water up to our arrodillos! knees! But yeah, they have fat rain in mexico, that apparates out of thin air, or clouds, but you never know when its going to happen. My cousin JuanCarlos can be a second witness to that!
But its always a blast
Im going to tell you about someone!
his name is Julio, he´s old, lives with a ton of family in this little house on this little road of mud, has tubes coming out of his chest so when he goes to the doctors three times a week for 6 hours every time they can purify his bloodstream. We only found him last week, but he´s something. He always appears ticked off or just depressed, is always feeling cruddy, and told us that he believes in God, but only when he needs to.
He doesnt want it to be that way. he wants to change.
I reckon i was just thinking as i wrote this, that this man, who is going to die anytime, has reason to seek God. that he needs God. And then as im sure we all do, though me not quite as often as i would like, i realized how dumb that thought was.
Julio regrets much in his life, he expressed a little in words, even fewer that i could understand, but you can see it in the way he sits, with his shoulders slumped and his head bowed low, in his face, and most of all, in his eyes. More than just being old and stricken with this terrible sickness, he knows there is more, something that he has of yet missed out on, and for this, he welcomes us. not because we can help him, but because of He whom we are sent can.
How clearly can the atonement of Christ, the love of Christ raise this man in this life and in the next?
but what, are our necessities blurred?
how different are we? Waiting for a reason to come and lay our burdens down at the feet of the Savior? We need not wait so long. And i say this because its darn flustering, cause i do it all the time, forget the purpose of the gospel of Christ that is, the purpose of life. I don´t know why as humans we don´t desire happiness. We do, of course, and yet we are so resistent!
and he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind;
and this that the word might be fulfilled which he saith he will take upon him
the pains and the sicknesses of his people
alma 7:11
These things i have spoken unto you,
that in me ye might have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation:
but be of good cheer;
I have overcome the world.
Juan 16:33
The words of the Savior, probably like the most beautiful of all scripture, i don´t know, i like it a lot. Be of good cheer! dangit!
Its funny, in a way that is not funny at all, how tough it is for us to accept the gift of peace that Christ offers us. Christ has felt everything, has taken upon himself everything, our sorrow, pain, fears.
we are unhappy without the His hope.
and everyone everywhere is trying to fill these holes with all manner of garbage. but we can only fill holes with garbage for so long! It starts to smell really bad! (i live in mexico, where i don´t know why, but everyone, including my companion throws their trash on the ground, anywho!)
the really the holes don´t fill, until we come unto Christ. Seriously, we neednt wait. and there is never a time when we don´t have to, even after we have made an intial choice, or recieved a testimony, or been bapttzed.
Los doy mi testimonio!
I hadn´t planned on talking about this at all! (not that i ever plan on anything, but especially not on this!) Sorry its so long!
Anyways.
I love you all, know this!
and wish you all the best, and mi familia a super incredible trip to yellowstone.
until we meet,
adios!
Elder ALBANO!
¿Another week already huh?
What a mind blower! Wow, everybodys off to yellowstone! im so jealous, you better not do all this cool stuff while im gone and then be all cool stuffed out on my return! But i guess im getting a tad more than my fare share of cool stuff, entonces...at ease. YELLOWSTONE! have fun huh?
good ol america!
anywho, thats pretty neat that kelly rhodes has returned triumphant, i remember when he left, as if it were two years ago! say hello to him! and to all those other neat people. k thanks!
i dont know whats happening with the letter! but we´ll be patient i reckon.
The Sam wolf celebration sounds like the best thing ever, with the cake, and william breaking the slide, and the minnesotans represented and all.
Happy birthday again Wolf! and happy Celebration and yellowstone to everybody else!
I have basically conquered the bathroom, i think i did so with the power of cereal. I command you all to count your blessings in flakes or balls or crumbs of cereal every day! The comforts we have back home! Carpet? what? water you can drink? huh? I dont know if the language is coming along, i think i have just gotten better at guessing what people are saying, i dont know, but what the heck, i guess ill keep practicing.
Fun stuff that happened this week...
one sunny happy day we hitched a total of 3 rides! to that little old ranch i believe i talked about before...and one of them was in a BIG RIG TRUCK! yeah, it was something. I totally sat on the bed in the back too. I couldn´t understand what the guy was dragging behind him, but it sure was cool.
Then after we got out, it started to pour (rain), and then hail, and we were days from our house, and by the time we got back we were drenched and had walked in streets with water up to our arrodillos! knees! But yeah, they have fat rain in mexico, that apparates out of thin air, or clouds, but you never know when its going to happen. My cousin JuanCarlos can be a second witness to that!
But its always a blast
Im going to tell you about someone!
his name is Julio, he´s old, lives with a ton of family in this little house on this little road of mud, has tubes coming out of his chest so when he goes to the doctors three times a week for 6 hours every time they can purify his bloodstream. We only found him last week, but he´s something. He always appears ticked off or just depressed, is always feeling cruddy, and told us that he believes in God, but only when he needs to.
He doesnt want it to be that way. he wants to change.
I reckon i was just thinking as i wrote this, that this man, who is going to die anytime, has reason to seek God. that he needs God. And then as im sure we all do, though me not quite as often as i would like, i realized how dumb that thought was.
Julio regrets much in his life, he expressed a little in words, even fewer that i could understand, but you can see it in the way he sits, with his shoulders slumped and his head bowed low, in his face, and most of all, in his eyes. More than just being old and stricken with this terrible sickness, he knows there is more, something that he has of yet missed out on, and for this, he welcomes us. not because we can help him, but because of He whom we are sent can.
How clearly can the atonement of Christ, the love of Christ raise this man in this life and in the next?
but what, are our necessities blurred?
how different are we? Waiting for a reason to come and lay our burdens down at the feet of the Savior? We need not wait so long. And i say this because its darn flustering, cause i do it all the time, forget the purpose of the gospel of Christ that is, the purpose of life. I don´t know why as humans we don´t desire happiness. We do, of course, and yet we are so resistent!
and he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind;
and this that the word might be fulfilled which he saith he will take upon him
the pains and the sicknesses of his people
alma 7:11
These things i have spoken unto you,
that in me ye might have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation:
but be of good cheer;
I have overcome the world.
Juan 16:33
The words of the Savior, probably like the most beautiful of all scripture, i don´t know, i like it a lot. Be of good cheer! dangit!
Its funny, in a way that is not funny at all, how tough it is for us to accept the gift of peace that Christ offers us. Christ has felt everything, has taken upon himself everything, our sorrow, pain, fears.
we are unhappy without the His hope.
and everyone everywhere is trying to fill these holes with all manner of garbage. but we can only fill holes with garbage for so long! It starts to smell really bad! (i live in mexico, where i don´t know why, but everyone, including my companion throws their trash on the ground, anywho!)
the really the holes don´t fill, until we come unto Christ. Seriously, we neednt wait. and there is never a time when we don´t have to, even after we have made an intial choice, or recieved a testimony, or been bapttzed.
Los doy mi testimonio!
I hadn´t planned on talking about this at all! (not that i ever plan on anything, but especially not on this!) Sorry its so long!
Anyways.
I love you all, know this!
and wish you all the best, and mi familia a super incredible trip to yellowstone.
until we meet,
adios!
Elder ALBANO!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Week 3!
Hey mom! hey dad! Jess and Ton and all you other wonderful people!
How are you?
Im glad you enjoyed girls camp my mother dearest, and are super impressive at balancing on poles :), and thats pretty swell about Bishop Kersey, he´s great, though im pretty sure he thinks me a bum! thats ok, in actuality i prefer it that way! but im telling you stuff you already know!
Things continue to go splendidly down here. Just in the moment when i was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to thinking that i was alone in actually caring, i had a temporary companion switch with one of the zone leaders, who happens to rock, and happened to prove me wrong. the first thing he did when he saw my charla (ugh!) was rip it up and hand it to a garbage man!
But now im back with my trainer, and he´s a little peeved, and told me we´ll make new ones tomorrow....
So close!
Other than that, i was super excited when last week i was in the bathroom half the night thinking i had an infection! My first parasite! i thought to myself, but the fever that had accompanied me el baño then seems to have passed, and though i still feel like i spend half my life walking and the other half in the bathroom, all is well!
In other news, my companion told me that packages almost always arrive from the states, with one thing! a picture of the virgen mary!
so thats for all of you who have been waiting on the edge of your seats to send me swedish fish. Virgen Mary!
Umm....
We found a couple of cool families this last week that both accompanied us to church with their hijos, so that was super neat, and one of the dads was wearing an REO shirt when we visited his home the second time. I made an attempt at commenting that they are my dads favorite band, but either he didn´t understand me or he has know idea who REO speedwagon is...i dont know he just laughed alot...
anywho!
Pensamiento Espíritual!
The Book of mormon begins with the story of the family of this great guy Nephi. They live in Jerusalem, before the coming of Christ. Nephis father is a prophet, who goes around the city, warning all the jews to prepare themselves, and repent, or the city of jerusalem would be destroyed.
The people, as they tend to do, are infuriated to the point of seeking to kill Lehi. (nobody likes to hear they are wrong) So Lehi and his family are told by God to flee the city and head for the wilderness, leaving behind all their worldly treasures and whatnot.
The thing is, Nephi has these two brothers, who you know, maybe they´re just teens or something, but they just can´t stand their father. They call him a visionary man, being led by the foolish imaginations of the heart. Anyways they get to the point of wanting to kill their dad, like the jews in the city.
But lets get to the point. because Nephi, on the other hand, though he was younger than his brothers did not follow in their footsteps, and we learn why!
In Nephi 2:12, we read about laman and lemuel (the brothers of Nephi) that they did ¨murmer because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them¨ Laman and Lemuel could not understand why their dad would do all these crazy things, all these marvolous things. Because they didn´t know the very being who had created them.
This goes hand in hand with my last spiritual thought!
God exists. And if God exists, he created us, And if God created us, he loves us, And if God loves us, he wants us to love him. Just like any other good father, save He is perfect.
But can we love that which we don´t understand?
Now, yes, because i love God though I could never possibly understand Him. But it is a yes only to a point. As we come to understand our Heavenly Father, and i hope im not repeating myself from last week, but i just feel like this is the point where so many people lose their way, just like Laman and Lemuel, who never returned from their wrong ways. As we come to understand our Heavenly Father, we come to love Him. like Enoch, we come to see like Him, love like Him, be a little more like Him.
Now, the difference between Laman and Lemuel, and their brother Nephi?
in verse 16
i Nephi, being exceedingly young, (and i would add to this humble, an important part!) nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know the mysteries of God (desire!), wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; (prayer, he asked God for help!) and...
behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart
that i did believe.
Mi Familia, Mis Amigos!
I am going to be the crazy Lehi to some of you right now!
We all know how blessed we are, if not, come to mexico! Come to have a testimony, as Nephi of old. Why? because! because life, our relations with others, our relations with ourselves, are better when we have a relation with God, when we have a testimony of truth.
As Nephi, we must be humble enough to have faith, we must have a desire to know the truth, who doesn´t? only the prideful! none of you! I know!
Then, we must act! ask! and ask believing, because i promise you will not ask in vain, and more importantly, the Lord promises you.
And this goes for all. there are none who know their savior enough, there are none who can ever think they know enough.
These things, i am beginning to know for myself, and desire that you all know as well, because they are the most important things.
I love you!
I hope all is well!
Im sorry for my hardcore preaching, but im not! its too easy in english!
Have a nice day!
and a week!
adios!
How are you?
Im glad you enjoyed girls camp my mother dearest, and are super impressive at balancing on poles :), and thats pretty swell about Bishop Kersey, he´s great, though im pretty sure he thinks me a bum! thats ok, in actuality i prefer it that way! but im telling you stuff you already know!
Things continue to go splendidly down here. Just in the moment when i was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to thinking that i was alone in actually caring, i had a temporary companion switch with one of the zone leaders, who happens to rock, and happened to prove me wrong. the first thing he did when he saw my charla (ugh!) was rip it up and hand it to a garbage man!
But now im back with my trainer, and he´s a little peeved, and told me we´ll make new ones tomorrow....
So close!
Other than that, i was super excited when last week i was in the bathroom half the night thinking i had an infection! My first parasite! i thought to myself, but the fever that had accompanied me el baño then seems to have passed, and though i still feel like i spend half my life walking and the other half in the bathroom, all is well!
In other news, my companion told me that packages almost always arrive from the states, with one thing! a picture of the virgen mary!
so thats for all of you who have been waiting on the edge of your seats to send me swedish fish. Virgen Mary!
Umm....
We found a couple of cool families this last week that both accompanied us to church with their hijos, so that was super neat, and one of the dads was wearing an REO shirt when we visited his home the second time. I made an attempt at commenting that they are my dads favorite band, but either he didn´t understand me or he has know idea who REO speedwagon is...i dont know he just laughed alot...
anywho!
Pensamiento Espíritual!
The Book of mormon begins with the story of the family of this great guy Nephi. They live in Jerusalem, before the coming of Christ. Nephis father is a prophet, who goes around the city, warning all the jews to prepare themselves, and repent, or the city of jerusalem would be destroyed.
The people, as they tend to do, are infuriated to the point of seeking to kill Lehi. (nobody likes to hear they are wrong) So Lehi and his family are told by God to flee the city and head for the wilderness, leaving behind all their worldly treasures and whatnot.
The thing is, Nephi has these two brothers, who you know, maybe they´re just teens or something, but they just can´t stand their father. They call him a visionary man, being led by the foolish imaginations of the heart. Anyways they get to the point of wanting to kill their dad, like the jews in the city.
But lets get to the point. because Nephi, on the other hand, though he was younger than his brothers did not follow in their footsteps, and we learn why!
In Nephi 2:12, we read about laman and lemuel (the brothers of Nephi) that they did ¨murmer because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them¨ Laman and Lemuel could not understand why their dad would do all these crazy things, all these marvolous things. Because they didn´t know the very being who had created them.
This goes hand in hand with my last spiritual thought!
God exists. And if God exists, he created us, And if God created us, he loves us, And if God loves us, he wants us to love him. Just like any other good father, save He is perfect.
But can we love that which we don´t understand?
Now, yes, because i love God though I could never possibly understand Him. But it is a yes only to a point. As we come to understand our Heavenly Father, and i hope im not repeating myself from last week, but i just feel like this is the point where so many people lose their way, just like Laman and Lemuel, who never returned from their wrong ways. As we come to understand our Heavenly Father, we come to love Him. like Enoch, we come to see like Him, love like Him, be a little more like Him.
Now, the difference between Laman and Lemuel, and their brother Nephi?
in verse 16
i Nephi, being exceedingly young, (and i would add to this humble, an important part!) nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know the mysteries of God (desire!), wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; (prayer, he asked God for help!) and...
behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart
that i did believe.
Mi Familia, Mis Amigos!
I am going to be the crazy Lehi to some of you right now!
We all know how blessed we are, if not, come to mexico! Come to have a testimony, as Nephi of old. Why? because! because life, our relations with others, our relations with ourselves, are better when we have a relation with God, when we have a testimony of truth.
As Nephi, we must be humble enough to have faith, we must have a desire to know the truth, who doesn´t? only the prideful! none of you! I know!
Then, we must act! ask! and ask believing, because i promise you will not ask in vain, and more importantly, the Lord promises you.
And this goes for all. there are none who know their savior enough, there are none who can ever think they know enough.
These things, i am beginning to know for myself, and desire that you all know as well, because they are the most important things.
I love you!
I hope all is well!
Im sorry for my hardcore preaching, but im not! its too easy in english!
Have a nice day!
and a week!
adios!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Week 2
Pues, ola again!
how are we all? Sorry to hear about that accident, thats quite a bummer!
With the money, once a month we hit up an atm machine and withdraw the amount that we are issued. Neat huh? I use it to hitch taxies when we don´t have time, and buy bread and soda, and these yogurt drink things. Im going to talk about food, since im hungry and we`re on the subject. last week, just after emailing my beloved friends and family, i had what the ``locals`` call my `` baptism by fire`` it is apparently like the hottest taco ever, piled in like the hottest salsa ever, and everybody fears it! but almost all the missionaries experience it here in Irapuato. I was like balling, and sniffling, and whatnot, and about half way through, i got these huge, bulging, hiccup things, that reminded me and awlful lot of an episode of the Magic school bus, where Ms Frizzle and her class is stuck inside a volcano, trying to escape out of the top in an explosion of hot liquid magma. Anyways, thats basically what was happening in my stomach/throat/esophagus. The good news is i didn`t throw up like alot of elders, i downed like 2 or 3 horchatas, and the next day suffered the aftermath! Which it sufficeth me to say sucked! But all is well, and now i don´t need to fear any comida picante! i hope!
Other than that, not much happened, i just baptized a 93 year old lady. Shes awesome, and lives with like a family of twelve out by some ranches. We`ve been talking to her greatgrandaughter, the last of her family to be baptized, but she doesn´t want to because she wants to have her first ``communion`` shyeah! whatever that means!
Basically though, im in just a big pickle!
Its odd, but i don´t really feel as if i am here for the same reason as everyone else. I spent 3 months trying to learn how to teach by the spirit, and i get here and am told by my trainer to memorize these horrid ``charrlas`` or memorized statements like they used to do back in the day of mi hermano! And i don´t know, it sure is a challenge to invite the spirit to touch these people individually when you say the same thing to every single one of them. I don´t know, maybe im being a brat or something, but i feel like all the elders here have found a way to baptize a couple people a week, and now are just on a monotonous repeat thing, not growing, not loving, just kind of doing. The worst part is, because i can´t communicate very well, its all too easy, almost necessary, to just memorize. I just worry about falling down this ``winter slide`` as they say and forgeting what really matters, though i think its summer, i don´t know it breaks out in crazy lightning storms all the time...
All in all, i feel like i am learning what kind of missionary i want to be. What kind of disciple of Christ i want to be. I reckon there is only one.
i dont mean to bring negativity, on the contrary its a very positive thing, so don´t take it the wrong way, we are always learning! I love this place, the people are great, my companion is nice, we teach a whole lot of people every week, we played fùtbol los estados unidos vs mexico (of missionaries) today, we lost both times, by one point mind you, and the games reminded me an awful lot of when the kings would play the lakers in the playoffs, with all these outrageous calls, and cheap shots!
but im not going to do this, im sorry i failed you all back home
As far as the breakfast ordeal, it is still a battle, though one night this incredible sister brought us these incredible baked goods, and then like ten minutes later, the nice lady downstairs brought us some more baked goods. they were incredible. they have really great baked goods here, and beverages! though i am eating terribly, terribly unhealthily. and i only say this to warn you of who might be stepping off of the plane in a few years!
finally, i close with a spiritual thought. Something that i read in the MTC, that i still enjoy flipping through these days.
In the book of Moses, we read about the story of Enoch (the full and incredible story!) Enoch is chosen by God to preach to the people of the world who had forgotten their Father in Heaven, who had forgot His love, and had turned away from him ``hating their own blood`` Enoch is taken up into heaven, to stand and view the world as God sees it. He watches the wickedness of the world, with Jehovah at his side, and bears testimony of the Lord weeping for those of the earth. the creations of His hands. And Enoch cannot understand, how the greatest, even God, stretching from eternities to eternities, whos creations are limitless, could weep. Power, weeping. Enoch questions the Lord, and comes to see as He sees, with eyes of love, his bowels strecthing wide as eternity with the love of the Lord. And then he understands.
I guess i am moved by this, i am. God watching Satan laugh binding the earth with chains, weeping.
The point is, as the good book says, this is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Christ, whom he has sent. Oh how we don´t understand he who made us! like laman and lemuel of the Nephite times, we cannot follow Christ if we don´t understand him. Luckily, or perfectly, the end the story, the happening, is happy, as God tells Enoch to take cheer, for the Savior will come to save the world.
And this flows in with what i feel my purpose is, invite people to truly know God, truly know Christ, not because i do, but because i know the way how. It is a truth that only can be found in this gospel. And as we try to understand, what i have found, we find that we are only remebering what we already know. I invite you all to read the story of Enoch! In the book of Moses, Chapters like 6 through 8 or something. and i invite you all to be joyful, in your blessings, in the blessing that we have, the opportunity we have to understand the love of God in every one our lives.
and I invite you, to know the blessing that you are to me. Truly! Verdaderamente.
and alas, for now it is time for us to part!
I apologize if I have not made sense, or if i have accidentally skewed the image of the pure happiness of serving the Lord and serving others in your eyes. It was not my intention at all. This is the best. You all are the best!
I love and pray for you,
Elder Albano
captains log:
Irapuato, Mexico
how are we all? Sorry to hear about that accident, thats quite a bummer!
With the money, once a month we hit up an atm machine and withdraw the amount that we are issued. Neat huh? I use it to hitch taxies when we don´t have time, and buy bread and soda, and these yogurt drink things. Im going to talk about food, since im hungry and we`re on the subject. last week, just after emailing my beloved friends and family, i had what the ``locals`` call my `` baptism by fire`` it is apparently like the hottest taco ever, piled in like the hottest salsa ever, and everybody fears it! but almost all the missionaries experience it here in Irapuato. I was like balling, and sniffling, and whatnot, and about half way through, i got these huge, bulging, hiccup things, that reminded me and awlful lot of an episode of the Magic school bus, where Ms Frizzle and her class is stuck inside a volcano, trying to escape out of the top in an explosion of hot liquid magma. Anyways, thats basically what was happening in my stomach/throat/esophagus. The good news is i didn`t throw up like alot of elders, i downed like 2 or 3 horchatas, and the next day suffered the aftermath! Which it sufficeth me to say sucked! But all is well, and now i don´t need to fear any comida picante! i hope!
Other than that, not much happened, i just baptized a 93 year old lady. Shes awesome, and lives with like a family of twelve out by some ranches. We`ve been talking to her greatgrandaughter, the last of her family to be baptized, but she doesn´t want to because she wants to have her first ``communion`` shyeah! whatever that means!
Basically though, im in just a big pickle!
Its odd, but i don´t really feel as if i am here for the same reason as everyone else. I spent 3 months trying to learn how to teach by the spirit, and i get here and am told by my trainer to memorize these horrid ``charrlas`` or memorized statements like they used to do back in the day of mi hermano! And i don´t know, it sure is a challenge to invite the spirit to touch these people individually when you say the same thing to every single one of them. I don´t know, maybe im being a brat or something, but i feel like all the elders here have found a way to baptize a couple people a week, and now are just on a monotonous repeat thing, not growing, not loving, just kind of doing. The worst part is, because i can´t communicate very well, its all too easy, almost necessary, to just memorize. I just worry about falling down this ``winter slide`` as they say and forgeting what really matters, though i think its summer, i don´t know it breaks out in crazy lightning storms all the time...
All in all, i feel like i am learning what kind of missionary i want to be. What kind of disciple of Christ i want to be. I reckon there is only one.
i dont mean to bring negativity, on the contrary its a very positive thing, so don´t take it the wrong way, we are always learning! I love this place, the people are great, my companion is nice, we teach a whole lot of people every week, we played fùtbol los estados unidos vs mexico (of missionaries) today, we lost both times, by one point mind you, and the games reminded me an awful lot of when the kings would play the lakers in the playoffs, with all these outrageous calls, and cheap shots!
but im not going to do this, im sorry i failed you all back home
As far as the breakfast ordeal, it is still a battle, though one night this incredible sister brought us these incredible baked goods, and then like ten minutes later, the nice lady downstairs brought us some more baked goods. they were incredible. they have really great baked goods here, and beverages! though i am eating terribly, terribly unhealthily. and i only say this to warn you of who might be stepping off of the plane in a few years!
finally, i close with a spiritual thought. Something that i read in the MTC, that i still enjoy flipping through these days.
In the book of Moses, we read about the story of Enoch (the full and incredible story!) Enoch is chosen by God to preach to the people of the world who had forgotten their Father in Heaven, who had forgot His love, and had turned away from him ``hating their own blood`` Enoch is taken up into heaven, to stand and view the world as God sees it. He watches the wickedness of the world, with Jehovah at his side, and bears testimony of the Lord weeping for those of the earth. the creations of His hands. And Enoch cannot understand, how the greatest, even God, stretching from eternities to eternities, whos creations are limitless, could weep. Power, weeping. Enoch questions the Lord, and comes to see as He sees, with eyes of love, his bowels strecthing wide as eternity with the love of the Lord. And then he understands.
I guess i am moved by this, i am. God watching Satan laugh binding the earth with chains, weeping.
The point is, as the good book says, this is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Christ, whom he has sent. Oh how we don´t understand he who made us! like laman and lemuel of the Nephite times, we cannot follow Christ if we don´t understand him. Luckily, or perfectly, the end the story, the happening, is happy, as God tells Enoch to take cheer, for the Savior will come to save the world.
And this flows in with what i feel my purpose is, invite people to truly know God, truly know Christ, not because i do, but because i know the way how. It is a truth that only can be found in this gospel. And as we try to understand, what i have found, we find that we are only remebering what we already know. I invite you all to read the story of Enoch! In the book of Moses, Chapters like 6 through 8 or something. and i invite you all to be joyful, in your blessings, in the blessing that we have, the opportunity we have to understand the love of God in every one our lives.
and I invite you, to know the blessing that you are to me. Truly! Verdaderamente.
and alas, for now it is time for us to part!
I apologize if I have not made sense, or if i have accidentally skewed the image of the pure happiness of serving the Lord and serving others in your eyes. It was not my intention at all. This is the best. You all are the best!
I love and pray for you,
Elder Albano
captains log:
Irapuato, Mexico
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)