Stake Conference

This week we had stake conference :)

It was so good! The air conditioning in the capella broke so it was super hot, but the theme was all about missionary work. A mom talked about raising her kids to be missionaries, and the recent return missionaries bore testimonies and the future missionaries that were leaving soon bore testimony. Sister Souza shared a story about when Elder Bednar visited the mission, and they were eating in the house of a church leader, and the leader´s son came out to sneak a peek and see the apostle. Elder Bednar called him to come and taught him about how to prepare for a mission. He said, prepare so that when you turn 12, you will be a worthy temple recommend holder, and when you turn 13, prepare to be a worthy temple recommend holder, and when you turn 14... and so on. and when you turn 18, you wont have to worry because youll be prepared to go on a mission. What a great lesson for a young kid! 

The mom that talked said that her kids are 8 and 9, and she´s teaching them how to do house hold chores like sweep the floor so that they can be ready for their missions. and she taught them how to make instant ramen :) ha everyone laughed at that. I think its an elder thing to eat ramen every day, but in our house we´re blessed with sister Pereira that really likes to cook. We´re also blessed with our neighbors who happen to be members and anything we need, we ask her and she always helps, or knocks on our door and says, i made this and there was so much i thought id bring some over... :) 

Sister McQuivey was sick this week and irma deisy and her husband moroni took us to the hospital. She´s feeling better now and we´ve gone back to work. Its great to live with other sisters in the house because we went on splits to take care of both areas a little bit, because sis p also sprained her foot? idk what she did to her foot but it was swollen for a bit. So they stayed home while sis henry and i went to teach. Its great that we´re all in the same ward because our investigators that go to church already know each of us and arent like, `who are you?` :) 

I´m learning how to talk to my companion about my feelings :p the other day i was homesick and talked to my companion about it. She helps but afterwards I prayed and that made me feel really a whole lot better. It was like as soon as I started talking to Heavenly Father I felt relief. I can trust that Heavenly Father REAlly knows how I´m feeling. At stake conference, the choir sang a hymn that helped too. I could feel the spirit and feel like my savior was there for me, that he understood and was there to help. I´m really grateful for my savior, Jesus Christ. and for prayer. It felt like a hug when I prayed, and when we sang the hymn. I know that repentence is real, we can be forgiven and empowered to do better through the atonement. In a lesson with Gloria, we talked about fasting some more and read Alma 26:6 where it talks about how a people were sad because of the war that caused many deaths in the families. 

 6 And now surely this was a sorrowful day; yea, a time of solemnity, and a time of much ^afasting and prayer.

what I learned from this scripture is that when you´re sad about something, thats a time to fast. I never thought before that when people died, it would be appropriate to fast, everyone always takes food to funerals :p but when we fast, we become sensible to the spirit and can understand the Lord´s will. It makes so much sense now to fast when you get sad. So each month when we fast, its like a protector against sadness for the month too, because we can see God´s hand more clearly in our lives. I´m grateful for the scriptures to help me understand the principles of the gospel. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God, another testament of Jesus Christ, and that we´ll grow closer to God through it than by any other book. I also know that the Bible is the word of God as long as it is translated correctly. I started reading the new testament and love reading about Jesus Christ´s ministry in Jerusalem. I hope that you are enjoying the scriptures. I love you :) 

Sister Miess