Bolivia Bound

Coming to Know Christ

January 27, 2014

Hello everyone! This has been, as always, a wonderful week. I love being a missionary! Hermana Hincapie and I have put the goal together to get to know Jesus Christ a lot better so that we can learn to be more like Him. With that in mind, I have been studying Jesus the Christ and studying the scriptures always trying to learn more about Christ, and I have learned a lot. (just a comment... those of you who haven’t read Jesus the Christ, read it. I love this book!!) Anyway, I also had the chance to study a lot more of the sciptures than normal this week because Hermna Hincapie was sick Wednesday and we couldn’t leave the house most of the day. I have had the desire to read more of Doctrine and Covenants, so I read from the beginning and a part in Section 1 really hit me: "For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance; Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven" (v.31-32) Before this moment, I guess I sort of thought that we can reach a certain level of "righteousness" in this life and then we don’t have to worry, we’re good, we don’t have to keep striving to improve and eliminate our so-called little sins. I thought, God knows we aren’t perfect, He doesn’t REALLY expect us to strive for perfection, but this scripture caused me to reflect and helped me to understand that that’s not the case. The Lord cannot permit any sin, big or small, in His kingdom, and He expects us to repent and strive to abandon ALL sins. I started to think about my life and about some of my "little sins" and I realized that I have several that I need to abandon. I got on my knees and made several promises to my Heavenly Father that I would truly strive to abandon these "little sins" and utilize the Atonement more fully in my daily life, and I have really felt closer to the Lord, felt the Spirit in lessons more, felt like my scripture study and prayers are more edifying. I know that it’s easy to be content with where we are and think we’re "good enough", but the Lord is waiting to bless us for our increased obedience. I love all the lessons we learn in the mission. :)

Some good news - we had a disappointment with Anyelo when he told us he didn’t feel ready to get baptized, but this Saturday we had a really fantastic lesson with him. The Spirit was strong in this lesson to open Anyelo’s heart to the subject of baptism again, a subject that he had previously told us he didn’t want to talk about anymore. He opened up about some of his reservations, and then as we talked through them, he ended up putting his own baptism date for February 22! We’re really excited for him. Now he will get baptized in his own timing and he feels really good about it instead of feeling obligated. Yay! Another investigator, Aline, was supposed to get baptized this week but we ended up having to put off her baptism date as well. (I think the Lord is trying to teach me patience, ha.) But once again, I’m happy about that. She also needs to feel really secure about her decision and not feel like we’re just dragging her to a baptism date. It’s important to always remember that baptism is 100% about the investigator and 0% about us. If they need a little bit more time to be ready, that’s what’s important to more adequately help them. The Lord is definitely helping me to learn a LOT more about patience and trying to help me learn to "love my neighbor as myself." I love it!

Now to reply to your questions, Dad - yes it’s muddy a lot, so my shoes are always a disaster, but it’s not a big problem. Yes we also have hot water in the shower, but when it’s really hot out, it’s better to shower with cold water. It depends. And as for bugs, all the houses have bugs. It’s kind of gross, but it’s pretty normal these days. I’m even getting pretty good at killing spiders, and even cockroaches! I’m very proud of myself. :)

Anyway, that’s just a little bit about my week. I love you all!!!

Love,

Hermana Chelsie Faulk