Charity

First Sunday Together

Did you know the gospel is true? Well it is. And I love being a missionary, because I get to just tell everyone about it all day. Plus, I have a brand new excited missionary with me! Life is good here in Bloomingdale, and I have a feeling this new transfer is going to bring some miracles!

Hmna Ward (or Hmna Barrio in Spanish ) is AMAZING! She already speaks so much Spanish, way more than I did when I first got into the field. She is from Spokane Washington and I love her. She is super motivated to work and fun to be around, and she loves pizza, so I haven't found a downside yet! We took her to Lou Malnati's, the famous pizza place
here in Chicago today to celebrate her first preparation day in the field with traditional deep dish pizza. 

Lou Malnati's Chicago style pizza

This has been a busy week, we spent a lot of time visiting different members. We also spent a lot of time explaining who each member and investigator is to hmna Ward so she wasn't completely lost. But for the crazy amount of info she has received in the past 5 days, she is doing super well! I'm super proud of her, she just throws herself out there and talks to people in Spanish even if she has no idea what to say.
Update on driving: I've got the hang of it! I picked it up a lot quicker than I thought I would. I still don't have a sense of direction though, so it took 30 min to find the gas station, but I'm improving! Also the weather has been very dry so the roads aren't very scary.

Investigators:
Ción and the girls: we had a really good lesson with them this week. We had hmno and hmna Avila (Branch mission leader and relief society president) with us, and their testimonies made al the difference! We read 1 nephi 2 and talked about the importance of sacrifice. We think
their main roadblock is realizing they have to give something up to get something better.

Bety: we stopped by to visit an inactive member named Rebekah. She wasn't home, but her mom Bety was visiting from Ecuador and let us in! It turns out she is not a member, but her husband is a super active member and does temple work all the time. We had Hmna Rendon with us and they really connected. She is only visiting til the 8th of January so we won't be able to teach her much, but hopefully the missionaries in Ecuador will catch up with her soon!

The area book missionaries use who don't have tablets, being used
as a weight for our morning exercises. :)

Something really cool president Griffin was telling us about at the trainer meeting was about judging. Making judgments has so much power- it puts up a wall between you and the person you are judging, therefore making it impossible for charity and love to flow through. But if you break down that wall, you open up to so much love and
charity for that person, even if you know nothing about them. Basically, don't judge people! It doesn't help anyone, it doesn't solve anything, and it makes it nearly impossible to truly love that person. Christ is the ultimate example of pure, unhindered love for every person He met. I know that as we follow His example, we will find so much more happiness in our lives and strengthen our relationships with all those around us.

Moroni 7:46-47

Hmna Ward and I!

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail-- But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

Love,
Hermana Hokanson