Having fun, working hard, and loving the missionary life!

 

Hey there!

 

The Book of Mormon - The Keystone of our religion!

 

So a lot has happened this week, but at the same time I don't even know what to tell you all...we're having fun, we're working hard, and loving the missionary life! So I think I'll just begin with some awesomeness from the Book of Mormon. Seriously this book is the best. THE BEST. Ah I love it so much, and Moroni is just the greatest.

Right now I am reading in Alma and I LOOOVE this book. I have learned some amazing things this week and have recognized a lot of different ways that I can apply it to my life. Alma chapters 46-51. Read 'em. Read the all of Alma. In fact, all of the Book of Mormon! haha First of all, the contrast that these chapters emphasize between Amalickiah and Moroni. Amalickiah is a bad man. And Moroni is just the coolest most righteous guy ever. Read this verse (48:7) "Now it came to pass that while Amalickiah had thus been obtaining power by fraud and deceit, Moroni, on the other hand, had been preparing the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord their God." While Amalickiah is trying to deceive people and trying to gain power, Moroni is preparing his people in the Lord and preparing the fortifications of the cities. The Nephites recognize the weak spots in their city and strengthen them. They are prepared individually (with armor) and collectively (with the fortifications of the cities). When the Lamanites came to fight them, they were ready and defeated them easily. That is what we must do!! We need to recognize our weak spots--where the adversary can most easily get to us--and strengthen them. That way we can always be prepared to face and conquer our enemies. And when we have conquered them once, we cannot stop! We must continue to fortify the line between ourselves and the adversary, because he is not going to give up. He'll wait until he recognizes a weak spot and attack with full force. However, if we are prepared with the Lord on our side and full confidence in Him, we will always emerge victorious. How cool of a promise is that? Ahhh I love the Book of Mormon! I love being able to study so much as a missionary and I feel so lucky to have this time to focus on nothing else but the gospel. It is such a blessing and I am learning so many incredible things. I have such a strong testimony of the scriptures and prayer and how they work together to help us in every facet of our lives. I love that when everything around us in the world is rapidly changing, those will always remain constant for us to utilize if we can just recongize that they are some of the most important tools that we have! We are so very blessed.

We really have seen a ton of miracles this week and have had some hilariously (is that even a word?? haha) memorable moments. I have encountered more dogs this week than I think I have in my whole entire life. We found a new area to tract in and it is full of dogs that appear to want to kill us, and then luckily for us they are nice. We were walking around a corner and out of the blue hear tons of barking and all of us just think "Oh no." We look up to see a pack of 7 or 8 dogs running towards us and our lives flashed before our eyes. We honestly just stood there waiting to be attacked, because running away is just a bad idea. Then to our great luck they stopped at our feet and waited for us to pet them. haha and then we saw the biggest dog I have ever seen in my entire life. It was some sort of a mutant boxer that is literally bigger than the dog in Sandlot. We had a German Sheperd walking with us so it chased after him instead of us. Thank heavens that none of these dogs ate us and that we are still healthy, happy missionaries.

We have seen some other great miracles this week as well aside from not getting eaten alive. We finally have more students in the English class that we get to teach every week!! We started talking to them a little bit about what we do as missionaries and one of the ladies turned to the other two and said something along the lines that we are here volunteering our time and that we are paying to be here so that they need to bring all of their friends to class! haha it was awesome! I think a lot of people don't realize what we are doing here--that we are literally leaving everything behind to be here. We don't just do it on days where it is convenient or when we have time, but we are literally doing this 24/7 for a year and a half of our lives! When people realize that it makes it so different. I hope that I am the type of missionary that when someone looks at me they can tell that I truly am dedicated and consecrated to my purpose of helping others come unto Christ. I am so blessed to be a missionary! This is an experience of a lifetime, and I wouldn't trade it for the world!!

 

Love you all soooo much!!!

Hermana Hoj