1 YEAR TO DO A TON OF THINGS!!!

Hola everyone,

So guys, I hit 6 months in the mission this last week. Do you know what that means??? One more year to do a ton of things!!! Ahhh I am freaking out haha. I just need to work that much harder to get everything done that Heavenly Father needs from me. So my companion and I are going to work super hard.

This week has been a week of hardship for my compaion and I but through it all we are still doing well. We had 4 investigators at church yesterday. One of our investigators is getting baptized this week. Her name is Duby and she is amazing. She is in her 60s and we love her. She practically teaches us when we teach her haha.

This week my companion and I also taught an Englsih class. It was soo funny to hear all the Latins speaking English. But it was so fun. They kept calling me teacher Patrick haha. I think it kinda helped me with the spanish as well. We teach the class every Friday at the chapel.

This week were were also invited to a party in which they burn the christmas tree for whatever reason. Pictures to come soon. We had tons of candy haha so that was fun. My companion as got feed cake by a crazy old lady haha.

This week during personal study I was studying some talks. There is one that I would like to share with you all today. Its called "The call to be Christlike" by Jeffrey R. Holland. Things that I really like from the talk are as followed

1. "Zion is everywhere- wherever the church is. And with that change, we no longer think of Zion as where we are going to live; we think of it as how we are going to live." I really liked this because we to be striving to live how Christ did all the time. Not just some times. Which leads to my next fav. part of the talk.

2. He goes on to tell a story about a basketball game and how rude some of the people were to a young man on the other team. "We are “to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in” (Mosiah 18:9)—not just some of the time, in a few places, or when our team has a big lead." This is true for everything in life. I have learned that alot on the mission. The young look to me and the Elders as an example. If they see us doing something wrong they think that that is how the mission is. Then what kind of missionary are they going to be when they go out. We really need to set examples for EVERYONE around us. In all times, and in all things, and in all places.
"Young people may ask, “Well, we don’t believe we should live or behave in such and such a way, but why do we have to make other people do the same? Don’t they have their free agency? Aren’t we being self-righteous and judgmental, forcing our beliefs on others, demanding that they act in a certain way?”

In those situations you are going to have to explain sensitively why some principles are defended and some sins opposed wherever they are found because the issues and the laws involved are not just social or political but eternal in their consequence. And while not wishing to offend those who believe differently from us, we are even more anxious not to offend God."I would invite all of you to look up this talk and read it. It has really helped alot with trying to become Christlike. Well everyone, hope your week is great and I hope everyone enjoyed there time off from school. Have a wonderful week. Thanks everyone for the emails!! Love you all!

“Israel, Israel, God Is Calling,”

-Hermana Patrick