June 1, 2015

June 1, 2015

Happy Birthday Margie and Peter!  Also to all the other aunts and uncles and friends that I dont know your birthday! 

There is a part in PMG that says that as you work with the leaders in the church you will come to love them and come to understand the gospel better.  Or something like that.  And this week, I am so greatful for the leaders we have here in Villa Anita.

Well, first off, our ward, well, it really is more of a branch.  We have like 30 active (active meaning that they come at least 2 times a month) members, and 5 of them are elders (have the melchezidek priesthood). Our capilla is super cute, because it actually is a rented house, and evertime it rains, the house floods.  I tell you this because I want to tell you about a cool experience we had yesterday.

We had church normal, and the last speaker was that the bishop got up and talked (he does this a lot because there arent that many speakers).  And he got up and started talking, and the spirit filled the room.  He talked in a voice of calm authority, of love and of expectation about how we cannot lose our faith.  Aperantly someone in his family, fatigued with all of the struggles associated with having a family that consisits of 1/2 the active members of the ward, aka, they have to do a lot a lot of work for the ward, had said that they felt like they were losing faith.  Losing their desire to give all that they have, their money, their time, their worries to the church.  Because its hard.  And he shared a scripture about the faith, speaking of the covenants that we made when we were baptized, and the promised blessings.  And then he bore his tesimony.  That there was no way that he, someone with 6th grade education, could raise his family, to have a better life, to sturggle less than him, if not for the atonement of jesus christ.  That he could not do what he does, keep struggling like he does, for his family, for the barrio (and really, he does EVERYTHING for the ward because his cousalers are semi activo and he also is the 2nd couseler in the stake presidency) if he did not have the Savior to rely on.  That he was a sinner, he was not anything, he was 20 years old, with 2 kids, and did not have anything going for him in his life, and the gospel changed him.  Changed his family, changed everything for him.  And how could we see the changes, the miracles that the Lord has done with us, with our lives, and then lose the faith.  And then walk away.  

And in that moment, he wasnt just a man with a 6th grade education, he was a powerful speaker, powerful instrament in the hands of god used to talk to his little sheep herd of villa anita that he loves so very much.   And I just looked at him, and had such a strong testimony of what God can do with a humble man that is willing to serve him and give him all that he has. 

If I have learned one thing on my misison, it is that God takes the little bit that we can give, and does miracles.  That we are nothing at all without him, and so so so very much with him.  I will never forget Obispo Arce and his testimony.  It is these very experinces in my mission that change me, make me think.  

I love you guys so much!  Dont lose faith, just dont do it.  God is with you, and God can do so very much more with you if you just hand over what you can do yourself.

Love,

Hermana Jarman