Living below our privilege

Large Plates 

It was the craziest week of my entire life and this time I actually mean it. 

Wow, ok. I don't even know where to begin. This entire week felt like the best dream ever. It was so incredible that it literally doesn't feel real. 

Pday was a blast. We played football all morning, which was actually more fun than I thought it would be. Then we got all cleaned up and went over to Disney Springs. A nice member bought us all slushies from the coca cola store. I also found a pillow like the ones at Grandma & Grandpas house!

We started off the week with some much needed changes. We changed the way we do District Council, and we got a new vacuum!!! The combination of the two really started us off on the right foot for the week. We finally had clean carpet and we had a clean mindset! We definitely hit the ground running.

I'm not even going to bother writing about the middle of the week because WOW this weekend was wild. Basically Facebook finding was super successful this week so we constantly had a huge pile of DMs to respond to and we never had the time to do it. We were working through a bunch of them Friday afternoon, while simultaneously soaking up some sun, when we got a call from an unknown number. We answered it and it was this lady whose uncle passed away this week. Apparently he was a member in our ward but he was completely inactive and even the Bishop, who has been in this ward since he was a kid, didn't know who he was. She told us she wanted us to come over to her house and teach her and her entire extended family about the Plan of Salvation. She's Catholic. So is her whole family. We had no idea what to expect going into it, but we agreed to go over the next day. More on that later ;)

We caught up on our messages (for about 1 minute before they started filling up again), grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed out to meet our friends Rocio & Victoria for a lesson! They love going on walks so they asked us if we could go on a walk with them instead of coming over to have a sit-down lesson. Obviously we agreed. I love walks (shoutout to Shay-my walking buddy .

We met them at a local park to go for a walk and it was so much fun! The trail we were on goes past a bunch of lakes and jungly forests. Rocio was reasonably scared an alligator would come chase us haha. She and I got to talking about what we've been teaching her and her daughter Victoria and we had the sweetest conversation ever. They prayed about the Book of Mormon this week and they received an answer to their prayers. They never knew you could ask God a question in your prayers! She was so excited to keep seeking personal revelation and getting more in tune with the spirit. I told her prayer is what led us to knock on her door a couple months ago! 

I love Rocio and Victoria so much. They feel like family to me. I can't wait to help them continue to progress. They have so much potential. 

The walk didn't end there either. The sun was setting as a storm rolled in and the vibes were absolutely immaculate. There was tons of lightning in the distance and the wind was blowing like crazy and then it started raining. So, there I was: in a flowy yellow dress (yes mom. The package arrived this week. Thank you!!!) and my Keens, running with my companion and the people we are teaching, through a forest and past the alligator-infested lake, in a lightning storm. I've never been happier. 

So yeah, that was Friday. Saturday was equally, or perhaps more, chaotic.

We started off the day at a Salvation Army volunteer breakfast. Basically it was just an event to thank all of the volunteer groups who help with the Salvation Army projects. They had a choir of middle aged women singing love songs between the announcements of awards haha. The event was actually so good!! The Church was given a few awards which might not sound very exciting but it was! Even just a few years ago the Salvation Army in Orlando wouldn't work with church members or missionaries, and now they recognize the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as one of their partners! It's been really great to work with the Salvation Army for the last 6 months and do our best to shine a good light on the Church. 

Then we came home, did as much of our studies and planning as we could, between sessions of helping our neighbor move out. 

Up next we had that funeral/Plan of Salvation lesson thing! We still had no idea what to expect going into it but you guys. It was so awesome. We went over and got to know their family. There were about 10 family members there and they were all so nice! We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and they had the most amazing questions and we had such a fun and uplifting conversation. They were so grateful that we came over and they told us they love us and they gave us yummy food (which is actually another form of saying I love you). They insisted that we come back after they get back from their trip to Miami. They sent us home with an avocado and some yummy sauce as a token of their gratitude. I adore all of them. And! They all came to church yesterday and they loved it! I definitely have a lot of hope for them in the future. 

We ended our Saturday off with a bang. We went over to a member's house for a birthday party! In case you haven't picked up on the culture of Hispanics in Orlando yet: a birthday party is just a rave with a bunch of food. We got to their house and there was a DJ and a fog machine and loud music and they moved their furniture to make a dance floor. And of course, there was more food than you can imagine. It was so fun and our ward mission leader and his wife taught us how to dance haha. Also the food was excellent. 

The highlight of my Sunday, besides the sacrament, of course, was actually our English class! Victoria helped us teach it. And by "helped" I mean she stood on a chair at the front of the class and drew pictures of all of the vocabulary words on the chalkboard. It was iconic. Sacrament meeting was also so good, and dinner at Bishop's house is always one of my favorite parts of the week. I love Bishop's family with all my heart. 

That's just a snippet of the fun I had this week. But you guys. I'm so so happy. The spirit was so present and miracles were just pouring down all around us. Life is so good. 

Small Plates

Living below our privilege 

This week we learned a little something about living below our privileges. By that I mean we finally got a new vacuum and it changed our lives. 

As dramatic as that sounds, I mean it. I've lived in this same apartment for over 6 months and when I got here I was told "the vacuum doesn't work very well." And then we left it at that. 

But new vacuums exist! All it took was us asking the right person if we could have one and boom. We had one the next day. 

All this time I've been living below my privileges because I've never bothered to hope for something better. 

Rocio and I actually talked about this on our walk on Friday night. They go walking at this park all the time, but they never took the trail that leads you past the lake and through the forest because they never bothered to hope for something better. But then we came along and introduced them to something new! They loved it too. It completely opened their eyes to the possibilities that they had been missing out on.

We also talked about prayer, and all of the possibilities that come along with it. She had been taught all her life that there is one specific way to pray and basically if you said anything else it didn't count. Or God didn't hear you. 

Is that not so sad?

She had been living below her privileges for so long! 

We taught her and Victoria a little while back about how to pray. We explained to them that God loves us so much and He wants to hear from us. We can tell Him our thoughts, worries, gratitude, anger, needs, wants, questions, or whatever it may be. He loves us like a good father does. Because that is exactly what He is. He is a Good, Good Father. He is the Perfect Father. And because He is a perfect Father, He wants to make us happy. That's what makes Him happy. So that's what He does. 

Asking Heavenly Father a question in prayer was something totally new for her and she was so pleasantly surprised by the spirit that touched her heart after she prayed about the Book Of Mormon. She was so excited to keep praying this way, without repetitions and feeling free to say or ask about what's on her mind!

She had lived so long without ever bothering to hope for something better.

I think we can all learn something from that. I definitely needed to learn something about learning below my privileges. Last week we were kind of in robot mode. Our missionary work wasn't as inspired as we wished it was. But that was us living below our privileges.

All we had to do was go to our Father in Heaven and ask for something better. Ask for what He wanted to give us all along. We asked Him to guide us to the people who needed to hear this message and He did just that. 

I don't even have words to describe how many miracles we saw this week. I wish I could write all of them down, but there just aren't words to describe it all.

The crazy thing is all we had to do was ask. 

Hope for something better.

Seek and expect miracles, just as our dear prophet has instructed. 

And then wait. They'll come.

What is truth?

 Large Plates 

The new family we're teaching, service at the Salvation Army, brunch, transfer news and member meals

As far as pday goes, we didn't really do anything too notable haha. It was still super fun though! We played games at the park and I got some Jersey Mike's and I got a ball out of a tree so the Elders all called me Hermana Squirrel haha.

We started teaching a super cute family this week! Pamela & Luis and their kids!! They actually live in our apartment building haha. They just moved in so when we went over they didn't even have furniture yet! We stood by the kitchen counter and just talked about faith and got to know them! They're really cute.

Our weekly service at the Bishops storehouse got canceled because there weren't enough orders. We were pretty sad about it because Storehouse is super fun and Elder Holladay, the manager, is one of the best human beings on this planet. Also it would be the last time this transfer! We called up a member of the stake who does a ton of service to see if he could hook us up with something. He coordinated with the Salvation Army and we got to go make a thousand sandwiches for them to give to the homeless! It was super fun and the best part was when Elder Holladay showed up!! He had some food from the Storehouse that he needed to give them. They told us they needed help unloading a truck and when we went over Elder Holladay was there! It made my whole day, and everyone else's too. 

We invited Elder Holladay to come to lunch with us! We went to a cute brunch place and I had a super yummy waffle. At the beginning, Elder Holladay excused himself to go wash his hands and apparently while he was up he told the waitress he was going to buy all of our food. We were all super surprised at the end when we asked for our checks and the waitress said he had already paid! He's too nice & now we owe him one haha. I don't know if I've already mentioned this but Elder Holladay is going to be the new Orlando Temple President starting this summer! I'm excited to be able to go to the temple and know the president so personally.

Also a side note: the same day Elder Holladay paid for our lunch a nice lady paid for our ice cream! We were very surprised because that just doesn't happen in Florida haha.

This Friday we got transfer news! We got a call from President Ashcraft at around 10 a.m. and he told Hermana Morris that she's going to be moving all the way across the mission to be a Sister Training Leader in an English area. We were so blown away. We had a few predictions for where she could possibly go but that was not one of them haha. She's going to do so good! I'm very excited for her. And she gets to live by the beach!!

As for me, I will be staying here in Buena Ventura and I will be TRAINING! I'm super excited!! It's going to be a lot of responsibilities and a lot of pressure, but it's going to be a lot of fun. I still don't know who my trainee is, I'll find out Tuesday morning when I meet her!!

On Saturday, we ate so much food. We had a member meal at 1:30 (where I ate enough food to last me a whole day), another at 4:30, and another at 6. I thought I might die. I changed dresses between the first two so I could wear a dress with pockets. Why? So I could put a zip lock bag in each pocket and put food in them when people weren't looking haha. (Shoutout to Aunt Rachie for the idea) I left the second meal with ⅓ of a burrito in my pocket haha. We got to the third meal a little late but it ended up being okay because the member forgot she was supposed to feed us haha. This meal was with the Elders too and they got there first, fully expecting and hoping for a meal. This member is kind of a crazy old lady so she forgets and gets distracted a ton. She said it was nice to meet me for the first time even though I've talked to her almost every Sunday for 4 and a half months haha. Needless to say, I was grateful she forgot about feeding us cause I thought I might throw up right then and there. And we had leftovers in the car for the Elders' dinner haha.

Small Plates 

What is truth?

This week in my studies, I learned a lot about truth. About what it is, and how to find it, and why it matters. 

There's an old story about a bunch of blind men trying to find the truth. They come across an elephant and do their best to make sense of what they observe. One man, grabbing the tail, notes that an elephant is like a rope. Another man, touching the trunk, determines an elephant is like a large snake. The third man runs into the leg and concludes an elephant is like a tree. The last man finds the tusk and is certain an elephant is like a spear. 

Are any of them wrong? No. Are any of them right? Absolutely not. So how should they find out the whole truth? 

They could discuss their observations and come to a more informed conclusion. They might determine that an elephant is like a tree with a rope hanging from an unreachable branch. Or that it was like a large snake holding a spear. Those conclusions might be more accurate, but they still aren't the whole truth.

This is how relative truth works. We, as humans, are incapable of understanding everything there is to know. But as we observe more of the world around us, the things we do understand become more true. As we learn more about the human body, or about human nature, our truth changes. As we learn more about the universe, our truth changes. 

There's a difference between relative truth and absolute truth, though. Relative truth changes as we come to understand more. Absolute truth doesn't change. Ever. 

In the case of our story, the absolute truth would be this: "an elephant is an elephant." 

No matter what the blind men observe about it, it will always be an elephant. 

We can increase our understanding of relative truths by discussing with other people their conceptions of truth. But if we want to understand the absolute truth, we need to ask someone who knows the whole story. Those blind men would be better off asking a person who can see the whole elephant. 

They can still make their own observations of the elephant after the seeing man told them what it was. But their observations wouldn't change the truth. It would just strengthen their belief in the absolute truth. 

The same concept applies for us. We can talk with as many other people as we want about what is true. We will certainly learn more by doing so. But we will never know the whole truth until we ask the Creator of Truth. 

There are so many absolute truths that are essential to understand to have happiness in this life and the life to come. 

I could list a hundred absolute truths we should know, but for the sake of illustrating the principle at hand, I want you to think about this question:

Do you know that God loves you?

Any person could try to articulate God's love, but no human definition or explanation will ever amount to the witness that comes straight from the source. If we ask God if He loves us, He'll tell us the absolute truth. Spoiler alert: the answer is YES. But don't take the evidence from me. Go ask Him. He knows better than I do, anyway. 

And then once you have received the absolute truth through the Spirit, every observation you make from that point forward won't change the truth. Rather, it will increase your understanding of the truth. 

The truth won't change because of you. But you will change because of the truth. 

You'll see something beautiful and you'll remember something you already know. God loves you. 

You'll receive an answer to a prayer and you'll remember. God loves you. 

You'll meet someone who will change your life and you'll remember. God loves you.

There's so many things in this life that testify of the most important absolute truth there is. 

God loves you. And that will never change. 

Saying goodbye to Hermana Morris in the last Sunday in the 

Buena Ventura Ward.