Hermana Jones Week 27

So this week was super great. We found an investigator like no other. We contacted him in the street and he said that we could come by, so we left him with a pamphlet to read about Joseph Smith.  Usually people either don't read it or read a paragraph.  He read the whole thing through and told us that his whole life he has been intrigued by the life of Melchizedek and doesn't know why, but it caught his attention when he read about the restoration of the priesthood of Melchizedek he was super interested.

He asked us all types of questions about the priesthood and about Joseph Smith and then came to conference with us and then wanted to go to the priesthood session too. He is progressing super well and read the whole book of Mormon in 2 days.  He says he can't put it down-- he is just frustrated that he cant read faster.  It is super funny because he just asks question after question after question and says it feels like we are filling something inside of him that he didn't know was empty. So I am super super happy for that. Also Hermana Karen worked out all her problems and is getting married!!!!!

This week was fun too because in between conference we went to eat at a member's house and they gave me a huge machete and I started whacking off parts of the cactus so we could eat it. Fun stuff here in Mexico.

I really loved conference though especially because I have been studying a lot about the sacrament and I prayed they would talk about it and there were two whole talks about it.  My favorite talks though were the talks in Spanish because there weren't the annoying voice overs. It is super distracting for someone to be speaking in English but the voice is in Spanish. The first one that was in Spanish there were a lot of people crying during the conference because it is just so amazing to hear someone speaking Spanish and it isn't even my first language. It was funny too to listen to the talk in Portuguese because I could understand a lot of what he was saying.

This week we also got a Liahona magazine about a jade cabbage which sounds weird but I love the story. It says that for a piece of jade to be valuable it has to be the same color, not have cracks or ripples. The jade cabbage is made out of jade that has colors that are so intertwined that no one would even bother with it. However a master carver took this piece of jade and used its weaknesses to make is seem more real. The white is the bottom of the cabbage and the green is its leaves the crack and ripples make the leaves look more life like. I liked this story a lot because it says if the piece of jade could speak it would probably tell the master carver that it was of no worth. That is had so many imperfections it would be impossible to make anything with it. However the master carver worked with these weaknesses in the jade and made it into a piece of art unparalleled.  Many times in this life we can only see our weaknesses but God has a plan for each of us and with the power of the atonement weak things can be made strong. Ether 12:27. We are still in the process of being carved and should trust in the master carver, Jesus Christ who will make our weaknesses become strengths.

I hope you guys have a great weak. Oh, one of my favorite quotes from one of the talks in Spanish- "If it works, it works. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work." I loved this a lot because many times in life we see something that isn't working but we are too lazy, or think that there is no other way to do it but we need to look for something that works.

Oh, and this week I also learned that it is just as important to be served as to serve others. My whole mission when someone offers me something or tries to help I say I am fine but this week my companion told me that I am not accepting service because I am prideful. I didn't see it like that at first because I just didn't want people to have to worry but she said by rejecting their service I am denying them blessings that they need. Maybe I don't need the service of someone offering me their umbrella when it is raining but they need the blessings that they can receive by giving me their umbrella. I thought a lot about that and thought about the life of the savior and how he always served but always accepted the service of others as well.  I never looked at it like that but now that I do I know it is true. We should never be too prideful to accept the help of others. Hope you have a great week.

Love,

Hermana Jones