Week 58

Entering the hospital with Elder Azuara.

Dr. House patient:D

Our view was AMAZING this time since our room was on the other side .

Wow, it's been a crazy week that flew by and it was filled with trials and experiences.

We have exchanges every day from Tuesday to Friday, which is cool to get to know some of the other elders of my Zone. On Friday, we had a special activity where we set up a table with flyers, cards and a tv screen showing the Hallelujah video for Easter. We split up the Zone since it's so huge and Elder Azuara and I did exchanges to be able to have a Zone leader at each location. One was in a market and the other at a big metro and bus station. We did a TON of contacting and gave out free orange juice with we made ourselves. Speaking of which, that was quite the experience making all the juice. It was 20 liters (about 5 gallons) of juice in all we made and just Elder Azuara, Elder Eduardo, Elder Alvarez and I were helping to make it. We had a little juicer, but it took forever and ultimately broke so we improvised and put sliced oranges in a blender and then ran it through a strainer to take out the big pulp and seeds, it turned out to be faster and easier anyways and a great idea to make natural juice! I'll have to make apple juice that way sometime:) At the end we had a house full of orange peels, pulp and juice EVERYWHERE. It was such a pain to clean, to be honest, but a good life lesson to say the least. 

Orange juice, what a mess!!

Anyway, after the busy Friday activity was General Conference, which was AMAZING and helped me a ton! I would like to share some of my favorite parts:)

Saturday Morning Session:

-"You can have what you WANT, or you can have something BETTER" Donald L. Hallstrum

-Kevin R. Duncan talks about how we are not defined by the mistakes we have made, nor should we define others that way. I love his message of how we should see others as God see´s and also about forgiveness and how we are only forgiven through forgiveness:)

Saturday Afternoon Session:

-David A. Bednar taught how baptism is a departure and we shouldn't think of it as a destination that we always yearn to return to because we CAN return to baptism through a renewal of those covanents through partaking of the sacrament!!

Priesthood Session:

-Russel M Nelson explained that as Priesthood Holders, we all have the same AUTHORITY given by God, but the ammount of POWER we have is determined by our worthiness because sin blocks out Priesthood Power.

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf said that " People are just as happy as they decide to be" or something close to that and also explained how appologizing is a sign of strength, not of weakness.

Sunday Morning Session:

-¨If we choose Christ, we will have made the right decision¨ said our Prophet Thomas S. Monson

-D Todd Christofferson explained how challenges are at times a way that God shows his trust in us. He allows us to be tried because he knows we can overcome and improve from it. This especially helped me because I´ve been feeling a little stressed lately from my responsibilities and it has brought many challenges. Now I understand better why I have to pass through them and am even grateful for them because I know God is putting his trust in me:D

Sunday Afternoon Session:

-Dallan H Oaks taught that as we grow and strengthen, our opposition and Satans forces increase proportionally. This makes sense to me and helps me understand that we will never reach the point when we are no longer tried because the stronger we get, the more we will face. Maybe past problems will be overcome more easily when they return, but new ones will always come. Luckily Elder Oaks also explains how God can continue to strengthen us to be able to face all that enfrents us.

-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said that, ¨Ther great thing about the gospel is that we get credit for trying, even if we don´t succeed!" Or something close to that. How true is that and how wonderful it is to know that EVERY effort we make towards following the gospel counts!

Those are just a few of my favorite parts and I hope you all could find advice and counsel for your own lives. How wonderful it is to have a living Prophet as well and his Apostles and other church leaders!!!:D

Exchanges with Elders Coovarubias and Risso.

Exchanges with Elders Mera and Subia