Sunday, March 22, 2015 -- Week #5, Day #34 Guatemala MTC

10:24 pm
Today was Sunday! Yay! I think I might have done something weird to my quads during deportes the other day, so I'm having a hard time walking around, getting in and out of chairs, and constantly climbing stairs and such. Mis companeras are enjoying having a little grandma toddle after them all day today!

In more happy news, we watched a devotional by Elder Holland about Christ and His Atonement from June 26, 2006 and it was awesome. Our teachers have been stressing that we should teach with short, powerful statements, and he did a wonderful job of showing how to do that. Elder Holland knows how to teach with power and conviction, and be truthful and real, and still be loving. He has achieved an amazing balance of those qualities of teaching and speech, and he is a wonderful example to emulate. So cool.

Also, so scriptures from today:

2 Nephi 22:2, 4, 6

Mosiah 4:9

D&C 78:17-20

And the word of the day was "zooxanthellae" as suggested by my wonderful self, since I think they are awesome and I like them.

Back to today, it was just a good Sunday overall, kinda took things slow and easy, Pres and Hna Cox talked about temples and enduring to the end, and we had a very good district meeting where we discussed some good points and got ourselves recommitted to our purpose here and how we should accomplish this missionary work.

Also, sweet Hna Kleinman gave her talk in Sacrament Meeting about faith, and we were so proud of her. I had another talk prepared, but I left my notebook in the classroom by accident, so I could have given it with just the scriptures, but I was a tiny bit grateful that I didn't speak again this week, but I would be happy to next week should I be called. "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear"...and the Boy Scouts of America!  My parents have raised me well.

In other news, they don't have "Be Still My Soul" in the Spanish hymnal, so I'm attempting a translation of English to Spanish, which should be interesting to go the reverse of what I usually do. I don't know if I can make it sing-able, but it will be a good exercise to think about the words. It is a beautiful song and one of my favorites, and it's somewhat especially appropriate in light of missionary work. Because my goodness, it is a lot of work, and it is hard. And sometimes you wonder what it would be like to give it up, and then that little voice inside you helps you get back on track, because it's not worth giving up, the joys are so great to be had, in spite of these little moments that are just so hard.

Hna Brady shared a scripture in Romans 8:18 that talks about this, and I really like it, especially in conjunction with verses 14-17 before it. The scriptures are just amazing, and I am learning to develop a love to read them and study things out and apply them to my life. Good stuff!