Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Hna. Jessica Keele- September 6, 2010

Hola Familia! haha funny.... I was planning on complaining about the language and then right there in your email, first paragraph, you say how surprised and well you think I´m doing.. Oh well, I´m going to complain anyway. haha Because seriously, it is frustrating!! But yes, I am very blessed. People keep telling me they are surprised with how much I understand right now. But they also tell me it took them 3 or 4 months to feel confident with speaking. I really hope it doesn´t take that long though. I want so badly to talk and help people with their problems because I can understand them, but I can´t get it all out. And then apparently with what I can get out, they don´t understand haha.
por ejemplo... Because they know I´m learning Spanish they just kind of sit there, saying.. Si si Claro, si si and then later tell my companion they can´t understand me! haha UGH!! But I don´t believe them because they do that to my companion too and she is a native speaker! Si si claro si. It´s an excuse!
OH my goodness, people make up so many excuses not go to church, not to read the Book of Mormon, not to pray about what we taught, not to do anything! Holy cow! It´s opened my eyes to see how blessed I am and all the education I have had. And I LOVE to learn about the gospel, (I´m refraining for now, but I'm way excited to study deep doctrine when I get home. I blame that on my MTC teacher. haha) But, I don´t know how to transfer my desire to them because of the whole albedrío [free agency] thing.
I want to thank you for the wonderful examples you are to me! All that you´ve taught me and helped me learn and understand starting from when I was little. I know that's a key point in life and it´s repeated many times in the Book of Mormon, including the very first verse! There is a mother here who knows the Church is true! She´s told us that. But she doesn´t go to Church because she is embarrassed to go and see members that know about some things in her past. I don´t feel it necessary to say what happened exactly, but yes I would be embarrassed too, but by not going she teaches her children to not go. Three of them that are still living with her are over 8 years old and not baptized because they know very little about the Church. YET their mom knows it's true!! It's sad! It might be embarrassing at first, but her life would be so much better and easier if she would just go and teach her children.
Then there is Eliazar. Super sweet old man!! We first found his wife outside her apartment and started teaching her the first lesson. Toward the end her husband, Eliazar, came out with mate [Argentine hot drink] haha, and honestly, I thought he was going to be the stubborn one. He´s really big and tough looking. But nope! We gave them a Book of Mormon, asked if they would read a certain chapter and then the next time we went to visit they both had read the chapter AND Eliazar had started from the beginning! Including the introduction and everything. He´s amazing! And it turns out his wife is the one who is stubborn. She´s now had the first lesson twice because we wanted Eliazar to hear it all and she says all she needs is faith. Nothing else! Which doesn´t make any sense to me because if you have faith in the Savior and what he did, doesn´t that mean that you also trust him? And when you trust someone, don´t you have a desire to hear what they have to say? And once you´ve listened to what they say, don´t you follow their advice? It´s just another excuse. There´s no way faith is lazy! Faith is an action! If you're not doing something about your belief it's not faith. If you think you don´t have to do anything that the Savior taught then you don't have faith in the Savior. That´s my opinion! I try asking her stuff like that but she just dodges questions. Every time my companion or I asked something, she wouldn´t answer with a response to the question. She just dodges it. But Eliazar is really excited and interested and full of questions! I love it!
Well, I´m pretty happy with how much I´ve written this time. Long eh? Or maybe it´s because this computer screen is smaller than the last so I have a lot of scroll bar. haha idk. But I don´t have time to write more or respond much to your email because my companion is waiting, and I still have to write to the president. So, sorry. I love you all!!! Muchisimo!!!! Thank you for all your support and wonderful examples to me! I love you.

Hna Jessica Keele

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