Hola de Hermana, 22-10-12

Hola mi familia increible!  

Well we didn´t have transfers today.  A surprise because Pres Bautista told me during my quarterly interview with him this week that I´ll be getting a new comp soon.  So I´m assuming that we´ll be having a lovely surprise emergency change sometime in the next three weeks. 

Funny story from this week.  We passed one night for Hna D and she had cooked a big pot of rice and chicken for her family and Marilu´s family (they right now are sharing two rooms, and we´re dealing with some roommate issues right now).  It smelled so good and we accepted when she offered us some with tortilla.  And then I saw her put an oddly shaped thingy inbetween two tortillas like a sandwich.  And Hna V started playing with her odd shaped thing.  She held up what looked like three soggy fingers and waving this little hand in the air, and then towards people´s faces...  Yeah, it was my first chicken foot.  A soggy three toed chicken foot in between two tortillas.  And I am so grateful I am not serving in Korea!  I tried but couldn´t stomach putting the thing in my mouth, so I used my fingers to pull off parts of the meat and fat to eat.  I didn´t know there were so many joints in a chicken foot.  They are about half an inch long.  And I was grateful for not upchucking.  Dad, I am so so so grateful I haven´t had to eat the other chicken apendage you told us about from Taiwan, and also think a fried chicken foot would taste better than a soggy one.  

I used to think of the scripture in DyC Ïf ye have not the Spirit ye shall not teach only applied to me.  If I didn´t have the Spirit, if I wasn´t worthy of it, then I wouldn’t be able to teach.  But this week more than once we were visiting less actives and we didn´t feel the Spirit at all.  And I felt frustrated because as I’d been studying for the lesson, about the Atonement, I´d felt the Spirit so strongly.  And so I doggedly barged forward trying to teach.  And we wasted an hour.  It wasn´t until later when I thought about the scripture in new light.  Sometimes the INVESTIGATORS aren´t ready, and when the Spirit is letting us know that THEY aren´t ready, we need to seek the Plan B that God wants to give us.  As Hna V said later, in this case, leave.  

And we were invited two times into a house of less actives that we visited about two months ago, and in that first visit their house felt strange for how little the spirit we felt.  And this week, two months later, they are ready for us and we felt the spirit as we visited in their home.  

I was also touched by a church segment about John Tanner.  A man who in early church history, was miraculously healed by two missionaries and out of gratitude, lived the law of consecration more fully than any other person I´ve heard of, giving ALL to the church thoughout his life.  It touched me to remember that I should live my life out of gratitude, and be willing to give give give to those in need.  John Tanner paid for 50 convert families to move to Kirtland, and I remembered how I felt in India, that I wanted to give money to those schoolgirls orphans who showed so much promise..  And that I have an opportunity to give to my comp in her need.  

And how our Savior gave the most anyone could ever give to all of us, in our need for salvation and exaltation.

I LOVE YOU FAMILY!  I´m so grateful for all the good you´re doing!  We are so blessed, and I´m grateful we are in positions to give and not just receive!  I LOVE YOU!

Hermana Ivy [-]