O Remember, Remember

¡Hola!

How are you all doing? How was your week? It has been an interesting
week with all the new changes but very fulfilling as well. I am
definitely very blessed and in so small measure I know that this is
through the faith and prayers of those that love me so thank you for
that!

This morning as I was studying I just couldn´t make myself focus so I
decided to switch topics (and also read in english) and found an old
Liahona from October Conference 2007. In it is a talk by Elder Eyring
entitled, "O Remember, Remember". In his talk Elder Eyring talks about
the importance that the prophets emphasized in remember the blessings
that we have received from Heavenly Father. He related a story about
how for many years he kept a journal of the blessings that he saw in
His DAILY life from the Lord and challenged all to do the same. He
said, "It won´t be easy to remember. Living as we do with a veil over
our eyes, we cannot remember what it was like to be with our Heavenly
Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in the premortal world; nor
can we see with our physical eyes or with reason alone the hand of God
in our lives. Seeing such things takes the Holy Ghost. And it is not
easy to be worthy of the Holy Ghost´s companionship in a wicked
world." I loved this part because I often don´t see all the blessings
in my life now and before that I should. But we have the promise that
the Holy Ghose will bring "all things to our rememberance" Every day
as a missionary I am constantly thinking about how I can have the
spirit with me more strongly becasue without the spirit we are just
like any other religion in the world. But as Elder Eyring pointed out
in his talk we have the pattern established by the Lord and we hear it
EVERY Sunday in the Sacrament prayer. 1. We must always remember
Christ 2. We must take His name upon us 3. We must keep His
commandments and then we have the promise that we will ALWAYS have the
spirit to be with us. I like to think of this list as a checkpoint
because if we are doing these things right then we are probably
observing and completing all the other ordinances and principle of the
gospel of Jesus Christ as well.

Elder Eyring goes on the say, "And the challenge to remember has
always been te hardest for those who are blessed abundantly. Those who
are faithful to God are protected and prospered. That comes as the
result of serving God and keeping His commandments. But with those
blessings comes the temptation to forget their source. It is easy to
begin to feel the blessings were granted not by a loving God on whom
we depend but by our own power." Luckily we can repent and start today
to recognize the power of God in our daily lives! Elder Eyring said
that often he only wrote a sentence or two about how God had blessed
him that day but he continued to do this for years and later even gave
a copy of it to his children. I also love the scripture found in
Moroni 7: 16-17, 19. Especially verse 19 where it says, "Wherefore, I
beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the
light of Christ that ye may know good from evil, and if ye will lay
hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a
child of Christ."

So I invite all of you to take a few minutes EVERY day and in some
small way recognize how God has blessed you that day.

Ha ha ok as for me and my new area... I AM LOVING IT!! There are SO
MANY people to talk with! It´s incredible. It´s a little bit of a hard
area but I really feel that there is a ton of potential here. Also the
TEMPLE is in my area. When I saw the angel Moroni the other day as we
were tracting I literally almost cried. I basically see the temple
every day at least once and it is definitely an incentive to work
harder! The temple is still under construction (I think the same
renovation that they will be doing to the Boise temple since they are
the same structural plan) so we don´t get to go to it on P-Days but
there is still a very sweet spirit in the area around it. Every time I
see it I start to sing the Primary song "I love to see the Temple" and
have found that the words are really cool. I have always gained a
testimony of primary since I can still remember the words! My comp and
I are working on teaching each other the song in our native
languages... it´s coming along but is pretty funny to listen to us I
am sure.

The ward here is actually pretty small but we do have a beautiful
chapel to go to! there were about 50 people in sacrament yesterday!
it´s funny because the bishop actually looks like Kyle! I was showing
members in the ward a picture of our family and that was the first
comment they made! When I met him yesterday I found out it was true...
He definitely could fit into our family. Other funny fact about our
ward is that many of them speak english and are constantly saying
little things like "just kidding" etc in the middle of their
sentences... It really confuses me because I have to think about if
they really said it in english or it I just translated it in my head.
Moving areas has been a boost for my spanish since an Hermana with
less time in the mission than me was in the area before so all the
members always comment on how good my spanish is. The other day
someone told me that I should be studied since I learned spanish
"perfectly" so fast. Well my spanish is far from perfect but I really
have seen how much I have improved in my time here.

Other interesting fact of the week is that everyone is convinced that
since I am an Hermana I should know how to cook really well... I
informed them that if I could cook I wouldn´t been in the mission
because I would´ve gotten married :) Ha ha I´m so funny. But really
the Bishop came up with a plan where for service the ward is going to
supply the food and we are suppose to go to the houses of less active
families who are in need and cook the food for them and then share a
message with them..... Oh my this should be interesting. I hope that
they send something like noodles and pre-made sauce. The bishop
actually joked that just for me this is what they would send... how
embarrassing.

ok well I am really out of time. Thanks for you love and support. Know
that I am super happy and praying for you all always!

Think about you often, pray for you always, and love you forever!

Hna Scanlon