Another Day Another Plate of Beans

Hola familia y amigos!

Its been a pretty superb week aqui en el CCM. Ok, so the other night an Hermana from our casa came into our room so we were just chatting it up and I found out she was from Springville! So I told her I have family in Springville.  So she asked for their names and I said "Do you know Lloyd or Pam Knowles?" and she said yes! Apparently she's good friends with Matt and Ash too! Her name is Rita Dominguez. 

Hermana Nelson and I have been quoting Hot Rod like nobody's business during our breaks which basically makes my day every day. She also drew me a picture about one of our favorite quotes. Its a beautiful thing. 

So we've been teaching Hugo y David (two separate investigators AKA our teachers) and it's been going really well! We've already talked about baptism with David and he agreed to being baptized. That was during the second lesson which wasn't planned at all, but like I said, the Spirit is a beautiful thing! Hugo is doing really well too. His situation is a little more difficult but he's opened up to us a lot and told us he sincerely feels that our message can change his life for the better. My companion and I are getting much better at letting the Spirit guide our conversations and our lessons and it is powerful. One of the exercises we do during class is practice teaching with each other. So basically role play. When I got to be the investigator it was such a beautiful experience because I could feel the power in the message as it was being taught to me. 

I love it here and my Spanish is getting better everyday. I really enjoy practicing my Spanish with the workers here. So every Tuesday we do service and our district made pretty good friends with the workers en la lavanderia. So whenever it's time for service we always run over there to fold sheets with Hermano Fragoso and chat it up en español. I'm really thankful for the workers here en el CCM. They're so kind and patient with us missionaries.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but Sundays are THE BEST. I loved the lesson in Relief Society. We talked about the universal language of love. I don't want any of these next 18 months to be about myself. It's all about those I serve and helping them feel the love of our Savior and receive the blessings that our Heavenly Father is waiting to so generously give us as we exercise faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. Someone shared a really cool acronym during this lesson. JOY (Jesus Others Yourself). This is the order we must have our thoughts in order to obtain joy. We must always think first of our Savior, then of others, THEN ourselves. As we follow this order our actions will portray that which our Savior would want us to do and we can obtain Christlike attributes. We must speak the universal language of love. I challenge you guys to strive to develop Christlike attributes. Maybe there's something specific you can work on or maybe we can generally show more love and do more service for others, and show our gratitude to those who serve us. 

Quiero compartit mi testimonio en español. Yo se que esta iglesia es verdadero. Tambien se que Jesucristo y nuestro Padre Celestial viven y por medio de Jose Smith y la restauracion podemos tener el Evangelio de Jesucristo en nuestros vidas. Dios nos ama mas que podemos saber y senti este amor en mi vida. Este es porque yo estoy aqui en el CCM. Quiero compartir mi testimonio con todas las personas en mi mision para traer el Evangelio en ellos vidas. Hay no lugar que quiero estar que aqui porque este es el trabajo del Señor. 

I love you all so much and miss you! But always remember I'm where our Savior needs me to be. I would devote my life to this work in a heartbeat because I know of the happiness and blessings it can bring into peoples lives. There is no greater joy that can be purchased or found anywhere else. This is the Church of Jesus Christ and I am His representative. 

Keep smiling my beautiful friends and family!

Hermana Knowles

(English translation of Jasmine's testimony for those who don't know Spanish - "I want to bear my testimony in Spanish.  I know this church is true.  Also I know Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father live and through  Joseph Smith and the restoration we can have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.  God loves us more than we can know and I feel this love in my life.  This is because I am here at the CCM.  I want to share my testimony with everybody in my mission to bring the gospel to their lives.  There is no where else I want to be because this is the work of the Lord.")