Week 15 and 16:

Week 15 and 16:

I have been thinking a lot about our experience here and in my scripture study I have been trying to understand the connection between becoming sanctified, being born again, becoming clean and spotless, and sacrifice. In Elder Oaks talk in last conference he quoted Joseph Smith from the “Lectures on Faith” where he said “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation.” And then I read in the D and C, Section 97-8 “Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me. I begin to wonder if my sacrifices are acceptable to the Lord. Am I willing to observe my covenants by sacrifice? We have free time on our hands here we only work 6 to 7 hours a day in the temple. How can I spend (sacrifice) my time best in order to have my mission acceptable to the Lord? I am writing my personal history and sharing this with my children and my brothers and sister. I have decided over the last 2 weeks and after translating my last talk into English (I posted this talk below), I should take my own advice and attend the temple as a patron on a regular basis. So I have gone started to attend the temple everyday and participate as a patron in the saving ordinances that can only be performed in the temple. In the last 2 weeks I have completed 72 initiatory ordinances and 2 endowment sessions. The temple pres. has asked us to complete 30 and 2 respectively per month. I’m thinking that his goal is not much of a sacrifice and so my personal goal is much higher. I am hoping that once again my life will be changed and my understanding will grow and that my mind will be enlightened. Thur. April 5^th: The guest house has over 200 people in it today. The temple is very busy. 120 of them are here from Puno, Peru, this is the city closest to the people who live on the floating house on Lake Titicaca. The Stake Presidency is here every Bishop, many of the young men Presidents and young women Presidents and more 90 youth. The Baptistery is almost overwhelmed. Sun. April, 8^th: We had a wonderful Easter Dinner at Pres. Dyer’s house with all the North American couple missionaries. Tues. April, 10^th: We went back to immigration this morning to get our visas. It has been way more than 10 days since we thought we were done. Well they decided that our paper work, remember our papers from LaPaz were 2 or 3 days past the 30 days limit, would have to be redone and set back to LaPaz. So we did not get our visas and it will take another 2 weeks at least to get the paperwork back. I was longing for Chinese food again so I made eggplant with garlic sauce, kung pao chicken and fried green beans. We had the Winkfields and the Jackmans to lunch. Everyone thought the dishes were delicious. It is really fun to have our good friends over to share a meal. There is really a great group of missionaries here. We are becoming really close. We had choir practice a couple of times this week because we are going to be singing in one of the wards on Sunday the 15^th. Thurs. April, 12^th: I needed to use the refried beans I had made a week ago so I made 2 kinds of bean and beef casseroles. We then had the Crayks and the Kennedys to lunch. One was good and the other excellent. I just have to remember which recipe is which. Katie thinks I should start a cooking blog. I really don’t think these recipes are worth blogging about. Fir. April, 13: I made Silpancho and had the Vallenas to lunch. Sun. April, 15^th: We met at 8:00am and had a short practice and then loaded up in a bus that a member owns and Pres. Crayk hires to take us all together to the chapel out by the airport. We got there about 20 min. before the meeting was to start. We had a short practice. This ward even had choir seating in back of the podium. I was so impressed with this ward the meeting started on time and the chapel was almost completely filled at starting time. A few come after the opening song and prayer but things were completely full by the time the sacrament was passed. This was a first for us. The meeting was great Elder and Sister Perez from Venezuela spoke, they are a new temple missionary couple, then Pres. Crayk and finally Elder Rene Cabrerra, an area seventy. There was a great spirit and I really felt uplifted. We were invited to the Jackmans for dinner. I am enjoying being in the temple each day as a patron, it is a different feeling being a patron as opposed to being a temple worker, both are good but I have had some amazing spiritual experiences sitting and thinking about the ordinances. The Sat. morning 7:00am endowment session continues to be the best part of the week for me.