Meus Queridos

Meus Queridos,                                                                       December 16, 2013

 ANNNNNND we will see what i can get out in less than 10 minutes.

 The lesson of this week has been serving with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. i think there are a lot of good missionaries who work really hard but still hold a bit back. We all have a line that we draw in the sand about what we won’t give up for the Lord. And sometimes its good things that we are hanging on to, but we need to reach for better things.

This week it was the first presidency Christmas devotional. I reeeeallly wanted to go, but because of stake conference we had spent a lot of time outside of our area this weekend (Yes Dad, we are keeping up the streak of someone in our family participating in every stake conference. 15 years running or something. I got to be the stake pianist!)

So i wanted to stay for the devotional, but my wise companion said that we had souls to save so...we walked an hour to get back to our area after stake conference, arrived at 8:00 and had just one hour to work. and we found the BEST gentleman in the world! We were praying for inspiration, and we just knocked on his door (not a lot of doors, just this ONE specific house) and he opened the door and we talked and he accepted baptism for the 29th of December!!!!! His name is Antonio :)

At first when we made the decision to leave, i was all laman and lemuel murmuring. I love the scripture - They murmured because they knew not the dealings of the God who created them. When we really understand the nature of our all-loving, all-powerful, all-knowing God we have no reason to complain.  Anyway, I felt that i had a RIGHT to watch the Christmas devotional and was feeling a little jipped, but we decided to sacrifice for the people in our area. And now we have Antonio and because of our little, really little sacrifice, his life will be changed forever. He has the gospel and he will be baptized and it’s just such a beautiful thing.

The Lord blesses us when we sacrifice. And a lot of times, especially as missionaries, it’s not just us that receive the blessings. We sacrifice, and other people receive the gospel! It’s as simple as that! I want to give my all for these people, and give my whole heart to the Lord.

In other news, it’s almost Christmas! Huzzah! Mom, Dad, I hope you are going Christmas caroling! Sister Christensen and I have something great planned, so never fear. The tradition won’t die :)

 

Love always,

 Sister Carroll