Thanksgiving

Hola Buenas! :) 

This week felt a little bit longer than others, but nonetheless great! I read your emails later this week, and they were awesome! Thanks for all the support and sweet quotes. Mom, I used some of your quotes in our District meeting about trials in my spiritual thought :) I saw the elders marking the scripture in DyC 58 that I shared from you. :) Also last Monday after we wrote we celebrated our Zone Leader's bday at the church.  We totally played the candy bar game, well... with things that I bought from the Pulperias, but threw in like 2 snickers that were a hit! haha they were loving the game... we played with a coin I had from Guatemala. haha But I have a sweet video... 

This week, we visited where J works.  He gave us a tour inside of the buliding they are constructing, we loved it.  He came to church agian this week, and is progressing towards his date on the 13th for baptism!  Even though we teach him in his mom's house every time, he lives in the other ward, so we went with him to the other ward last Sunday, because he will be in that ward even though we are teaching him.  It all worked out.  We also went to present the Elders to J last night, and went to go look for his house for the first time.  Wow, sometimes I forget where we are.  This part where he lives is different than the other areas we are normally in.  His house is literally made out of cement and clay, and the roof of different tin materials.  Oh man, It is literally camping for them. But that is why J and the people there are so humble.

We also had Thanksgiving with Bishop and the district last Thursday.  He broke out the martinellis he brought from America, that was a good treat! haha and Hermana McKrola and I made these paper hand turkeys to write with them the things we were all grateful for. It was a big hit! 

We also went with E this week to teach some lessons.  It was awesome to have him teaching people how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together, and how Jose Smith is a prophet of God, and how he was like the old apostles in the Bilble, so people could relate to who Joseph Smith is, and realize we don't  worship him.  People are confused about that.  E was great in the lessons! 

Also this week was the Primary program, pretty short, and we could hear the music louder than the kids were singing, but they were so cute! 

Also, later, somehow the sisters always get roped into watching the Primary for the activites at the church, and the last hour, Hermana McKrola and I were in charge of entertaining the Primary.  They were SO full of energy, and there were so many of them!  Sillas musicales, Simon dice, y duck duck goose, that we had to call (uno, uno, dos) because we didnt know how to say duck duck goose in Spanish, can only last so long... I'm forwarding a picture that Hermana McKrola snapped of me trying to quiet down the kids.  

Things are good here in La Paz! Can't believe that I have almost 5 months here in La Paz.  Definitely know there is more we can be doing to strengthen the ward, and bring others unto Christ.
Also, we teach a LOT about authority here.  Church is really just part of the culture here, and everyone has their religion.. mostly Catholic.  But in a lesson we taught with this family, we taught about prophets, and he said at first how he didn't believe in prophets.... Later though we started talking about the apostasy, and he said he had a hard time believing that if God loved us, why would he leave us without His authority for so long on the earth?  It was acutally a really good question, but we talked about the pattern of apostasies in past times, and how when people reject His gospel, He takes away the authority.  Our member that we were with, kinda went off in a different direction, but Hermana McKrola was going to say that really its not His fault, it was theirs, that they rejected our Savior, and that is why he took it away.  But do you guys have any good ideas or talks about authority or dispensacions, or apostasy because we teach on that a lot, or at least try to. We left a Book of Mormon with them in the morning, because we didn't have one with us that night, but we definitely hope they will let us back in.  People here just feel like they are content because they have their religion, and think that as long as you have God in your life, you will be okay, its not important what religion.  Oh man, its so frustrating, though, and we know what lesson they need.  Now we just have to find the balance of using the Spirit in teaching Lesson 1 about prophets, authority, apostasy.  


But I'm grateful for this opprotunity I have to serve Him fulltime, and for all of the knowledge I have gained here and am grateful for all of you and your support! 

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend! 

Love,

Hermana Nichols