kidding. I’m nowhere near fluent, but I’ll get there eventually haha.
This is officially my last week in Lima in the CCM! Next Monday I’m
off to Arequipa. I never thought 6 weeks could go by so fast. I’ve
made so many great friends here, I will be sad to leave them all!
Luckily we all get to spend Christmas here before we leave. I’m not
sure exactly what’s happening on Christmas, the CCM president won’t
tell us what’s happening because it’s a surprise! I know they will
make it really special. I can’t wait! It doesn’t feel like Christmas
at all. It’s sunny and 80 degrees every day. Then again, it’s not much
different than a Southern California Christmas haha.
Me and my companion are pretty confident in teaching most of the
lessons in Spanish now. When it comes to the gospel, I know Spanish
pretty well. But conversational Spanish is definitely harder for me. I
know being out in the field constantly speaking Spanish will help with
that though! I’m super excited to finally go to Arequipa. I’ve heard
nothing but great things about Arequipa from all the Latinas here!
Sundays here are always really great. We have the regular 3 hours of
sacrament meeting, Sunday school, and relief society. Sacrament
meeting is where everyone gathers in one room and we sing hymns and
certain people from the congregation will give talks, but more
importantly sacrament meeting is for us to take the sacrament, or the
bread and the water. In the Church of Jesus Christ, the bread
represents the body of Christ and the water represents the blood of
Christ. When we take the sacrament, we promise to try our best to keep
the covenants and promises we made with God when we were baptized.
Sunday school is just like a scripture study class we have with our
district. Relief Society is where all the sisters meet in one room and
have a lesson. After this, we usually have some personal study time.
Right before dinner, we always watch a devotional. This Sunday we
watched a devotional by Elder Holland. If you don’t know who Elder
Holland is, I suggest you get on youtube right now and just search
“Elder Holland conference talk” and prepare to be edified. After
dinner, we watched a movie about the life of President Thomas S
Monson. President Monson is the prophet on the earth today. The movie
is called “On the Lords Errand” and it was truly incredible. I suggest
watching it if you haven’t already! Every Sunday night me and my
district have a testimony meeting. A testimony meeting is where we all
share something special to us, or share something that we have felt
the Holy Ghost testify to us is true. To end this email, I will share
my testimony with you all (:
I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the
true church on the earth today. I know that it is a restored church,
not a reformed church. It is the same church that Christ intended to
establish when he was here 2000 years ago. Throughout time, there have
been prophets on the Earth. We can read about them in the Old
Testament (Adam, Moses, Noah, etc). Each of these prophets had what’s
called the priesthood, or the authority to act in the name of God.
After Christ and his apostles died, there was a grand apostasy. This
apostasy was a time where there were no prophets on the earth, which
means the priesthood was not on the earth anymore. A restoration was
necessary. In 1820, a young boy only 14 years old named Joseph Smith
was very confused about what church was true. His parents were of two
different denominations, and there were many pastors of different
denominations claiming their church to be true. He was being persuaded
all sorts of ways, when finally he decided to pray about it. He went
into a grove a trees near his home in New York, fell upon his knees,
and started to pray. These are the words he used to describe his
experience.. “I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the
brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon
me…When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose
brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the
air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing
to the other—’This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!’” This was the
beginning of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph
Smith was the first modern day prophet. The priesthood was restored to
Joseph Smith by the Lords apostles, Peter, James, and John. More
scripture was revealed to Joseph. He translated it, and this book of
scripture is known as the Book of Mormon. I know all of these things
are true. I have read the book of Mormon and I know that it is the
word of God. I challenge you all to read it and ask God if it is not
true. I promise you will get an answer.
I love you all, until next time,
Hermana Celardo
No comments:
Post a Comment