I Love HUGS!!

Solid week.

Spiritual:

In the Book of Mormon in Alma chapter 19, we read of an INCREÍBLE change of nature and beautiful conversion of a powerful king, queen, and servants who were "overpowered by the spirit" and "sunk to the earth" repenting of their sins and giving thanks to God after listening to the words of the great missionary Ammon.

Then in verse 16, Abish (a woman who works for the queen) is introduced as someone who has "been converted unto the Lord for many years" and who "knew that it was the power of God" that took place in the hearts of this mighty change of people. She took hold of this spiritual/missionary opportunity and "ran forth from house to house, making it known unto the people... that by beholding this scene (the king, queen, and servants repenting and rejoicing) it would cause them to believe in the power of God" (Alma 19:17).

I love imagining her RUNNING house to house declaring this good news to all who will listen in hopes they too will repent and come unto God. (Reminds me of such a beautiful video https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/easter-videos/2022-04-004-the-good-news?lang=eng)

THEN after she is done declaring, Abish returns back to the scene of the people repenting and "took the queen by the hand, that perhaps she might raise her from the ground; and as soon as she touched her hand she arose and stood upon her feet, and cried with a loud voice" a declaration of her testimony and gratitude of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The phrase "took the queen by the hand" stood out to me. Clearly this imagery is important because there is already so much happening in the story, yet this phrase was still emphasized. In the Bible we read of Christ demonstrating the same. For example, after Christ cast out a man's evil spirit, He "took him by the hand, and lifted him up" (Mark 9:27).

As followers of Christ, we too are to take others by the hand and lift them up. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE "who are only kept from the truth because they do not know where to find it" (D&C 123:12). We can help those who are in search for the truth, pure happiness, and constant peace by actively seeking to "take [others] by the hand and lift them up" to Christ's perfect love.

In my life, I have seen and felt this automatic light and joy click SO MANY TIMES as we physically and symbolically take others by the hand and bring them to Christ through a hug, sharing a scripture, service, listening to others, attending church, or through a genuine/sincere compliment.

Our friend Natalia was LITERALLY taken by the hand this week at church by the youth in our congregation and couldn't even describe to us the pure joy she felt. We haven't had any lessons with her and I don’t think she even knew what was happening at church, but what mattered was her being taken in with love and a warm welcome. She told us she wants to continue on whatever path "this path" is.

I have recently experienced this in my life a ton as members prepare the most beautiful SCRUMDIDDLYUMPTIOUS lunches everyday for us, random compliments on the streets, my companion constantly providing words of affirmation (she is amazing), emails from family and friends, and other missionaries sharing powerful miracles. I constantly feel like I am being lifted closer to the love of Christ through others around me.

Highs:

-GLADYS WANTS TO GET BAPTIZED

-Elder Renlund (one of the 12 apostles) came to JUST OUR MISSION and it was SUCH AN AMAZING devotional. He is so inspired and wanted to shake every single missionary's hand. So spiritual and powerful. We woke up at 4:30am but it was so worth it

-Pretending to speak french on the micro and in public with hermana Vasquez

-Lunch with hermana Elsa (insane chef)

-Sunsets

-Hermana Vasquez playlists on the sacred music app

-Mina putting down her landline to pray

-Fernanda is progressing!!!! (She was someone I felt like we needed to talk to SO STRONGLY one of my first weeks on the mission, but her phone number didn't work, but last week we found her again and have been teaching her!)

-"Do you want to carry the Bible or brownies"

-CHURCH WITH OUR FRIENDS

-Singing hymns during church (every single person is tone deaf but I love it so much)

-The word juventud

-Luis (my bff and first baptism who is 82 years old) JUMPING out of his car (he has a car??) at a stop light and running to fist bump hermana Vasquez and I

-Lunch with hermana Rita and her son who never wants to talk about anything related to religion, but we talked about the restoration of the church and HE ENDED THE LUNCH WITH A PRAYER!!! Miraclesssss

-Christian+fam giving us churros

-Breakfast in bed this morning (two raw carros)

-"What are your favorite things to do?"-Taylor "Go to church and sleep"-Victor (7yrs.)

-5 cent mentos

-The rain

-Chile has better gluten free options than the US

Lows:

-Cold showers

-No electricity

-Earthquake

-Spilled my Matte

-I was trying to serve my companion bc she was cold and I made her hot chocolate but it exploded #thoughtthatcounts