Master Chef

Chileans use a lot of English words but with the heaviest Latino accent, and it KILLS ME.

I, too, now do it and tell all the hermanas that cook lunch for us, "WOW hermana... que master chef," and even though I think my comps want to beat me up, the rest of the crowd goes wild every time, and I always get a bigger portion of dessert at the end.

BEATRIZ GOT BAPTIZED!!! In October, this spiritual queen married a man who used to be a Stake President; however, he went through a rough patch in his life and went inactive, BUT is now returning to the church thanks to Beatriz and her desire for spirituality. Pedro (the husband) baptized her, and it was so tender.

Though saying "master chef" in a Nacho Libre accent every day and seeing our friend Beatriz be baptized by her husband are both solid highs of the week, the highlight of the week was a full-day conversation with my comps about how/when we were all able to find true confidence as daughters of God.

My parents always would tell me growing up, "only care what God thinks." This motto helped me throughout my life to change my mindset of caring what others think to caring only what God thinks of me.

Changing my mindset has brought me a lot of happiness; however, on my mission, I have learned the source of this confidence and how I can always have access to it. It is... THE SPIRIT!

In the Book of Mormon, after Christ visits the people, His 12 chosen disciples caused that they should kneel in prayer unto God in the name of Jesus.

Out of all the things that they could have wanted after just having been visited by Christ, 3 Nephi 19 reads,

9 And they did pray for that which they most desired, and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them.

I honestly did not understand the vitalness of the Spirit to be confident and happy until I read in Galatians 5, where Paul states,

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

So basically, anytime we feel TRUE joy, peace, clarity, confidence, or anything good that comes from God, it means that the Spirit is with us.

I then began to ask myself, "Why am I not begging for the Spirit to be with me in every prayer that I offer?" Soooo then I started to do so, and WOAH, there was a bigger change than I thought.

I felt an increased confidence that the Spirit would reveal to me the needs of the friends we are teaching. I felt more confident promising blessings to both our friends and church members. I saw my companions glow confidently as they could more easily recognize their God-given talents and gifts.

However, above all, I have a firm confidence that during the significant changes that are coming up in my life, the Spirit will always be with me as I repent and partake of the Sacrament worthily each week.

God promises that as we do these things, "[we] may always have his Spirit to be with [us]" (Moroni 4:3), so that "then shall [our] confidence wax strong in the presence of God" (Doctrine and Covenants 121:45).

It is not just personal confidence through God, but it is confidence IN GOD and IN HIS TIMING. It is confidence IN the POWER of the SPIRIT.

I am so grateful for the confidence the Spirit gives me as a daughter of God.

Highs:

Beatriz got baptized

Diana wants to get baptized

Ricardo wants to get baptized

Hermanas Conference

Teaching Hermana Rindlisbaker hymns on the guitar

The members are buying hermana Briones and me a lot of gluten-free snacks

Hermana Alejandra and her husband took us to Jumbo and let us pick up our favorite dessert for our noche de hogar

The sun!!!!

BYU speeches

My brother Austin baptized someone this week

Intercambio with Hermana Muguerza and calling her "Hermana Mugie" or "da Mugster" the whole time

Beatboxing in the streets

Hermana Pamela gave me an early Christmas present

Painting Bastian's kitchen

Getting locked out of our house one morning and getting more time to run while we waited for the office elders to let us in

Lows:

My dreams are so real recently, and I feel like I wake up without even having rested

Hermana Pickett