Change!

hola hola! guess what? this week are transfers! i´m staying in valdivia, and my new companion is from SPAIN! how awesome right?! i´m SUPER excited. everyone says she´s super funny...always cracking jokes! her name is hermana martinez!

i REALLY hate when people say "oh i´ll just wait untill transfers to change. i´ll wait to change until i get a new companion or a new sector." no...that doesn´t make any sense. if you want to change you can do it NOW! here in the mission, i´m learning the significance of the word "change". because of what Christ suffered for us, we can change immediately. if the morning was crappy, it doesn´t mean the whole day has to be crappy. if the first week of the transfer didn´t go so well, i always have the opportunity to change and do better the next week. the purpose of the gospel is change. to help us become more like our savior. faith in him and repentance is what helps us have the desires to change. making and keeping covenants is the way to change and enduring to the end is how we caninternalize those changes over time. change doesn´t mean in the future, when the weather is better or when the new year comes. it´s now. the other day i read this scripture and i think it´s one of my new favorites:

"and now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters."

i´m SO excited for this transfer. to work harder than i ever have before and take advantage of every single moment i have as a representative of christ. the way i see it, i´ve got 2 options: i can be the kind of missionary that just floats around and does whatever...or i can be the missionary that the Lord wants me to be and do real missionary work. 

so yesterday we found a new house...and we are moving in the next few weeks. hermana clark didn´t help much with the decision of moving because she´s leaving...so that kinda stunk having to decide on my own. but i´m super excited to move. it will be a LOT better than where we are now. there´s just been way too many problems with our owner. i´ll take lots of pictures of us moving in!!

well family, i love you a lot. i love being a missionary! i hope you have a week filled with opportunities to share the gospel! "there is too much at stake to give only a halfhearted effort to this sacred work. being a disciple of christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day. it is an effort of once and for all."

con mucho amor, hermana steele