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GOD BLESS AMERICA !! July 8th, 2014

Our daily lunch crew....

Sometimes I go a little crazy cutting and pasting from the Liahona !
Another week here in paradise! I feel more and more lucky and more and more blessed every day here. This week went really well. I was so devistated when we didn't have fireworks on the 4th of July... but that's alright, Elder Hall and I taught our companions the lyrics to "God Bless the USA" and we sang it. 
We had an AMAZING family night this week with the family of the Bishops first counselor. We have been teaching their neighbors and we watched the restoration film this week and we all gave our testimonies. When we went to visit their neighbors last night, the husband, Cristian, told us that they had been praying every night and reading every night with his wife and they they knew that what we are teaching them is true. It was amazing! They are going to get baptised in 2 weeks. They are going to be an amazing family when they have the gospel in their lives, because they are already amazing right now! They have a cute little 3 year old girl.
We have a baptism this week! I am so excited for him. I don't remember if i wrote about him last week. His name is Ismeal. He is 19 and has a lot of hard things in his life right now. His dad and brother are in jail and his mom is never home. He takes care of his little brothers and sisters. We taught him the word of wisdom and the law of chastity the last few weeks and we were a little nervous because he wasn't living them before. He has been SO excited to hear about commandments, because he has been searching for an order in his life. We have seen a crazy change in him in the last few weeks, we are so excited for him!
As far as everything else goes, it is still reaaaalllly hot! But im actually getting used to it. I am nervous for when our bill is going to come for the air conditioner... hahaha. But it is absolutely gorgeous here and I love Merida.
I want to share something that President Garcia shared with us today in a conference. We were talking about when we testify. Sometimes as missionaries we get so used to saying "I know that this is true...." and we bear our testimonies in a form somewhat repetitive. We really talked about how our testimonies should be heart felt, and how if it isn't something that we have personally felt and personally lived, we can't really testify of it sincerely. We should never EVER testify of something in the name of Christ if we are not 100 percent sincere. It is something that really hit me today. Being blessed with this short amount of time to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ has helped me realize and experience a lot of things. I have had 24 hours everyday to strengthen my sincere knowledge of the things I am teaching every day. Right now I can sincerely testify to all of you that I know that this is the true gospel and that our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He has restored it here on the earth again. I know that He loves each and every one of us perfectly and that our incredible Savior Jesus Christ is the only way that we can return to live with our Father. Jesus knows us and understands us perfectly. I have been so blessed to feel and understand this love a little bit more here during my mission. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!