February 16, 2015
¡Hola hola!
I love the Valentine's Day pictures. I wanted to send you some of mine, but my camera is not on my side. arg. Oh well. You'll see the pictures soon enough! :)
I'm so excited for Benjamin's All-Star basketball!! You never told me if Abby is going on in GHP. It sounds like the weather is super cold. Ohhhhh, it's gonna be a snap into reality for me. The summer here is not like summer at home, but it's hot and I have been enjoying lots of sun. So, I hope it'll warm up a tad before next week. It's funny that you would say something about a cute elder and American food. Hermana Brown, Hermana Wadsworth, and Hermana Gollehon have been joking around with me about that kind of stuff for a long time now, but a lot more now that I am less than 10 days away! They told me y'all would probably have a plan for what you wanted to do my first day back. I told them it was fine as long as I could eat chicken barley chili and peanut butter cookies within my first few days at home! haha. Also more than anything, I am just excited about new clothes and shoes. I actually have dreams every once in a while about going to the store and not being able to find modest, cute clothes. haha. I am also REALLY excited for the pedicures. My feet have problems after a mission!! Also I'd love to go to the spa for a day if that is a possibility. :)
Before I forget, Hermana Beecroft told us a lame joke. It was fabulous. This is it:
What do you call an alligator in a vest?
An in-vest-i-gator.
Ha. :D
This week was amazing! I LOVED it!! We didn't end up moving this weekend and we dedicated quite a bit of time to looking for a house again this week. Which really stinks considering that I am winding down to the end. But at the end of the week, we got Hermana Poulsen on our side and she has a van! Woo! So that made it easier for the four of us to find good options. President wants us to find something for four now, so we are still confused about what might happen at transfers. But now we have some good options and we are looking at moving in on Saturday so that everything is settled before transfers. That way, when Hermana Brown's new companion comes, and if the other sisters have transfers, it'll all be ready to go. I hope it works out!
This week we have been able to teach a lot of lessons. I feel like Heavenly Father helped us to help and love our area even though we had to spend time house hunting. We taught a few lessons in the street, and we visited some investigators without a member present, and we had two member present lessons! Both member present lessons went really well. It's amazing how much the members help the investigators to progress. My favorite moment was when we could teach the first lesson to our new investigators, DXXX y CXXX. We really think that they are going to progress! I told Hermana Brown to send me pictures of the baptism. They are willing to do the Lord's will for them, so we left them with the challenge to pray and find out if the church is true so that they can be baptized. It was wonderful to teach that lesson again! It helped me to feel that even though this is ending, there are still people waiting for me and I can still serve and help.
We had an unforgettable Valentine's Day. Hermana Brown and I made little valentine cards with cute colored cardstock and the foam hearts & flowers you sent me a while back. Hermana Brown's dad sent her a valentine box, and so she gave out the candies from the box and I gave out the cards. We contacted so many people that way, and it was so fun to see the way their eyes lit up from such a little show of love! We just told them that we are here to share the love of Jesus Christ, and that is why we love Valentine's Day...and that we would love to visit them to share more of that love with their families. I did not want Valentine's Day to end! There is no better day to be a missionary! Our roommates were also so cute and bought us both a chocolate bar and a white rose. We are doing a project in our zone called invasions, where all of the missionaries in our zone go to one sector for an hour, and we split up throughout that sector to do contacts. So on Valentine's Day we did one in Hermana Wadsworth's sector, and it was so fun because the zone leaders had us be companions for the hour. I LOVE to see how much she has progressed! She is an even more amazing missionary that she was when we finished her training, and her Spanish is fabulous!
So with Valentine's Day, and with ending the mission, I have been thinking a lot about love and charity. Hermana Beecroft showed me the same throwback picture that you emailed me, and every time I look at it the thing that I see is how beautiful you are. You are not beautiful in the ways of the world, with tons of jewelry, or glamorous hair. You have beautiful eyes because they are filled with love. My roommates were wondering why it is that I love Valentine's Day so much. I told them about how when we were little, you went out of your way to make the holidays special for us. I always knew how much you and Daddy loved us and how much you loved each other. I just hope that one day my eyes can be so filled with love like yours are in that picture! One of the greatest things that I have learned on this mission is charity. I still have so far to go. But the Chileans have taught me charity. And more than anything, Jesus Christ has taught me charity. His love is a healing balm. His love is a glowing happiness. His love is a comforting peace. And it is available to everyone. The root of this calling, being a missionary, is to share Jesus Christ's love with everyone. I have strived to do that! I know that He loves perfectly. I am thankful for el amor de Jesucristo, the love of Jesus Christ, in my life. His love fills me up and gives me hope. I hope that one day I will love as He does! I feel sad at the end of this mission because I don't have much more time to share that love here in Chile. But I know that I will have opportunities in all of my life to love. I have so much love to give! And as I feel and reflect His love, it is more. I am so thankful that He has given me the amazing opportunity of serving and loving as a full time missionary.
This is the picture mom sent to Melanie for Valentine's Day :)
I love you all SOOOOOOOO much! I hope that you have a wonderful week and I will write soon.
Love always, Hermana Latham
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