Week 4 -- I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus

My familia!! I hope you all had a fantastic week! I miss y'all and love you too! 

To fill you in on the rest of my week, I saw Tamsyn, uh Sister Randall, at Devotional on Thursday!  Holy flip she leaves on the 11th! She is loving the MTC though and it's so good to run into people :) 

You'll be pleased to hear...Hermana Daniel has started teaching me how to play the piano! We found a simplified Hymn book and I've been practicing.  I'm really slow, but I love the way that it makes me feel.  It's really something I want to stick with!  I practically died when I opened my package today and saw my Hymn book from home in it!  I'll be practicing this next week and a half and I hope that I'll be able to use it in Mexico.  So I'm really not musical but I hope that Heavenly Father helps me out with this one because it's kind of becoming important to me :) 

Speaking of music, after lunch and before class one day this week, we pulled out the Children's Hymn Book and my whole district sang like 3 or 4 of them in Spanish. We were all sitting on the floor just singing, and the Spirit was so strong. I know that there is power in these children's songs. I love how simply they are phrased and we are reminded of the core messages of the gospel. I just can't wait to hear and teach these songs to kids in Mexico :) 

Today at the temple, we decided to do sealings which I've never done before! It was an amazing experience and pretty much sealed the deal that I can't get married anywhere else! I  feel so blessed that you and dad were sealed in the temple and that our family has the opportunity to be together forever, in an never ending state of joy with our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful that these blessings are in our home and I want them in my home as well.  My old bishop, Michael Jackson, from last semester was in our sealing session.  It was good to run into him and to be able to catch up.  He is so sweet and he's going to say hi to Em for me!  I also had the impression that I would be able to go to the temple with a family in Mexico.  Not sure if this was a real prompting or just my wishful thinking but I hope it's true. That would be so incredible. I guess we'll have to wait and see. 

In class one day this week, Hermano Hopoate talked about the personal power that comes from perfect obedience. He talked about how when we are perfectly obedient, the Lord is bound and we can say "you promised."  As I started thinking about what personal power really is, I realized that personal power is the power to not get irritated and instead think kind thoughts.  It is the power to have enough energy to make it through class.  It is the power to HSI (Habla Su Idioma).  It is the power to be patient in learning.  I have been striving to be more perfectly obedient and I am seeing the results.  This personal power is real! 

  

   

Since I love Hermano Hopoate, here's another story for you. One night we were talking about companionships and he was asking us what do we do when our companions don't want to be obedient? What do we do when they won't get up in the morning? What do we do when someone else effects how perfectly obedient we can be? His was answer was love-learning or how to love the way that the Savior does. I know that I can come to know Christ as I stand proxy for Him in other's lives. 

Hermano Hopoate also decided to meet with each of us individually to see what he could help us with. I went back to a classroom with him and he asked if he could open with a prayer. I said of course! As he started praying, he prayed for some incredible things.  The part that really stood out to me was when we said "Please bless Hermana Rawe that she might have the heart in order to love others the way they need to be loved."  He talked about praying for eyes to see and ears to hear that I might be able to learn how the Spirit talks to me.  I need to listen to what people say, but also what the Spirit helps me hear.  Once I believe I've received revelation on how to help, I need to pray before I act in which way to follow the Spirit.  I really want to love people; I want my heart to be full.  I want to do what I'm supposed to do with the Lord's trust.  I really look up to Hermano Hopoate a lot. It became my new goal to become like Him.  To truly love people, to be able to just listen to the Spirit and know what people need to hear, to know what I need to do.  

The next night after this experience, Hermana Daniel and I were conducting interviews with all of the hermanas.  I was interviewing an hermana from a lower district and at times, I would feel prompted to share certain advice or even just bear my testimony on different things.  She began really tearing up and I realized that Heavenly Father is using me as an instrument in His hands.  I'm definitely not perfect, but as I strive to be better, He will use me to bless and help His kids.  This is just something I really want to work on and strive for. 

I love you all! Every single person that reads this! I know that Christ is our Savior and that through Him, all things are possible. I know that Heavenly Father has a real plan for our lives and it is the only way that we will be truly happy. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!