To Have Faith

Personals 

My dearest friend and old BYU roommate (and hopefully future BYU roommate) Hermana Leonard got here last Tuesday and it's been great! I have loved running into her occasionally and it just feels so good knowing she's here. It takes all I can to not look for her every time we go outside.

Sports

We have been playing volleyball nonstop - seriously, we play every day. It's too much volleyball for any person. I'm getting kind of good though, so that's a miracle.

There's usually about 18 of us who play sand volleyball every day, so we end up doing 3 teams of 6, and the team that wins the game gets to stay on the court. We picked the most athletic guys as team captains and they then picked their teams in the classic high school style where all the athletic people get picked first and leave us nerds as leftovers.

I was picked second to last of course, but I was surprised to end up on a team of mostly girls. Elder Grant had picked two other elders then 4 girls to be on his team (and one of the elders wasn't even athletic, he was the nerd picked after me (we were kind of a package deal as the worst players on the field)). All the other teams were all elders with like one token girl.

At first we were losing kind of bad, we got 5-0 in our second game. Then we started winning! It was crazy, we came back with a 4-5 win, then we started winning significantly with 1-5 and 2-5! We were doing really well and I was playing well! I hit the ball a bunch and even hit it over the net a couple times. I served the ball that won us a game and it was crazy. 

I really respect that elder Grant saw a bunch of people the other elders didn't see potential in and knew we could be a great team. Sports aren't just about athleticism, they're also about unity and trying your best. 

Oh and check this out, one of the elders launched himself into the mud trying to save a volleyball this week. 

Elder Mud?

Español

Mi y mis compañeras empezamos solo español esta semana. Solo español es un nota de su etiqueta de misionero. Cuando la nota esta puesta, solo puedo hablar español. Es muy difícil porque tengo muchas cosas quiero hablar. Pero en clases es muy bien porque estudio bien cuando yo hablo solo español. 

Hermana Umaña dibuja nuestros notas. Aquí es un foto! 

Religion

Would you have planted if you did not believe you would gather? Would you have asked if you did not believe you would receive? Would you have walked if you did not believe your legs would carry you? Are ye not dependent on your faith in all things?

This is a quote from Joseph Smith according to one of the elders, and I was struck by the nature of it. Faith is a core tenant of being human, we do it all the time, we just don't realize it. If we didn't have faith every moment of our lives would be miserable and we would be incapable of functioning.

As humans we often think of ourselves as beings of logic and reason, but at our cores we are beings of faith, and belief, and trust. The most godlike thing we can do is have faith, in ourselves, the people around us, and in all the little things God has given us.

Pandemics

Both the other Hermanas got sick today and we were incapable of going to the temple today, so we just stayed home. Hermana LeBaron slept most of the morning and Hermana Umaña and I went to the tienda to scrounge for food for us. Hermana Umaña is seriously sick, she's lost 13 pounds since we got here! The infirmary gave her some stuff to help her, but she hasn't gained any weight back so we're just gonna pray and hope for the best right now.

Funnies

Eternal Companions: On the first day we got here we had a devotional where we were all told that you would not be finding your eternal companion here at the CCM. They told the elders that just because an Hermana was nice to them did not mean they would be getting married. Some of the elders clearly did not remember this because we've been making eternal companion jokes all week after one of the elders went up behind Hermana Umaña as she was filling up her water bottle and said,

"Taking all the water?" Then later this week as Hermana LeBaron was filling up her wayer bottle the same elder came and told Hermana Umaña, "taking all the water again?" She wasn't even filling up her water bottle! She was just standing there! Lock your heart elder!

Elder Swensen can play any song he listens to on the piano, check out Hermana LeBarons surprised reaction to this news...

The comodor had Gansitos and Elder Eldredge stole like a million

Can someone tell me what kind of spider this is?

Hermana Jefa signing off, wishing you a buen día!