Marianela! Man, she is so great and her story is pretty complicated but we love her a ton. I may have talked about her a little last week. Her husband, Alfredo, is super super sick and in bed. The doctors said there is nothing they can do about his condition so they are just waiting for him to die and it could be any day. Marianela is so sweet and is so excited to learn about the gospel. She tells us that it is hard to understand things but she also says she prays for understanding everyday and it has helped her understand and learn so much. We were teaching her the other day and Hna Hawkins used an example to explain the priesthood by talking about the authority the guy or priest or whatever had to have to marry her and Alfredo and she was like, "What? Oh we aren't married." Whaaaat?! She really dropped a bomb on us with that one. They have been together for like 40 years and have two kids, but during the next lesson when we taught the Law of Chastity, we found out that she has wanted to get married but can't because he is legally married to another woman and won't divorce her. Crazy stuff. It is all pretty confusing and I feel like it is a race against time because if they don't get married before he dies then she won't be able to get sealed to him. When we were talking to her about the whole deal she said she knew and wanted to know if she had to get married to him to be baptized. We told her yes and man, she is so great. She never loses faith. Her only question was whether or not she was still allowed to keep coming to church even if she can't get baptized.
We know that Marianela´s situation is so complicated but also that the Lord has His own way of working things out. We are praying for her and that there will be some way that she can get married or get baptized. It made me think of how sometimes things seem so hard or difficult for us but that is because we don't see things the way the Lord sees them. I know that the Lord has a plan for Marianela and that everything will have its way or working out if we do all that we can.
Also this week we made cookies with the Bishops family so I sent some pics of that. I think there is one of me with Elena, the bishops youngest daughter.
It is interesting being away from home during the Christmas season, but I have learned a meaning of Christmas that I don't think I ever really appreciated before. Presidente Martinez has challenged our mission to use the month of Diciembre as a time to get to know Christ better and become more like him and know him really as our brother and Savior and what that means to us. It has been hard, but it has been great. I used to think following Christ`s example just meant trying to be perfect, which I guess is essentially that, but there is so much more we can do. We can read and learn about Him and try to handle situations in the way he would. We can repent and use the Atonement to become better and change.
Hope you guys are enjoying the Navidad! Love you all a ton!
Love always,
Hna Megan Chalmers (whenever people figure out my first name is Megan here they call me Megan Fox. HA HA HA. No.)
p.s We are in this teeny tiny cyber doing our emails and it is about a billion degrees today and I think Hna Hawkins and I might melt away from the heat. Its like I am back in STG!
The almuerzo that spilled all over me last week.
