To Be or Not To Be

Feliz ano nuevo familia I can't believe it is already a new year! It sounds like you guys had a fun cruise! Well as you know, I am leaving tomorrow to Esteli to be a trainer. AH. Definitely freaking out. At 3pm I have a training meeting all day so hopefully I will learn more there which will help me calm down a bit. SO much responsibility. But it is 2014. WOOHOOO! So crazy how time goes by so fast. New year's was crazy here. Basically all night people literally BLAST music and throw fireworks in the air. Literally the house was shaking so I didn't get any sleep that night. Really, missionaries don't even get any sleep. But it was fun to see the different traditions here! One of the traditions is that the people make a scarecrow kinda thing and then put fireworks in it and blow it up. Don't really understand why but that is cool. We should start doing that at home hahaha. Sorry that this email is not going to be really long. I only have like fifteen minutes to write. 

I love these girls!

So as it is a new year, I made a list of goals for this new year. Well, my list is pretty long but some of my goals are to be exactly obedient, be patient, be loving and always be happy and positive. In 3 Nephi 27:27, Jesus presents the question, "What manner of men ought ye to be?" Jesus then follows up with the answer,"even as I am." The past week I have been thinking of a word for the year. You know how I have my life word, "Forward", well I wanted to make a word for this year. Well from my list of goals, I realized  that most of my goals began with the word "to be." That is the question of life; who are we going to be? The classic quote by Shakespeare comes to mind, "to be or not to

Carmen and her Family

be, that is the question." However in reality that is the question, we have the agency to choose who we are going to be. Circumstances influence who we could become but we have that choice as to how we react to circumstances and become more like our Savior. In Spanish, ser and estar have the equal definition of to be. However, these two simple words are very different. Ser is unconditional and estar is conditional. As I considered my goals for the New year, I realized I didn't just want "to be" these things for this year, I wanted to become these things; permanently become more patient and more positive. As I focus this year on developing Christ-like attributes and following the perfect example of my Savior, I hope that I can BE more like him. I encourage all of you to take time out of your day and make your list of goals for the new year. 

This week has been an amazing week with my investigators which makes it even harder to leave them. First off, yesterday was another miracle day in my rama. 90 people came to church!!! It was incredible!! Also, we had 6 investigators at church too! So awesome! So one of my investigators is a young man who is 18 years old. He is the boyfriend of our recent converts. We have started to teach him and he is the most amazing young man ever. Such a golden investigator. He has almost read all of the Doctrine and Covenants without us asking him to, has promised to read the entire Book of Mormon this week, comes to Church every Sunday and asks the most profound questions. I love teaching him because it is more like hanging out with a friend and talking about the Gospel. We are aiming to baptize him this or next Saturday. Sadly, I won't be here. Today when I said goodbye to him, he started crying and said the nicest things to me. I gave him the tie from the Christmas package for him to wear at his baptism. It broke my heart to say goodbye to all of my investigators that I truly love. As I started saying bye to Carmen, she just started crying in my arms which just made me cry. I am so grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given me to meet this amazing people. They have forever changed my life.

I am so sorry this is so short but I want you all to know I love you!!! I am so grateful for an amazing family. I will for sure send a long letter next week! Have a good week! WISH ME LUCK!!!!