Hello family!
Happy Monday, as usual. I hope you are all enjoying your summer
vacation and just loving life at home. Life here is really awesome!
On a great note: My big toe is doing super well! Friday they took off
my bandage and now Im walking fine! Yay me! And after looking for like
3 hours, I found sandals that fit me and were my size. People thought
my shoe size, 46 in Bolivia, was a joke. But I found sandals! And even
a member of the Area 70 commented on my amazing sandals. Good thing he
was laughing! He also told me I played piano well during Sacrament
Meeting! Yay for Elder Valderrama.
I am still here in Tabladita. It'll be my 4th transfer here so Ill mark
just under 6 months in the same area. Elder Fasabi and I are still
together and that is perfect. I am so excited to be able to spend my
20th birthday in a great area with a great companion. And my friend
Hna Davenport is back in my ward and Elder Gygi, my best friend in the
mission, is my Zone Leader. Happy Birthday RJ!
So this week was kind of hard. But it was a great time to reflect and
I love those times. I thought back to when I was a Boy Scout. I used
to be a self proclaimed Anti Boy Scout for most of my life. I hated
camping and tying knots so I decided the Eagle Scout award wasn’t
worth it. Then after many years, my perspective changed one day. I saw
Scouting in a new light. It wasn’t all about the merit badges and
fulfilling the requirements and camping. Rather, it was all about
changing who I was and becoming a better representative of God and my
country. And it was that moment, that I decided to become an Eagle
Scout. The requirements were more like handrails on the trail to
manhood. I loved the slogan, ¨Do a good turn daily¨ because I saw it
as turning to Christ. Once I received my Eagle Scout award I spoke of
how we must follow the example of the flowers who turn to the Sun each
day, and we must turn to the Son each day. As I reflected on this part
of my life, I was led to the following text of a hymn:
Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
It continues…
Where, when my aching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.
I was reminded that we must be a person who sees being a member of the
Church because we love eating refreshments or chatting with others. We
must be a member who goes to church because we feel refreshed by
Christ and we have time to chat with His Spirit. Last night I was
taught a very powerful lesson: I was prompted to go visit a Less
Active I hadn’t taught in months. I thought he didn’t like me and he
was part of the sisters area so I kind of forgot about him. Well, God
said we needed to go back. At that moment. So we went. And he was
drunk. He told us of how he loved how I was always so positive and he
used us an excuse to not drink. (He would tell his friend he couldn’t
drink because the elders were going to visit him each day.) Then we
stopped visiting him and he turned to drinking. And it was that moment
that he needed us. Jose Maria needed more love from the Lord then and
he will need it much more. He said that he believed that the Lord had
let us stop visiting him to see how he could do alone. But Jose
couldn’t do it alone and fell again. And now he is starting his
journey, yet again with the Savior. He will work to turn to the Savior
each day.
This week I invite each of you to find a hymn that you can read, sing,
or listen to, before you pray. I know that it will help each of you
not just turn to the Lord daily, but do a good turn daily. As you
listen to the hymn, I know that you will be find the Lord even closer
to you than before.
He answers privately, (not in crowded areas)
Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind,
Love without end.
I love each of you and hope you all have a good week.
Love,
The elder with only nine toe nails… Elder Risueño
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