Patience

Hello my lovelies!!!!

Weird facts about me these days hahaha

1. I craved flamin hot Cheetos the other day, bought them, and loved

them. Enough said. Everyone LOVES them here and it's not weird to go

to be teaching someone with red stained fingertips hahaha

2. I put hot sauce on EVERYTHING. And love things to be super spicy. I

used to be a mild kid (haha Hermana Piggott) but the other day we had

breakfast at a less-actives and I loaded my eggs and potatoes with hot

sauce. I all of the sudden realized what was happening and was weirded

out by myself. Haha

3. I am obsessed with top sheets on my bed. Haha mom, you'll

understand this change

4. I love doing laundry and am obsessed with my clothes when they

first come out of the drier... The smell... I feel like Caroline.

Hello most beautiful people. Every single person I sent this email

to... I love you all SOO much and you are all so wonderful and special

to me. But so where to begin. I do not know. This week has been

amazing!! And I have been thinking and pondering A LOT. I wish so

badly I could share with you every thought that has come into my mind,

all of the inspiration, personal revelation, etc. I have received...

But something I have been pondering a lot about has been what Brad

told me to think more deeply about. That being PATIENCE. Brad shared

with me James 1:4 (not 1:5 hahaha) and I want to share what my

thoughts originally were regarding this scripture and then want to

share Bradley's as well.

"But let patience have her perfect work. That you may be perfect and

entire. Wanting nothing." James 1:4

I have pondered over this for weeks now and I still have many many

thoughts on it. What does it truly mean to let patience have her

perfect work, being perfect and entire... Wanting NOTHING? Well...

Let's start with patience. Patience is something very fascinating to

ponder about. What it truly means to be patient and what all we need

to be patient with. Well, for me personally.. I have to be patient

with many things. I have to have patience in myself, my teaching

abilities, my Spanish speaking, my knowledge of the gospel.. I have to

be patient in those I teach.. patient in them receiving their answers

from Heavenly Father, them gaining a true desire to be baptized,

changing their habits (often addictive ones), changing their

lifestyles, cultural backgrounds, etc. I have many things to have

patience with. But as I have been serving my mission I truly have come

to learn how IMPORTANT be patient truly is. When we are patient we are

able to sincerely obtain greater faith, hope and PEACE. When someone

is patient they are able to hold their peace and with that, be

completely content, perfect and entire... WANTING nothing. And who are

the most peaceful beings? God, our Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ, our

Savior. They are also absolutely perfect and entire, without flaw.

This means the only way we can become patient, full of peace, perfect

and entire.. We must be LIKE them. We must follow the example of our

Savior, Jesus Christ and try our hardest every single day to be like

Him.

Along with obtaining this sense of peace in our hearts, we must TRUST

in our Savior and in Heavenly Father, knowing that things will happen

according to their will. People will change, we will change, blessings

and miracles will be poured out... According to the will of God. This

is something that I have thought much about as well. What it means to

align our will with the will of God. Because that is what we must

truly do. When we align our will with the will of God, we WILL be

patient... letting God's work take place.. and with that, while

waiting, we will be trying our best to be perfect and entire. WANTING

NOTHING but KNOWING and TRUSTING that whatever happens is according to

God's will. I love this scripture Cynthia Haller wrote down somewhere

for me....

"Wait on The Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy

heart. Wait, I say, on The Lord." Psalms 27:14

I love that so much. We must obtain that courage and trust in The

Lord, and WAIT on Him. But be completely content and happy waiting.

This also makes me think of prayer. Often when we pray we expect

direct and immediate answers. Well, this isn't how it works out.

Always at least. God works in mysterious ways, as we often read in the

scriptures and will grant unto us our desires according to his own

will. It says in the bible dictionary under prayer...

"Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the

child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of

prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves

and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that

are made conditional on our asking for them."

Also, after James 1:4 it talks about praying in faith, as we all know

from James 1:5 being the well known scripture our wonderful Joseph

Smith read before praying to God about his significant question...

However, after it talks about praying in faith and having enough faith

in receiving A answer it says....

"For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the

Lord." James 1:7

That is so profound to me. When we pray, even in faith, we should be

humble and meek enough to not expect the exact answer we want to come

to us.. Of course we have to have very strong faith that we will

receive A answer but that doesn't always mean we will receive THE

answer. THE exact answer we're looking for. What I am saying is that

we need to have enough faith to know that God will grant unto us what

we NEED according to His will. God knows what we need and he will give

us all that we need as long as we have FAITH in Him, TRUST in Him, and

FOLLOW Him.. As goes with our Beloved Savior. This takes me to another

scripture...

"And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me,

according to the workings of the spirit of the Lord which is in me.

And now, I do not know all things; but The Lord knoweth all things

which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his

will." Mormon 1:7

As a full-time missionary I am a servant of The Lord. This is His work

I am doing and He is working through me every single day to teach

Heavenly Father's children and bring them unto Him. How does He work

through us? Through the spirit. I know for a fact that I could not do

this work without His help, without the spirit. And I love how it

says, "I do not know all things; but The Lord knoweth all things which

are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to HIS will."

It's all about aligning our will with God's. And we must be patient

while doing so. Brad mentions this in his thoughts.. But perfection

and patience appear to work alongside one another. So on top of that,

perfection takes time however we must be patient in the process.

And we must be patient in the process of others perfection and

progression as well. I know as I have strived to be more patient in my

life, in this work, I am having a greater sense of peace inside of me,

inside my heart... I am watching my own faith grow exceedingly, I am

trusting my Savior and God with ALL of my heart and I am becoming

completely content and entire while waiting for the will of God to

take place. I am trying my best every single day to align my will with

His and do all I can to become as He is. Even perfect.

I want to share with you a piece of Michael's email from last week...

I hope he doesn't mind that I am sharing it but it inspired me A LOT.

And what made me just think of it is that we must

"We are changed people when we feel the love the Lord has for us

through the Holy Ghost.  I believe in change very much. Constant

change is something that comes from obedience, diligence and offerings

of charity.  We are all in need of change and if we don´t believe that

we are able to change, then we don´t believe in the Atonement of Jesus

Christ. I love so much when the Lord asked, (I don´t have it down

perfectly in English) What kind of men should you be?  Many of us have

our role models or people we look up to and admire. However, even

these great people have faults. The Savior who doesn´t have faults and

has never sinned answered His own question by saying that we must be

like Him. This is a commandment!  Did he really mean it? With all of

our shortcomings, weaknesses and sins how can we possibly be like him?

Yes there is a way! What does Nephi say about fulfilling the Lords

commandments? He never gives a commandment to us without preparing a

way for it to be achieved. Alone we cannot be perfect.  But the Lord

has shown and given us a way through the Atonement. It is the only

way.  The gospel is true! We must recognize our many weaknesses but

not accept them. Some people say, I am just not a good test taker or I

just am not a patient person and never will be. I can´t forgive her

after what she did or that is just the way I am. NONSENSE! We must

change our nature and become as Christ is. Only then may we live in

His presence for eternity.  We will be like Him and see Him as he

really is. Allow your weaknesses to make you humble enough to rely on

Christ because you know you can´t do it alone. Only then can your

weaknesses become strengths. With our faith and humility he can change

us." - Elder Haller (haha)

I love that so much. He talks all about change and how in order to be

changed, we must rely wholly on our Savior, Jesus Christ and His

Atonement. We must also have faith and PATIENCE that that CHANGE will

come with time. I know I need to have more patience and trust in this

and also in those I teach. Change is REAL and POSSIBLE. Through and

ONLY THROUGH our Savior, Jesus Christ. And even when we don't see

these changes happening right away.. Within ourselves or other

people.. We must continue to press forward, be PATIENT and allow the

will of God to take place. We must have faith, patience, humility,

peace... Etc. Which all compliment one another.

So anyways, I am truly working on being more patient with this work,

with myself and with everyone I am teaching. I know on Christmas when

we skyped I got a little teary eyed when I talked about how I am often

hard on myself.... I sometimes am not PATIENT enough with myself,

wanting to be better at this or that, or expecting things to happen a

certain way.. But I have truly been having a different mindset on

everything and it is bringing so much peace into my heart. I also

could get frustrated all of the time because of people not keeping

commitments, not acting on things, not progressing at a quick pace,

etc. but I KNOW that all will happen how they should. According to

God's will. And as long as I do my very best, am obedient and diligent

at that... I have nothing to worry about. I can be perfect and entire,

wanting nothing. Knowing that God's will will take place.

I also want to share Brad's thoughts.... They are so brilliant.

......."Something I've noticed in the scriptures is that there's a

relationship between patience and perfection, a theme that is

highlighted not only in the New Testament, but also in both The Book

of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants (if you look up patience in

the glossaries, you'll find the verses I'm talking about). "...Let

patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,

wanting nothing." That last part of the verse - "wanting nothing" - is

a phrase I've thought about a lot. I think it reveals what patience

really is - the absence of anxiety. Anxiety comes from temptation, but

becoming "perfect and entire" means that temptation no longer has

power over you, that you are "wanting nothing" or 'anxious about

nothing' or 'tempted by nothing' - make sense? In this context, I

think perfection is worked toward very similarly to how maturity is

worked toward - becoming more and more and more patient, or "wanting"

less and less and less.

Another way to think about this is a framework Michael's late grandpa

used: he talked about agency or free will being the space between

stimulus and response. Every day, throughout the day, we are the

recipients of all sorts of stimuli. Most people forego that

intervening space and proceed straight to response. Over time, they

develop strong emotional habits that correspond to the many stimuli

they experience on a recurring basis. For example, getting cut off

automatically corresponds to a honk and the bird. Getting stressed out

automatically corresponds to a bad mood and a night in the bar.

Hearing a companion eat cereal disgustingly automatically corresponds

to annoyance and being cold toward her. Being called in to a meeting

with a boss automatically corresponds to fear, paranoia and dread. The

space, on the other hand, represents the capacity to deliberately,

thoughtfully choose your response to the given stimulus. Being patient

- "wanting nothing" - is what enables the utilization of the

space."........

- Bradley C. Barth (An ORIGINAL Brodle quote)

So I know this may have made zero sense and I have typed my thoughts

out so quickly that even I don't know if I understand all that I said

or not.. Haha I don't have time to look over what I have read. But

what I am trying to get at here, is that we all must be patient in our

lives and in the lives of others. We must have faith in change and

have faith that WE can change as well as OTHERS. And while we wait for

these things to happen we must be PATIENT and whole heartedly trust in

The Lord, the Atonement, and the will of God. We must all work every

day on aligning our will with His. Wanting nothing yet having strong

enough faith to know that He is aware of every detail of our lives,

this work and all of His children. I know that the Lord is involved

with every detail of His work as well and we must keep putting our

trust in Him.

Con amor,

Hermana Barth

Also.... For QUICK UPDATES!!!!!!!!!!

1. Raquel's baptism date is unknown at the moment because he husband

is being hard (more details later)

2. MyGabriel her son is progressing a ton and is old enough to do what

he wants haha

3. Lorenza is progressing a ton and LOVES Joseph Smith, says she knows

everything we teach her is true but now we just have to get her to ACT

and move on from her Catholic upbringing

4. MARGARITO CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!! He hasn't come the entire time I

have been here and HE CAME!!! It's a miracle and I know Hermana

Piggott is going to die when she finds out. More info on him later but

we should have him on date this week. He's SO ready. Also, we had a

breakfast with his wife whom I had never met and all of her sisters...

Are you shocked Hermana Piggott????? Haha I'll write more about it to

you in my letter today my ebbp.

5. Jesus was called to be 1st counselor in the Elder's Quorum and is

SO honored and excited for the responsibility. He's adorable. Also, he

went camping with the young men and it was his first time ever

camping... LOVED it. Also, Brother Orme took him to Wendy's on the way

up.. Said he went inside and Jesus didn't know how to order and said

it all looked so expensive..... He had never been there before....

REAL LIFE. My heart is so touched by that boy.

6. The Elizondo's keep saying how they cannot wait to come to my

wedding and are already planning out how they will come.... Who knows,

they may forget about it if I don't get married for years hahaha but

they think I am going to have such a fun wedding and they say I am

part of their family so they're already planning on how they can see

me after my mission haha. Also, Brother Orme is already planning a

trip to Utah to bring Yamara with him to visit Hermana Piggott and I.

And we want Yamara to go to BYU. She's dreaming about it.

More to come next week... Hahaha

Okay... OFFICIALLY OUT OF TIME!!!!

¡ADIOS!