It rains a lot here. April 11, 2011

Here are some more pictures for you all.  The Hermana with me isn't my companion, we were just on divisions with the Hermanas from another zone. 

 

That banana I'm holding isn't really a banana.  It's called a verde.  You cut it up really thin and then fry it and put salt on it and it's super rico.  I love verde. 

 

Missions are like medicine for your soul.  It's 18 months of hard work to take out all that stuff about yourself that you've 1) never liked or 2) didn't know you had that was keeping you from moving forward. 

 

But sometimes that's the funnest part.  To see who you turn out to be and what God has always had in mind for you to have.  It's not easy, and everyone has their own Getsemani (I definitely know what mine was) but you{re also a lot stronger for it. 

 

One of the most profound of all the things that I've discovered is that sin is such a real load that people carry and that no matter how much that we say [I'm okay, I'm over that, I don't need to repent or change my way of thinking[,  It's not true.  We are devine creatures that have a internal connection with the Creator of the Universe that makes us feel guilt and sadness when we violate the laws of heaven.  Maybe we can convince our selves that what we want is truely what will make us happy, but it will never be true.  What every person truely desires to become is the person that God wants them to be.  Every once in a while we get a glimpse of that person, and frankly, it's always far away.  But it's not impossible. 

 

The biggest hope that the Gospel gives us is the hope of change.  That things can get better, that my weaknesses will become strengths, that I really can forgive that person for everything they've done and forget about it.  People who don't have the gospel in their lives don't have that hope that one day, yes, things will be different.  They are caught in only the life that they are surrounded by, without a single glimpse of hope that says there is a way out. 

 

That's why I'm here.  To helpe people change. That's really the purpose of the Gospel, to change us and make us more like our Father. 

 

God lives.  I know it.

 

Love. Love. Love.

 

Hermana Cooper