One Year Anniversary in the Mission!

Querida Familia,

I cumple-d a year today (she reached her one-year anniversary in the mission). Something tells me Mom already knew that.

These pictures are from Hermana Pinguelo's birthday party with our zone.

Here is an inspiring story:

There is a real-deal member in our area named Isabel. I love her immensely. She’s probably 70 but still completely with it, and she takes us to go visit her other 70-year-old friends who are clearly not on the same mental level as she is. And she really understands the gospel. I had always been wondering, why is Hermana Isabel so sharp? So yesterday, I decided to finally ask: “Hermana Isabel, do you know how to read?”  And she said, “Ýes.” I asked, “Did you go to school?” She says, “Back when I was young and beautiful, I went around making all of the boys fall in love with me. But one day, one of them sent me a letter. I wanted so badly to know what the letter said, but I had never gone to school. I couldn’t ask someone else to read me the letter because I was embarrassed and didn’t want any of my girlfriends to know what it said.” So she goes and teaches herself to read! 

Someone had been holding a class outside of her pueblo and so every day a la 1 en la tarde (at 1 pm in the afternoon) she and her other amiga walk to class.  She practices every day for an hour and after several weeks, she finally reads her letter.

Later, when she sends her first son on a mission, she realized she knew how to read, but had never learned how to write. She could read the letters her son sent to her, but she couldn’t send letters to him. So she decides she’s going to learn how to write. She gets all the books in her house and searches in her books for every single word she wants to say in her letter to see how it’s written and practices it. She said her first letter took her over a week to write.

I wanted to share that story as an evidence of:

1. GO READ BOOKS BECAUSE IT MAKES YOU SMARTER.  Also, gospel living requires gospel understanding. Learning how to learn from books and school makes it a lot easier to learn the essential truths of the gospel (that ONLY come through study). 

2.  That you can do anything when you are properly motivated.

Hermana Carr shared a great quote with me: 'If you find that you have not fulfilled a goal in life, it's because you never really intended it.'

I love you guyz. I got a package today! With pumpkins on it. I have not looked in it yet, but THANK YOU!

Amor,

Hermana Ludlam