It´s natural for man to have questions and to not understand all things. It’s not natural for man to have a perfect faith whatsoever. However, through faith man can receive unexplainable answers. This week my comp. And have been teaching a philosopher, he doesn’t know if God exists, nor does he know how he can find out. We have been working with him on how he can grow his faith through prayer every day. We were studying in our scriptures to help our investigator understand the importance of his relationship with God so that he can receive answers to his questions.

In Colossians 2:8 it says, “Beware lest any man spoil you though philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

I love to teach our investigators about the importance of their own personal relationship with God. This makes me think about how blessed we are to have a modern day prophet that doesn’t teach us about their relationship with God but we listen to their beautiful counsel about the importance of having our own personal friendship with God.

I believe that following the commandments, is like flying a kite. Imagine that were the body of the kite. A kite fly’s in the air by the power of what? The strings with the help of wind! Now if someone were to cut the strings, would the kite fly higher or would it come crashing dow to the ground? Good job! It would come crashing down to the ground. Haha Now, imagine that every string you hold is a commandment, and instead of the kite crashing down, the commandments of Jesus Christ revealed through prophets, allow us to soar in the air!

People often feel that having to follow and keep the commandments are keeping us from living our lives the best way. However, the commandments really allow us to contently soar throughout life! No matter how chaotic the wind might become. The blessings are beautiful. We don’t HAVE to follow them, we GET to!

In 1 Nephi 18 it talks about how Nephi was commanded to build a ship, and Nephi’s brothers didn’t think they he could build it. Nephi knew that if he was commanded, that he could. After he built the ship, not after the manner of man, but in the way that the Lord had shown him how. His brothers saw that it was good. And the Lord had provided much for them and they were safe. In verse 9 it says, “And after we had been driven forth before the wind for the space of many days, behold, my brethren, and the sons of Ishmael and also their wives began to make themselves merry, insomuch that they began to dance, and to sing, and to speak rudeness, yea, even that they did forget by what power they had been brought thither; yea, they were lifted up unto exceeding rudeness.” They became very prideful.

In Ether 6 the brothers of Jared are in a ship and the wind was blowing and they were buried in the deep but there was no water that could hurt them. Now in verse 9 it says, “And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long, and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord.” And they did soon after arrive in the Promised Land.

When we put all of our trust in the Lord that He is the only way to the Promised Land and eternal life, he will deliver unto us, the Promised Land and eternal life.

This week I have been trying to recognize when I might become a little prideful, that instead of thinking I did something well, that I need to thank Heavenly Father for what he has allowed me to be able to do.

Studying the Christ-like attributes are really so special! I challenge you all to study Christ-like attributes and pray for opportunities to develop these attributes. It might be hard for a bit, but I promise you that the Lord will help you along the way.

This week was great, we had Taylor G. Godoy from the 70 come and speak to us with his wife. My MTC president’s son baptized him. How awesome! Let us all lift up our torches of Humbleness and share our love with the world.

I love you all! PS It was Amberleigh´s birthday on the 18th, HAPPY BIRTHDAY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND MISS YOU!

My comp hasn’t been able to speak to any of the Latinos here because of her Spanglish, so last week when we were on the bus to go to the temple, our bus driver brought his little son…. It was the first time she connected with a Latino, hes 4. Im so proud of her!
LOLOL

God is our loving Heavenly Father. His love for us will never change! He loves us with open and embracing arms. At times we might feel that God doesn’t have time for us, or that we are forgotten and unloved by Him. These are most often the times that we haven’t made time for Him, have forgotten about Him, and haven’t demonstrated our love, for Him.

Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Meaning His love for us has and never will change, but that we might. It says in Mormon 9:9, “For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and in Him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?” Gods love for us has no variableness, it is only constant and unconditional!

WOW! Don’t you just love God? I do. Serving someone is the best way to show someone you love them. I seriously love this work!

1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Our human eyes often see through a glass darkly, we notice the negatives in life and others. The closer we come to our Heavenly Father and brother, Jesus Christ, we can see others also as we are known. I learned during one of our lessons with our investigator, that God knows our hearts, he knows our feelings, and he feels for us. He wants the best for us! Better than what we could even want for ourselves.

Alma 5:15 says, “Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith…” God looks at us through an eye of faith. He has faith in us. How patient is God, that He would forgive us every single day we ask for forgiveness.

Last night, we had a devotional and something I loved that one of the speakers said was, “We are blessed, because we have come to believe in people.” I believe that our greatest blessings come from that of believing in others and looking at them through a glass, lightly. That we see them as they are and love them as they need.
I love you all!

This week has been really good we had an awesome devotional with all of the missionaries around this area of Peru, come to hear Elder Robbins speak, it was awesome! I saw Elder Dahl (a good friend of mine
from home ward) so that was cool!

I learned a lot that we choose our captain, and when we choose our captain, we must heed unto their counsel.

I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for your love and support.
Xx Hermana Geertsen

Every night, my district (Elder Phillip's, Elder Babbit, Elder Southern, Elder Dunford, Hermana Hoffman, and I) share something that we read about earlier in the day. I didn’t have anything from my reading stand out to share, however I kept thinking about “The Tight Rope”. The Tight Rope is a sketch with an explanation and deeper understanding of this life. My dad showed me this, he made it up on his mission, I believe.

I told my district I didn’t have anything to share from reading, however, I did have a drawing to share. So I drew out on the white board, a sketch of “The Tight Rope”. I explained each step as I drew
it. I said, “This is the Pre-Earth life.

This is Earth life as if we are walking on a tight rope that Satan has his hand gripped on so tight. Some people are running across this tight rope, some people are jumping, some people are laying, hanging, and dangling, diving and some people have fallen off. There is a net at the bottom of this tight rope. This net will catch us if we allow it to. If not, we have decided that Satans plan is more suitable to us.

If we allow this net to catch us, step by step we are able to climb up a knotted rope.

The first step is Fe (faith). Faith in Jesus Christ, that he has all the power to help us.

The second step is Arrepentimiento (repentance). Sincere repentance, having a broken heart and a contrite spirit that we know God has a better plan for us than what we would create for ourselves.

The third step is Bautismo (baptism). Baptism by someone who holds the authority of the Priesthood of God.

The fourth is La Recepcion del don del Espiritu Santo (receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost). The Holy Ghost doesn’t just accompany us when in time of need, but the Holy Ghost will be our companion in time of growth as well. Lastely, but not least, Perseverar hasta el fin (enduring to the end). Enduring to the end doesn’t mean we can just end at faith in Jesus Christ, it doesn’t end at repentance, nor does it end at baptism, or receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We take these steps to one day live with our Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ, again! This is continually progressing, continually having faith, repenting every day, allowing the Holy Ghost to be our companion! And with open and embracing arms, our Heavenly Father and brother Jesus Christ will be there to welcome us back home.”

Elder Babbit said, “I don’t really have anything to share from my scripture study either, but while Hermana Geertsen was drawing this out and explaining, I wrote a poem.” This is how the poem goes.

“In this life, we walk a tight rope.
It is not easy to walk.
We will slip, trip, and sometimes fall.
Satan stands beneath.
He wants to devour us.
He stares, wants, and knows,
That some will fall, themselves.
But the strong ones,
He knows he has to shake.
He plays with the rope,
He grabs at our ankles.

God is waiting at the end.
He watches us He guides each one of our steps.

But yet, we will fall.
But when we fall,
If we keep our eyes on God,
We are caught by a net.

The Atonement.
The net we fall on is held up by Jesus Christ
He will hold us, Pull us,
And carry us back to the Kingdom of our Father.
Our dad.”
- Elder Babbit

Hermana Hoffman shared her scripture of the day and one of the cross references. The cross reference was in the Bible, Hebrews 12:13. I don’t have my scriptures with me at this time, but it starts off something like “keep your feet on the straight path.”

God has such a beautiful plan for us! Satan has a plan for us too. We just have to decide which plan we will accept. This week was amazing, I love Sundays mainly because it’s the only day that is in English!

I really feel that there is no better work than that of the work of the Lord. My dad told me before I left, “Youre going to be doing the Lords work, but don’t forget, youll also be getting the Lords pay!” I got my first pay check and let me just tell you, the Lord doesn’t mess around when he pays. The blessings are grand! (And no the Lord doesn’t pay in money).

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Jeremiah 4:19-20
“My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me;
I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast Heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.”

Hahahaha, the food here is good but doesn’t agree too well! Loling… Hermana Signs from Colorado, one of the other sisters here, showed us this because of her similar experiences. We're all so close, I'd say!

Lol. Seriously though I love my Hermanas! And the Elders in my district are amazing, SO strong, hilarious, and motivating! I know they will be fantastic missionaries.

This week has been so good. Very adventurous. I love President and Hermana Moore. They are purely servants of God, and their countenances radiate!

I really want to explain how much I love repentance and the Atonement.

I've taught a few lessons of El Plan de Salvacion with our “investigators” this week and I myself have learned and come to

understand it so much more! I strongly feel that Repentance is purely symbolic for us humans to show God that we are willing and have a desire to follow the path that he has paved for us, whether we know it or not. The Atonement is so perfect and essential for all human kind to feel real happiness and to eventually live with our Heavenly Father and His Hijo amado, Jesucristo, again.

I read a talk this week and it said, “You are going to be tested and tried to prove what you are made of. I just want you to know that if

you don’t get what you think you ought to get, remember, God is the gardener here. He knows what He wants you to be. Submit to yourselves His will. Be worthy of His blessings, and you WILL get His blessings.”
– Elder Hugh B. Brown

I loved reading this. Often times I hear the word worthy and it makes me second guess if Im worthy. Once you have felt the forgiveness, the following guilt can only be sent of Satan. Who would destroy you if he could.

Its Raines birthday today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAINE, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

AND MISS YOU, I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT YOU ALL WEEK!

I challenge you all to rise to a new sense of commitment to serve the Lord. This doesn’t mean anything extraordinary, just a little

something extra to lift the spirits of others around you… Like a smile or something sweet! I love you all and I really appreciate your

support. Thank you for the prayers, they have been very much needed, I can feel them!

¡Un grado mas!

(This means “one degree more!” If we all gave just one degree more, imagine the difference!)

My first week here at the CCM (say, say-em-aye) has been sooooo filled with different things and feelings.

The flight went really well and me and Hermana Fullmer, from Utah, sat next to each other. We know a lot of the same people so that was cool!

She is so awesome and has a strong testimony.

The first day I got sick with a super bad sore throat and thanks to ASAP silver water, my sore throat went away the next day! Definitely thought it was going to get worse! Thank you Moellers for the Silver Water it has already been put to use!

Then on Sunday I got a bad sinus infection and I was sneezing so much and I couldn’t even see and I got a really bad head ache. So they let me take a 3 hour nap!

My comps name is Hermana Hoffman, she is from Seattle, Washington and she is so cool and she will also be serving in Cochabamba, Bolivia!

(We are the only sister missionaries serving there. The rest are all Elders and then the other Hermanas are going to Peru missions.) She reminds me so much of Amberleigh cause of her motherly nature and she always has the best insights! We have become so close over the past week (that has felt like a month) whilst in the bathroom stalls next
to each other… LOL. The food is really good there is a big variety of things they have but mostly rice for every meal. We are so much alike with our differences though! But we laugh at everything! Even when I get emotional we end up just laughing at me. Haha.

I lOVE THE LATINOS! They are so sincere and their eyes are so genuine! Whenever I feel nervous or scared about being on my mission or even just missing my family, I just look at the Latinos and see how thankful they are for the Gospel and how much it has really blessed their lives. They are so passionate about it. It keeps me motivated
just by watching them.

The language is going well. Im definitely so thankful for my back ground knowledge of the language. We are already teaching our investigadores… (in quotes) they are just our teachers but a lot of the time they play the role of how they used to be with all the questions that they had before they were converts. My companion hasn’t had any back ground of Spanish so I basically teach the lessons, but she is getting better and learning really fast so she speaks Spanglish.

Every day we have an hour to excersize, so my comp and I have been playing futbol(soccer). Hahaha so we were playing right, with a ton of the missionaries and the Latino missionaries(theyre so good) and the ball came straight to me and I caught it between my mid-legs so I turned around and hopped over to the goal we all just started
laughing. Haha it was so funny. Almost scored…

I have really seen, here at the MTC, my strengths but have noticed so much more of my weaknesses, as far the language, Ive realized how much I do know and Im so surprised I know so much and can understand the Latinos because they speak so fast, but Ive seen more of how much I don’t know. The language is my favorite, but at times I get hard on myself. Lol its been like a week!

I really encourage you all to read the Book of Mormon and the Bible side by side, they really complement each other. Its cool during our lessons with the investigators to have scripture references come to mind from the bible as well as the Book of Mormon.

I miss you all and love you so all so much, I think of you all and have had dreams of everyone, if you don’t think you’ve been in my dreams, I am almost positive you have been.