Wed, Jan 6, 2016

Yep that's right!  I have already been away from home for 3 months now!  The first little bit was slow but the rest has been zipping through!
I have been in the field for a month and a half already too!  My trainer goes home on the 8th of February and then I'm on my own in this sector!  I still have so much Spanish to learn!  But the Spanish is getting better little by little everyday.

So the mission is definitely full of challenges.... physical and mental.  You come across one of these challenges every day... one of those challenges that I feel I have faced a little too often is.... finding hair in my food.  Why is this a challenge?  Because you have to eat ALL the food that is provided for you or you'll be hated by people.  This happens at least once everyday, but its lots of fun I guess.  What else can I do right?

So this week I went on divisions with Elder Bushman here in my sector and we had to prepare a lesson for a family home evening with my bishop that we invited some less active members to.   I prepared a lesson based on President Uchdorf's message from the October edition of the Liahona titled, "finish with your torch still lit."  I encourage you all to read about it for this to make sense.  This message talks about one of the 5 gospel principles we must follow, "Endure to the End".

What is "Endure to the End"?  Well the five principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are:  1. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,  2. Repentance, 3. Baptism by someone who holds the power and authority of God, 4. Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, 5. Endure to the End.

Endure to the End is simple.  There are many things that can go in to this subject.  Endure to the end simply means to always build faith in Jesus Christ, repent daily, take the Sacrament (to renew our Baptismal Covenants) so that we may always have His spirit to be with us (as said in the end of the Sacrament prayers).  These are the keys to receiving God's greatest gifts and blessings.  There are of course other things that are important like having a family and getting sealed in the temple.

I know that if we continually have the Spirit with us we can obtain God's gift of salvation and eternal life if we constantly exercise our faith and always repent for ALL of our sins correctly.  Also by always renewing our Baptismal Coventants every week by taking the Sacrament so that we can receive the Spirit and have it with us at all times.

I know that the flame of the torch is Christ and that if we continually endure to the end there will always be His light and spirit with us.
It is a new year which means we all have goals for this upcoming year.  I'd like to challenge everyone to take the time to ponder and create 3 spiritual goals you can work on this year.

I love this work and I am learning so much everyday.  I'm glad to be here working my butt off everyday for the next 21 months.
I love you all and have a great week!

With lots of love,
-Elder Sims