December 24th Update

Hey everybody!

Still working hard in Rauquen, and it just happens to be CHRISTMAS!!!!! Woohooooooooo! There´s Christmas spirit even while you´re sweating buckets, looking at the little Santas everywhere in the blazing sun! Ha ha. It´s great. Actually, it looks like it´s going to rain here today and tomorrow. And when it rains. IT. RAINS. The plumbing isn´t super great in Rauquen either, so it´s just like rivers in the street. And we go out! There´s that line from The Guardian about how terrible the circumstances are for them, with all the storms and everything, and they keep saying, "And we. go. out." That´d pop into my head every once in a while.

Christmas time is different for everybody, right? We all have different circumstances, we have different countries, different languages, different people surrounding us, but the "reason for the season" is still the same. Really, we´re all here to remember our Savior. Last night, my ward had an incredible devotional about the Savior. We watched the videos from the church about the bible and heard testimonies of others about Christ. Wow. I got to remember why I´m here. Why any of us would choose to follow Christ. It´s because of His love for us. Because of His love for us, we can find within us the capacity to give everything. We love, because He loved us first.

So whether you´re a great visiting teacher or home teacher, a good brother or sister, a parent, or a missionary, it´s all for the same reason. Because we know that He´s happy as we love His children. And the love of God is greater than anything else we can ever experience. And we serve Him doing His work, we can feel that. We can be healed, lifted, and glorified.

I´m so grateful for my Savior and His sacrifices for me. I know He´s teaching me as I draw nearer to Him. He loves all of us so much. He knows us. Really knows us. As I watched the life of Christ, I remembered some of the harder things that I´ve gone through in life. There´s this poem that talks of a man walking along a beach with the Savior seeing the events of his life, and realizing that the Savior has carried him through the harder times. I know He´s done that for me. And He keeps doing it. I love Him so much, and I am so grateful for everything that He´s done for me.

Some missionaries are pretty sad to miss a Christmas with the family. OF COURSE I miss you, and being with you, and everything. But I guess this is just part of the sacrifice of the mission. And I think it´ll be just one Christmas. The main thing is, I don´t feel like I have any regrets with you guys. You know how I feel about you, right? You know that I love you, right? BECAUSE I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!! I know that the Lord is watching over you, and that you are one incredible family. I pray for you all the time, and I hope you are having the best Christmas ever.

Merry Christmas! Now go make someone´s day a little better. Like the Savior would do. Because really, it´s His day. :)

Hermana Lovell

December 10th Update

We have a wedding this week! And a baptism! Well in all technicality it´s not of me and my companion, but of Hermana Castillo and Hermana Almeida. But I sure love them! Their names are Sandra and Oscar. They have two darling girls, and they are so excited for everything about the gospel. Sandra reminds me of you, Jess, a bit. Can´t wait!! Also, we have a conferencia of the Navidad! It´s the same day of the wedding. Which stinks. We´ll have to miss a bit of the conference. Buuuut.... That´s life.

I´m still breathing! Still learning! Patience is one of the best virtues ever! And learning to have happiness even if life is hard at the time. Because, let's face it: Life´s awesome!

Sorry this one´s a little short. Next week will be better. But I love you so much, and

Merry Christmas!!

Hermana Lovell

December 3rd Update

It was a good birthday!
And a good week :)

We had a surprise mini conference with the President and another zone yesterday. It was pretty great. All about how we can be more like Christ. And using the area book better. We did a practica of the first lesson, and President Humphrey was sitting with us. It was really neat. I think one of my favorite parts about the first lesson is being able to talk about the first vision. To finish off the conference, President Humphrey asked me to give The First Vision to everybody. I messed up some of the words, but it really didn´t matter. I have a pretty strong testimony of what happened in that grove of trees. I gave my testimony to everybody there. It was a pretty cool experience.

We also got quite a bit shock at out Zone meeting: We all lose three weeks of our mission. We are going to be getting an increase of 50 more missionaries, and for some reason this equates to everyone needing to go home a little earlier. I´m not really sure what´ll happen for me, because that puts me in the middle of a cambio, like on my birthday a year from now. But, that´s a year from now, so I´ll think about that later J

To my fam fam, I definitely was crying in an internet café in Chile when I got to read your letters, or watch your videos. I love you so much! I´m going to for sure respond to you, it just might take a bit of time.
I sure love you all. Keep being wonderful!

Hermana Lovell