I hope that this week passed well for you all! Spring has almost officially arrived here, and the weather is beautiful!! It always makes me happy to leave the house when the sun is shining with a bright blue sky.

This last week went by really fast, I can´t really remember all that happened. We worked a lot, talked with a lot of people, and did a lot of procura. It was a good week :)

This week I´ve been reading in Alma in the Book of Mormon. It is really interesting to read about the missionaries in the Book of Mormon; I never noticed how much of the Book of Mormon talks about missionary work until I got to the mission! Alma and Amuleque are such a great example of how to preach with power and authority, and how to work in a companionship. I love the scriptures Alma 7:15-16, when Alma exhorts the people of Gideon to `come and fear not´, to leave the sins that easily ensnare us, and to show God that we have a desire to repent.Really, it is this desire that is the most important thing that we need...our desires are what motivate us to action and determine what we will do. Our desires and goals will determine the shape that our lives will take.

This last Sunday Luis, a recent convert, gave his first talk, about honesty. We talked with him during the week to give support and help him prepare. IT was really interesting to talk with him about honesty- honesty with others, ourselves, and the Lord. Something that he said reminded me of repentance. The first step of repentance is to recognize that we have done something wrong, or that we need to begin to do something good that we are lacking. In this first step of repentance, honesty with ourselves is essencial. Without honesty, we can never change our behaviors, repent, and change our lives. Sometimes we are blinded by ourselves, and it is only with the help of the Lord that we can honestly evaluate ourselves and our lives.

Also about honesty, I shared with him the story of Ananias and Safira (? not sure of the name in english) in Acts chapter 4 or 5. They kept back a portion of what they gave to the church, and then lied to the apostles about it. They both died on the same spot. While this may seem like an extreme example, it represents what happens to us when we lie. When we try to decieve the Lord or others, we distance or remove ourselves from the Lord. This is a spiritual death. So although we may not die physically on the spot, we are doing the same thing to our spirits that happened to them... Just some thoughts I had from talking with him.