We're in the Club

This is a poor quality photo from our Skype session
with Hermana Schomburg on Mother's Day
She is showing us her bip (beep) card
which she uses throughout Santiago for public transportation

ACTUALLY I DON'T HAVE A LOT OF TIME TO WRITE BUT I WOULD LIKE TO PUT THE FOLLOWING OUT INTO THE WORLD

Our stake conference this last week was a lot about strengthening the family, and even moreso that the best thing you can do to strengthen your family at this time with all the things that are happening in the world is to keep the Sabbath day holy. It is SO important that we go to church every Sunday and focus that day on worshipping the Lord and also on resting ourselves physically and mentally so that we can better combat the evil forces of the world during the week. Families that attend together stay together! And families that keep the Sabbath holy together stay together happily! One of the things that I have to do as a missionary that is a bit hard and overwhelming is to tell people to keep this commandment (because it is a commandment, the fourth to be exact). It involves, in some cases, telling people to put their jobs second and here in Chile, work is most all that the people have. But the reason missionaries do this is because it is SO IMPORTANT. We wouldn´t tell people to put their careers, sports, hobbies, whatever else in second place if it wasn´t vitally important. When we don´t keep the Sabbath holy, we are denying ourselves blessings, that is the simple and pure truth of it. When we neglect any of God´s commandments, we are denying ourselves blessings. The reason that we are on this earth is to have joy and to learn and progress: Heavenly Father wants and promises to bless us, but we must hold up our end of the bargain. 

So my challenge this week is for everybody to remember to keep the Sabbath holy, no matter what. Decide beforeSunday comes what you are and are not going to do; use the scriptures as a guide (Mosiah 13:16-19, Exodus 20:8-11). When we are obedient, Heavenly Father can and must by way of promise, bless us. So, keep the commandments! Don´t deny yourself blessings! DO THE THINGS, GET THE STUFF. In this day and age, the family is under attack. There are countless forces in the world that want to destroy the family, but I can promise that if we keep the Sabbath day holy, we will have the power to overcome those forces and keep our families, the very fundamentals of society, safe from the adversary's grasp. I know this to be true and testify of it in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Sorry to go on that little rant spurt thing, but it needed to be done. 

Also, I´m supposed to explain how church works in Chile! So, in our ward at least (because we have another ward in our building temporarily) we have Relief Society and Priesthood, and then Sunday School, and then sacrament meeting. And... well I dunno... we still open with a hymn and prayer... it´s all normal in that sense... the gospel is still true down here... and still the same... and uh... I dunno :) our ward is a little unique in that we do have ALL THE ELDERS FROM THE OFFICE (except the APs I think) in our ward so every sacrament meeting is made up half by missionaries, but it´s all good. 

I guess it's a little different because it's all in Spanish haha, that makes a difference... but... I think it's all the same :) 

Also, I highly recommend reading the scriptures in Spanish sometime because Spanish has a lot less words than English, so some things are just brutally honest. For example, when Laman and Lemuel say that Nephi is a fool for thinking he can build a boat just because the Lord commanded him to (which is silly because ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE LORD DON´T YOU KNOW THAT LAMAN AND LEMUEL PLEASE GET YOUR ACTS TOGETHER), it says simply, 'Nuestro hermano está loco' [Our brother is a fool] and later (this is paraphrased and also in English) 'If God can do so many other miracles, what makes you think He can´t help me build a boat?' Preach it Nephi. Preach. [See 1 Nephi 17 for the story to which Hermana Schomburg is referring.]

But anyway, this week was super dooper slow and nearly every single one of our appointments cancelled. And by cancelled, I mean that we showed up and there was nobody home. Haha. Wow. Yeah, I have been learning patience and Christlike love this week. I LOVE PEOPLE. LOVE EM. ALL OF EM. 

Okay, gotta go now, I love you all, sorry for the lack of pictures, I didn´t have time to upload many, but this is of a sunset and also Hna Rhoads and I since we´re in the club now. 

I love love love love love love love you all! :)

*yelled* 

CCCIIIIIAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

-Hermana Schomburg

Hermana Schomburg has expressed her desire to receive mail 

while in the mission field. 

Thus far she has only received snail-mail from two folks. 

Please see the side margin above for her mailing address. ----->>>

A Global Forever stamp costs $1.15 and a note from home would make our missionary very happy.
THANK YOU for your support!