One week left in the Mexico MTC

The one photo that was in focus was skiwampus.  

This is so crazy!!! I can´t believe how fast time has flown! By this time next week I will be in California!! ¡Orale! 

Funny moment: So my companion and I were teaching a "Investigator" about the ten commandments. The lesson had gone smoothly and we had gotten him to commit to keeping the ten commandments. My companion and I then asked him if he had any problems with any of my commandment and he responded that he didn´t but then he jokingly asked us if we had any problems especailly with though shalt not kill. Laughing I said no and then he turned to my companion and asked her the same question.... And with the biggest smile on her face she gave an enthusiastic "Si!" There were a few seconds of silence then I and the investigator busted into laughter. She turned so red and said "Si! wait no!....¡que?" Oh my poor companion! Everything ended well and our "Investigator" kindly helped her out but oh was it funny!

Sad moment: One of the members of our district and my good friend caught some sort of bacteria during his stay here and couldn´t hold down food. He ended up loosing 15 lbs! There was a decision made that he would need to go home so he left this past Thursday...I have now seen two people go home. Coming out on a mission is not easy but going home from one I think is even harder. I am amazed how he handled it with grace and put his trust in the Lord. We do miss having him in our group but we know that he is getting the care he need and that the lord is proud of him!  I have said this before but I didn´t want to come out on my mission early but I now know that there is a grander purpose behind it all. The people I have meet here have influenced me and made me so much better. I honestly feel like my district in the CCM was carefully put together by God. All of their testimonies have strengthened me and my belief in the church and gosple! I am so incredibly blessed! I defiantly have no reason to complain...ever again.

Spiritual moment: Can I be so bold as to say the Book of Mormon is the word of God? It is the word of God! So we had TRC this past week and it was AMAZING!! We taught this man, Moroni, who is already a member of the church on how to get revelation from the Book of Mormon.  We asked him how his reading was going and he told us that it wasn´t going so great. He was having a hard time getting the will power to actually study his scriptures. So I shared with him the story about the women at the well in John chapter 4. 

10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest thegift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up intoeverlasting life.

Then my companion and I bore witness that Jesus Christ is the living water and the Book of Mormon contains his words and the fullness of his doctrine and anyone that read this book, their soul will never hunger and it will be filled. It was so powerful. By the end of the lesson, this man was clinging on the Book of Mormon like it was his life source. In a way...it is. I´m going to share with you what I have been doing to study the Book of Mormon. 

1. I think of a question

2.I pray and ask God the question with a heart full of faith (James 1:5)

3. I write my question in my notebook

4. As I read I write down feelings and impressions

5. I close with a pray and thank god!

I can witness to you that god does answer honest and pure questions! He wants to speak with us. He is our Heavenly Father. Like I always tell the investigators, when we want to talk to God we pray, when we want god to speak to us, we read the scriptures! The Book of Mormon is the word of God and I challenge you to study them and for those of you who haven´t read it...Read it!! 

I love you all,

Hermana Paredes 

Over and Out

P.S. Elder Oaks is coming today to speak!! and guess who got chosen to sing in the select choir....yours truly!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! So next email I will send you guys some notes from that! There will not be a email next week because I will be flying!! 

 Hermana Sofia Paredes' district 8B!!!!!

Week 3 The Holy Spirit

I am new to the whole blogging scene and am learning a lot--please be patient as I mess with this blog and learn.  I am aware that the fonts are all over the place and that odd color font shows up in odd places.  It is a work in progress. ;-)  (Sofia's mom, Diane Paredes)

Please send emails to the following address while Sofia is in the MTC:
letter@mtcmexicocarepackage.com and put the subject as Hermana Paredes District #8B

When she receives letters at the above address, she is able to print them and therefore can read them any time. 

Hola everyone!!
So I totally promised you district pictures....and I forgot. I will send them this time for sure!!

So this week we started a new thing called TRC....for the life of me I can´t remember what it stands for. Basically in TRC we teach people from the "outside world"! They can be real investigators, inactive members, or active members. My companeria and I taught this lovely lady named Jessica. At first we were all just talking and laughing and getting to know each other, then I asked the question of what she wanted to get from our lesson. She than began to tell us that she was going to be filing a divorce soon and she had been praying really hard for any kind of comfort. She then opened up her bible and told us that god had put this scripture into her mind for an answer. It´s in Mark 2:21 (I´ll let you guys look it up and read it...) 

I looked it up, and here it is:  

Mark 2:21 No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.

and it was probably the most confusing scripture I have ever read.

After we read this scripture with her, she told us she wanted to know what God wanted to tell her through this scripture...my mind went blank....I could literally not thing of a single thing that the lord wanted to tell her through this scripture! I began to panic. We literally sat there for about five minutes in absolute silence as I read this scripture over and over again. I tried to open my mouth to speak but no words came. I wanted to just say "We cannot get revelation for you" and move on to our lesson but I could bring myself to say it because I could see the pain behind her eyes.

Just at the point I was about to despair that we would never find the answer for her, my sweet companion touched my knee and began to speak. She told this women that if we try to heal our broken hearts on our own it will never work, but through Jesus Christ atonement all broken things can become whole. The spirit witnessed that this was 101% true. All the sudden my tongue was loosened and I was able to add my witness of our savior and how he knows our sufferings. The holy ghost carried our message to her heart. I know this to be true because on the response sheet she committed that she was going to go to church this coming Sunday. According to our teachers this lady had not been to church in a very long time, to the point were she was considered inactive and the missionaries have been trying to get her to go for a very long time. It was a miracle! 

I learned something very important through that experience. I realized that I had been so focused on speaking perfect Spanish that I forgot to rely on the spirit. My companion on the other hand hardly knows any Spanish but she knows how to rely on the spirit. I believe that the spirit was trying to speak to me but I was so wrapped up in my own thought I forgot to listen so the spirit spoke to the person that would listen. She got the inspiration and I didn´t. 

The holy ghost does not shout...it gently whispers and if you don´t have ears to hear, you will miss it. I actually did a talk this past Sunday about the spirit and it taught me a lot. I used one of my favorite scripture Psalms 46: 10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  Be still and listen. Quiet your doubts and fears and then the Holy Ghost will speak to you. 

I love you all, 

Hermana Paredes 

Over and Out