We gave him the name Elder

 

 This last friday, as we were walking down this pitch black street in a place called Las Tapias next to the chocolate river (not actually chocolate, but looks just like it... full of trash, and smells like the opposite of Heaven) We heard a crying yelping noise from the river down below. It sounded just like a hurt puppy. As I looked over the river I could make out what I thought had to be a small couple month old chuchito. Anyways. I couldn´t leave him alone to die in the freexing river overnight. So I hopped down into the small chocolate trickling stream, and searched for the little puppy. As I searched for him, he kept yelping, and I as I got closer his yelps got even louder, and then I finally found him, picked him up, he immediantly curled into a ball and snuggled up next to me, trying to stay warm. So we saved the chuchito! He had obviously fallen, and had no one to care for him, so we took him, haha. But seeing as elders can´t have pets, we found a family of members who wanted him, and we gave him the name Elder, ;)

 

 

Something interesting is that we thought we had heard another tiny puppy who had fallen in the same river. So we went back, and tried to find him. At first, from far away we heard his cries, calling out for help. But as we reached the river, and started to scoot down the small bank of sand and grass, his cries stopped. We waited and listened till we could hear him again, and when we heard him, we moved closer to him. But, as we moved closer to him, he became quieter and quieter, until finally he stopped calling out for help. We were never able to find him, and its most likely that he died that night in the cold.

 

You may wonder why I am telling you this experience... I tell you, because It really made me think a lot. In life, when we have problems, when we suffer, or when we fall into a dark place- that´s the moment we need to CALL OUT FOR HELP. And the person we should be calling out for, is our Heavenly Father.

So many times we forget to call out to Him- Him, who is so willing to freely lift our loads, our sorrows, our trials, and make them light. Heavenly Father wants to hear from all of his children, no matter who they are, where they are, what their religious background is, He wants to hear from you. You can speak to him through sincere, humble prayer. Talk to him as a friend, because he is one. Let him know exactly how you feel, because he wants to know. If you call out to him, he will answer, and he will help you.

Now I hope we can all learn a lesson from the 2 puppies in the river. The first puppy continued to call out for help, and because of his cries, we were able to find him and rescue him from the dark and cold night. The second puppy started to call for help, but then ceased to do so. And because of this we were not able to find him in the darkness, and he died shivering in the cold.

Even when we have trials, and the trials seem to last for what seems like too much time to bear, do we continue to pray to our Heavenly Father, giving him thanks for the blessings we do have, and ask him humbly for his help? Or do we slowly cease to call out to Him?

If we cease to ask, He will cease to give. 88:63 Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock,and it shall be opened unto you.

My invitation to all this week, is to continually call out to God through simple prayer every morning and every night, whenever you desire. Call out unto to him, so that he may help you. I promise you if you do so, you will receive many blessings, you will be strengthened and filled with peace, because when you draw near unto him, he will draw near unto you.

 

(Santa Maria volcano, on both sides are the eruptions of two other smaller volcanos, those volcanos are almost always active and spitting out smoke and fire)

 

 

 

 

So, it was a good week. Today for P-day we threw the final party for the 2 hermanas that are finishing their mission. We had a piñata specially made, it was a Mexican giraffe, to represent Hermana Aguirre- who is from Mexico, and Hermana Janssen- who is super tall and skinny and looks like a giraffe. It was super fun, We played dodge ball, and also made cupcakes. One of the cupcakes, had jalapeños in it, and we ate them one by one, until someone ate the cupcake with jalapeños, ha-ha ;)

 

 

                                                        Jalapeño Cupcakes:)