Hello all! I finally got the pictures from the mission conference in South Kensington. This is the entire mission outside Royal Albert Hall. Anyways, another week has gone by really fast. This week we did even more gardening, had a fantastic barbecue and Mexican food, and I realised I gained a reputation in the ward for eating a lot of food.
Like I mentioned last week, we have been getting a lot of service opportunities lately, especially with gardening. These have been such a great way to have some community involvement, and they make the time go by faster.
I love having families in the ward that are from Spain/ Argentina. It feels like I'm back in California with all the Spanish being spoken around, and I love it. I get good opportunities to use some of the Spanish I learned in high school, even though I forgot 95% of it. On Friday we had dinner with the Sagripanti family, and had some amazing Mexican food. I think I personally ate enough to feed a family of four. We also had a great message to share with their family and their friend afterwards. I ended up playing the hymn "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" on their keyboard to compliment the video we had to show. Music is such a great way to set the right mood.
We also had an Argentinian barbecue on Saturday with the Pan family. That was fantastic. We had steak, chorizo, potato salad, and a few Polish sausages as well. One of our friends, Rafa, came as well with his family, and they are from Poland. As usual, I ate way too much. Even though we have the car here and don't have to walk all over, I still haven't gained any weight. Miracles are real! Even if I did, I'm not sure I would care because I just love eating so much and we get fed so well here.
One of the verses I read this week that really stood out to me was Ether 12:27 in the Book of Mormon, which says:
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."
We all have weaknesses for a reason, and that is to make ourselves stronger. How do we gain strength from our weaknesses? We need to humble ourselves and admit that we have a weakness, and then through faith and effort on our own part we can turn these weaknesses into strengths.
Ciao,
Elder Ammermon