Reading the Book of Mormon in 1 day (Rebekah April 19)

Hey everyone!


I'm so glad hermana Hunt came to visit you. I hope you like the erasers! I'd been collecting them for a couple of months. They’re just kind of fun. Did she also give you some picture CDs?

Sorry we didn't e-mail yesterday. We read the Book of Mormon in one day as a mission. We started at four in the morning and ended at eleven at night. The Spirit testifies so strongly to the truth of the Book of Mormon and I want to have a family tradition of reading the Book of Mormon in a day each year. It is hard, but also a lot of fun, and we can give a day to our spiritual development.

Hey, everyone, you need to go on a hike! And enjoy it! I know everyone is really busy, and that is exactly why you need it. After finals are over, a couple hours in the mountains will help the rest of your time to be more productive and you've got to enjoy all this time preparing things for Amber's reception and everything. Go hiking! And don't even bring your mental to-do list. Just take a couple of hours to work on your relationship with Heavenly Father and with each other. And then you can get back to work. Everything is going to turn out wonderfully.

I love my area so much. It is so beautiful. This morning Hermana Phillips and I were talking about how lucky we are to be serving missions here. It was one of those moments when it just seems to sink in that I am actually here, actually on a mission. The mission is one of the most beautiful things in the world and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father invited me to serve, and that I am here in Guatemala and in Momostenango. I know that this is the Lord's work and that there are angels working alongside us. God is a God of miracles and will not cease to be a God of miracles if we do not cease to exercise faith in Him.

My companion Hermana Hernandez is going home next week. She's here in my Zone and so I got to talk to her a little bit today. She went to visit the Morales family in Los Arcos (Ismar, Alida, Lloyda, Clarissa and Christain) that we taught and baptized in September. She said they are active and doing very well. It's strange how many people you meet on the mission. It seems like an almost impossibly large number. It has been such a blessing to be able to get to know all of them and bless their lives as they've blessed mine.

Hermana Hunt said she loved visiting you all and that she didn't want to leave. She said she feels like you are her family. That's exactly how the mission is. Our companions and the members and investigators somehow become part of our families. “Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life” (Matt. 19:29).

I love you all so much! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Good luck preparing for finals and working and enjoying life.

Love,

Rebekah