18 lessons learned! Sacamos la mugre hasta el fin ;)

Hola amigos!! 

I cannot believe how fast time has flown, not just this past week as I finished up my mission, but over the past 18 months. In honor of finishing my mission, I'd like to share 18 lessons that I have learned in one way or another from my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ as I have come to know and love them.

So.. here are some lessons in no particular order of importance :) 

1. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God (D&C 18:10). Every soul is equal in His eyes and deserving of His love and mercy. When we can bring any one of His souls unto Him, we can experience joy beyond measure. 

2. God is a God of miracles. Each day we can recognize miracles. Not a day passed by that I did not see God's hand bless us with a small miracle. 

3. The work of God cannot be frustrated. Being a missionary during COVID was definitely difficult at times, but it allowed me to see how the Lord has a plan for His work to HASTEN, especially in these Latter-days.

4. The enabling power of the Atonement is REAL. I have felt it everyday as the Lord gave me the capacity to work, to serve, to love and to obey Him beyond my own innate capacities and weaknesses (Ether 12:27)

5. The redeeming power of His atonement is just as necessary to overcome our sins and mistakes. I felt that power work in the lives of the people I taught and in my own life. 

6. Attitude is everything. An attitude of gratitude can change our lives. Attitude determines altitude. 

7. The gospel is change. It can bring a change in nature and overcoming of the natural man only in and through Jesus Christ.

8. Happiness is a choice. We can choose to let our circumstances and others define how we feel or we can choose to be happy and find constant joy in Christ and the gospel. (Helaman 5:12)

9. Perfect love casteth out all fear. Faith and fear are opposite. (Moroni 8:16)

10. Having faith and being faithful are different. It's easy to have faith when we are seeing blessings, miracles, and results. But on my mission I saw very few results of success in the ways that typical missionaries would measure success. Regardless however, the Lord taught me to be faithful and work hard especially in times where I did not see immediate results or fruits of my labors. It is the effort we put in that matters and changes us, rather than the results we see for our labors. 

11. God has a perfect plan. We are imperfect people but His plan is perfect. 

12. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phillipians 4:13)

13. The character of Christ is real and is what we can become. I saw the character of Christ in many people I got to teach and serve with and learned in exponential ways from each and every single one of my companions. 

14. Communication is key to all our relationships - from our relationship to our Father in Heaven to our relationships with our companions and loved ones. 

15. Commitment is staying true to what you said you would do, even when the mood you set it in has changed. With every new area and new companion and new transfer and new COVID restriction and new mission came different struggles and challenges but I had to show the Lord my commitment was to Him and His gospel and was independent of my circumstances. 

16. Increasing our understanding of the Atonement will increase our desire to share the gospel. 

17. Jesus Christ was the perfect example of doing the will of our Heavenly Father. And we can do whatsover the Lord would ask of us will when we love them more than anything and anyone else. 

18. The Book of Mormon is the greatest conversion tool for those I've taught and has been my greatest conversion tool personally. 

And here's to a lifetime of learning and applying even more things the Lord taught me during these past 18 months! 

Altogether I could not have asked for a better last week in El Monte! I had the amazing miracle of getting to witness Hallie Ortiz's baptism! That girl is so precious and I have been teaching her for almost 6 months and working so hard with her family. Finally her dad decided she was ready and only through the pure tender mercies of the Lord was the work schedule of Hno Ortiz able to allow her to be baptized the Saturday before I left. It was an incredible miracle that was all accredited to the Lord! And the best part was Hno Ortiz got to baptize her!! It has been amazing to see the change in that family over the course of my time here and how much the gospel has truly blessed their lives! 

On my last visit with Blanca and Wilbert they also said they had finally come to the conclusion that they wanted to get baptized in our church. Wilbert actually defended the Book of Mormon to his friends and they testified to us of the blessings they have seen in their marriage and family since they have been reading and praying together!! 

I cannot express my gratitude sufficiently in words for how I feel about my mission and most important my Savior and Heavenly Father and the relationship I have developed with them over the course of this time! 

Yo sé con todo mi corazón que este evangelio es verdadero. Yo sé que el Señor vive y que el es mi Salvador y Redentor. Yo sé que nuestro Padre Celestial nos ama con un amor perfecto y que el tiene un plan perfecto para cada uno de nosotros. Estoy tan agradecida por el tiempo que pude servir los demás y especialmente mi Señor y por la conversión que desarrollé por el evangelio restaurado y por mi señor Jesucristo! 

Thank you especially to all those who have supported me throughout my whole mission - for the emails, encouragement, and support!! Your support made all the difference for me! Love and see you all real soon!! 

Con amor,

Hermana Tate

 

Lol oops sorry there are so many pictures 

I will miss all of these wonderful people sooo much! See ya later California!! 




















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The simple gospel

Image
  Hola amigos!!  Como estan todos?? This week was really really good! We have been working super hard and time has been flying by (I know I know I say that every week, but I promise time keeps getting faster..) I am SO GRATEFUL to be a missionary at this time and honestly do not want it to end! I can honestly say this past year and a half has been the best time of my life filled with the most difficult trials, but also the most rewarding and conversion building experiences. We were able to really focus on Gloria, one of our most progressing friends! I love that lady so much. She is from El Salvador and we got to also begin teaching her grandkids who are sooo cute. We gave them all a church tour on Thursday and ended by showing them the baptismal font and we committed them all to baptism!! The spirit was so strong in the lesson as we testified of the importance of making promises with God and following Jesus Christ's example. Alessandra and Bryan (her grandkids) have very littl...
Read more

Week UNO in the MTC!!!

Image
HOLA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!! I survived my first week in the Mexico CCM!! (CCM stands for Centro de Capitaciones Misional which is Missionary Training Center in Español) Even though the week felt long at times, I have absolutely LOVED being a missionary!! The Spirit is so strong here and I am SOO pumped to learn all the Spanish I can during these 6 weeks!!  So Tuesday, I flew out of Houston straight to Mexico City. Thankfully I met Elder Butterfield on my flight and we went through customs in the Mexico City together. Then we met about 40 other missionaries at the airport, 10 Hermanas and 30 Elders, and took a 30 minute bus ride to the CCM. The ride through Mexico City was super cool but a little scary at times with all the crazy driving!! The city is SO BIG and crowded with so many people!  Once we got to the CCM I found out that my companion was Hermana Hughes! We actually met each other on Instagram before coming here when we found out that we were going to the same missio...
Read more