9/8/2014 Email!

From: Camille Weller [mailto:camille.weller@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2014 9:25 AM
To: Melissa Wheatley;

Subject: Can ye feel so now?

 So this week was pretty eventful and fun, thats probably why it went by so fast! "time flies when your having fun" (: Monday and Tuesday we had a leadership council with all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders in the mission, we played soccer with everyone on p day and man have i gotten rusty.. haha but it was still a lot of fun! We had a BBQ at the mission home and then that night all of the office secretaries talked to us about stuff that we need to do better and change in the mission. Tuesday we were in the conference all day and i absolutely loved it! we talked about the atonement and how to teach it better to the people here in peru. we´ve been very blessed to come to a country where most people believe in God and Jesus Christ and have a religious background. one of our jobs is to help them understand the atonement and that it is more than just Christ dying on the cross.. it also includes His suffering in the garden of getsemene, the journey to the cross, and the resurection, and to also help them realize the depth of what that means for them personally in their lives. That through the atonement we can be forgiven for all of our sins, we can receive strength to get through trials and sicknesses, that we can know that no mater what we are going through there is someone who understands us perfectly. Later on we talked about change... specifically about the change of heart that each of us need to have and also the change of heart that we need to see in our investigators for them to be able to be baptized. I had told President a little bit about my story of coming back to church when we went to tacna and during the conference he asked me to share the story of my "change of heart" .. as i shared it i felt so greatful for that experience and for where i am today. I wondered what made that day in Lake Havasu different? why was it that morning that i woke up and decided to change? Throughout the week i studied and found something that i really like... its all in Alma 5... 7 Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, they were encircled about by the bands of death, and the chains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await them. God is the one who changes our hearts...

12 And according to his faith there was a mighty change wrought in his heart. And it is through our faithfullness that we are able to make that change... i beleive that it wasnt me who decided to change that day.. but my heavenly father who knew that at that moment, i would be able to do it. 13 And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers, and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved. After we ourselves experience this change, we have the desire to go out and help others to do the same. Which is one of the main reasons that i wanted to come on a mission. 

last one.. 

 14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?

26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the songof redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

i expecially like verse 26 and plan on asking myself that question frequently throughout my life... can i still feel that change of heart now?

On thursday me and my companion and the zone leaders taught our zone what we had learned at the conference, one of my favorite parts was a movie clip we showed of a talk by Jeffrey R Holland called "the first great commandment" and i loved it. I attatched it so you can all go and read it (: But it talks about when Christ asks peter "do you love me?" and then follows with "feed my sheep" he talks about how after the Lord leaves the earth, the apostles go back to fishing.. then Christ returns and asks why they are fishing and reminds them of their calling and duty as apostles.. I feel like when i was called to serve the Lord in His work of salvation, it was not just for 18 months.. it was for eternity. That in a couple weeks when i have to take off my name tag and am no longer an official representative of Jesus Christ, that doesn´t mean that i will go back to my former life.. just as the apostles, i can not go back to just fishing after walking side by side with the Savior.. i must keep working to help bring more of Gods children unto their Savior Jesus Christ.. i must continue to "feed his sheep" and prove the love that i have for Him.

The rest of the week was filled with unforgetable memories.. i had the oportunity to go on divisions with one of the sisters in graficos for a day and to go visit some of my converts. i was filled with so much joy to see them and see the progress they  had made over the past six months since i had been there.  One of them is about a month away from having her baby and is happier and more filled with light then i could have imagined. She did a 180 in her life and i feel so blessed to have been a part of the start of that change. It was cool to also be with another sister from the mission and work with her. I did my best to help her, although i think i learned more that day from her than she did from me. haha

Friday after we ended divisions we had an activity with the Relief Society  and made brownies, it was cool because one of our investigators, Carmen, came and got to make some new friends. plus the brownies were delicious (: Saturday we did a service project with the whole zone and helped move about 3,000 bricks off of a truck and into their back yard.. it was fun to work together and to be able to give service together as a zone... plus it was a pretty good workout.. from which we are still sore. haha Sunday was a great day. It was the last fast sunday i will have in the mission and the last sunday before my mom comes here to peru (: i got to share my testimony with the ward and we also got to see some miracles in our ward that were in line with what we fasted for this week. 

I loved this past week.. it was probably one of my favorites. I am so excited to see my mom in 4 days and for her to get to see peru and meet all of these wonderful people! It also breaks my heart to think about leaving this country and not being a full time missionary anymore.. but i know that endings in this life.. however sad they may be, are always beautiful beginings, and i look forward to what the Lord has in store for me. I hope to be able to complete all that the Lord needs me to in these last weeks and to be able to enjoy every lst moment that i have with these amazing people <3 I will write one more time next week and then i will see you all at home! (:

Con mucho amor y respeto,

Hermana Weller