Libre Soy

Pues, another week (or 2 weeks) in paradise and I gotta say life is going pretty great. We even had a mini Turkey bowl/ pickup football game last Thursday with all the missionaries to celebrate Thanksgiving so it was a cool experience. Things are going really well here in Usulutan, never thought I'd learn to be a wedding planner when I left for the mission but we got some good stuff in the works so we will keep you all posted. Other than that, this week has really just been a spiritual roller coaster. This week, some friends of ours who were going to come to visit the church for the first time had their house get robbed Saturday night, some got sick, and really just everything hit all at once. But when Sunday morning came around, even thought there was a bunch of inconveniences, there they were at church with us. Which has really made me think about the way we take what life gives us. Being a Spanish stuttering, 2 left footed, young, gringo missionary here in a country that has a culture unlike anything I'd ever known before, food I'd never even heard of, and incredible people that have just blown me away, has really showed me just how little control I seem to have over what comes my way. But 3 families here in Usulutan have shown me otherwise. One of my favorite sayings is, "No puede cambiar los circunstancias en cuales se encuentre, pero si se puede cambiar su actitud," And these 3 families have shown me that. 

These families barely have enough to make ends meet and to go to church is a huge sacrifice. Bus fares and time away from the field means food that won't be on the table. But these people, in the faith that they have, CHOOSE to make these sacrifices. Maybe life is throwing some curve balls and maybe it looks impossible to keep going, but 1 Nefi 17:3 (And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and ^astrengthenthem, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did ^bprovide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness). We can always choose to keep going, to do the right thing, to change, to sacrifice. We HAVE to choose that. I am so grateful that God put me here and now in El Salvador because it really let me know just how important it is to CHOOSE the right. Every moment is a choice, and every choice has a right option. We aren't always going to get dealt the hand we want, and sometimes (as I have learned here) we mess up. We make a wrong choice. But there is always going to be another choice to make. Another shot to get back on the path, and that to me shows just how much God loves us.

Hope everything is going well, have a great week

SALUUU

Elder Moulton