Let´s choose to be grateful

Another week that literally flew by! This week was a little tough..we have lots of people to teach but no one will keep their comittments or come to church! Easy sometimes to find new investigadors, hard to have progresssing investigadors and prepare them for baptism, but none the less, it was a good week and I´m grateful we´ve got work to do every single day. 

Something that´s really been on my mind this week is not one of our investigadors, but rather, our ward mission leader (side note: my investigadors are ALWAYS on my mind) Anyway, he is a 60 yr. old man, Hermano Alvarado. He is the BEST. He´s so happy. He´s so outgoing, so energetic, just high on life. He talks to everyone in the street about the gospel, and takes a list to the mission office every week with referalls. He comes to lessons with us usually 3-4 times/week (if not more) The gospel is EVERYTHING for him, and it shows. What I didn´t know about him until just recently is his circumstances. He owns a small business from his house, selling cookies. His wife and him are seperated. He doesn´t have much money for food and looks skinnier everytime I see him. His meager home consists of a refrigerator, an oven, and a hammock. Selling his cookies is just enough to get him by day by day. 

I think of the conference talk, "Grateful in any circumstances" by President Uchtdorf. He says "Instead of being grateful for things, [I suggest] we focus on being grateful in our circumstances- whatever they may be." As I try and be grateful in my circumstances as a full-time missionary, I realize that just like President Uchtdorf says earlier in the talk, we must make gratitude a way of live.  "Could I suggest that we see gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that stands independent of our current situation?" 

I can´t just be grateful on the good days! The people here are so wonderful and grateful for the simple, happy lives they live. They aren´t grateful for things, because they don´t have much. But they´re grateful for each new day, for the Gospel, and for their families. I´m learning how to live without things and still be grateful and happy. It´s possible :) 

I love you all and hope you´ll join with me in trying to make gratitude more of a way of life every day :) 

P.S. The picture I attached this week is me buying water! Everyone worries and reminds me not to drink the water, and don´t you even worry! I don´t! We pay 10 pesos (less than a dollar!) and fill up our big jug with purified water across the street, and after that we still have to use a water bottle with a filter that we received in the mission. It was definitely new at first, to have to lug a big culligan jug just to go get drinking water, but you adjust quickly and learn that that´s just what we do here! Love ittttt. 

Hasta Luego!

Hna. Maki