Sister Michelle Christine North: Interminable Felicidad

One of the scriptures that I found myself sharing a lot this week was in Mosiah 2:41, “And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it”. I have a lot of favorite parts in this scripture, but the part that I love the most is where it talks about “never-ending happiness.” Here we are all given a PROMISE from King Benjamin that if we keep Gods commandments, that we will be Happy; in every aspect of our lives, even temporal as spiritual. And that our happiness will be never-ending-as in forever. Something that sparked a little light in my head, after thinking about that word “never-ending,” was that the happiness that we receive from being obedient not only will/does affect us, the righteous individual, but it affects our generations! Hence the use of the word never-ending. The happiness that we obtain does not just come to us and end…but it last forever and never ends. I have a first hand experience with this from my own life, just incase it still doesn’t make sense ;): Once upon a time, a long time ago, my abuelito, Angel Chico, was drunk in the streets of Mexico. He ran into the missionaries and invited them over to his house…long story short, he began to listen to them and changed his bad habits into good habits. He followed the example of Jesus Christ and was baptized by someone who had the authority of God- the priesthood. Then he lived righteously; shared his testimony with his family and through his example his children followed Christ’s example and were baptized. Lucky for me one of his children was my mom. Because my mom continued to follow Jesus Christ in his life, I was able to be baptized too; now serve a mission and share a message with people, that brings that FOREVER kind of a happiness. So for the obedience to Gods commandments that one faithful person practices in their life, comes never ending happiness, forever, to the lives of all those they and their generations touch. That’s a lot of happiness! And all from a simple act of obedience to our Heavenly Father’s commandments. So what small commandments are you keeping today to bring that never ending happiness into your life? Into the life of your generations? In the lives that your generations will touch? Etc- think about it. Like we learn in the musical Wicked, “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished,” but there are also things that you and I can do better to live more righteously. I invite you guys (just roll with this one, I’m a missionary now) to reflect on your own life experience- where has our happiness come from? And how can you make sure that your happiness remains never ending

This week we met the most awesome investigators, from Venezuela, Jexis and Rodolfo. I am super obsessed with their accents (similar to a Colombian accent) and they are the cutest and SO IN LOVE because they just got married in October. They are so receptive to the message because the have been feeling the Spirit that it brings. It surprised both Hermana Reyes and me to hear Rodolfo’s experience with the Book of Mormon. He told us that he is already in Jacob (it’s been one week) and that he feels so at peace when he reads the book. He even uses the cross references at the bottom, that his wife helps him find in the Bible- they are a perfect team.

As for the Vera family, they are progressing still. It has been hard to find them all together because of work schedules, but on Sunday Brayan came to church with us- he had an amazing experience! He told us that he is going to borrow an Hermano’s tie on Tuesday to go to a fireside with the young men. He also told us that some time in the week he is going to go out with them to visit less actives! What? He kept on asking Hermana and I questions about our missions, like, “What was your first day as a missionary like?” etc. I loved it! I asked him why he wanted to serve a mission so bad and he said, “Because I like it, and plus, I like to walk.” Ha ha. I guess that reason will do for now.

Take care this week and thanks for sending me all of your love! It means so much to me.

picture 1: Home made torta! hermana is a pro at making beautiful cakes