But!
As I sort of mentioned last week, we went to the zoo! It was super cool because they were pure animals here in Chiapas (I guess if we had one of those in Utah, it'd be like... Buffalo! Squirrels!) But here we had tucans, jaguars, parrots, ant-eaters, crocodiles, and the whole thing was a jungly forest. There were monkeys swinging in the trees above. FINALLY!
After, we went and played in the park with all the missionaries. I surprised myself by jumping up when someone said let's go play soccer, and then surprised myself 4 or 5 more times as I went for it and actually really loved it. I could have been a soccer player! But I wasn't so it went past my foot every time. And what was more we were on a huge field with professional elders. But the point is it was super fun and hot and felt good to run.
I didn’t think these existed anymore...
Then we headed to the stake center for lunch, where I volunteered to run back and forth between the kitchen and gym carrying tortillas for half an hour. It was super fun because I also got to interact with everyone and see a bunch of old companions and elders. Next part was the part we'd all been waiting for! Because MEET THE MORMONS is arriving in Mexico this month and we got to all watch it before it came out right then and there! This also turned out to be the moment when my companion decided to start vomiting. The moment she stopped happened to be an hour and a half later when the movie ended. So, we missed that. Bummer! The doctor missed it too as he ran home with his wife to bring a shot, and President drove us home. Luckily, our mission president is nice and said we could go to his house today to watch it, so we're heading over there in an hour. Woohoo!
I would now like to proceed with a quote by Randy Disher from Monk which kind of sums up my studies and thoughts this week: "Happiness is a choice." Happiness is something available to us in every moment of this life as well as the eternities, but it's something we reject in a lot of different ways. But, to "choose" happiness, we need to do two things: First, choose the things that lead to happiness. AKA, obedience, following the commandments, following Christ's examples. We can't choose to do whatever we want, and also choose happiness. We have to choose to give up our will and DO the things that will lead us to happiness.
Second, once we're doing those things, we have to choose to be happy! I believe it's possible to do everything right and be completely miserable because it all depends on what we are seeing! So many times we are not letting ourselves be happy for the things we are doing right, because we focus on the things we aren't perfect at, or the things that don't go according to plan, when we should accept our weaknesses and the imperfect world we are in and remember we are doing all we can to follow the Savior! That's when gratitude, hope and trust need to step in and we can look up to the heavens, smile big and enjoy where we are, knowing His plan hasn't changed and if we continue trying we'll get to be with Him. FOREVER. This is huge!
So I would maybe change that quote a little, and say that Happiness is a Gift. May we all choose to ACCEPT it, as we place the Savior in an even more central part of our lives every day, and then be ridiculously grateful.
I'm ridiculously grateful for all of you! Have a fantastic week!
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