Hola de Perú! =)

Dear Family and friends,

Every time that I start to write a letter I am bombarded with a billion thoughts that I havent yet organized in my brain in order to put them into words.

Maybe it is better to just write a summary of the things I am learning.

Faith is not saying that you can do what ever you want and you know that God will save you. It is having the courage to do what is right and then you have hope in his promise that when you come unto Christ and do his will, you will have eternal life.

There was a less active member who we have been working with. He is a return missionary and hasnt been to church in 3 years. Amidst the turmoil and problems with the ward and investigators, there we both were in sacrament meeting. When he came in and sat down I could have cried with happiness. He had sent us a text message the night before saying that he couldnt come to church because his boss called him into work on Sunday. We werent expecting him to come, and he came anyway (even though he was scheduled to work,) in his white shirt and tie. He stayed all three hours. Im not sure what the consequence will be with his boss and his job, but I know that he has much greater things to hope for now, because the blessings he will receive from God are eternal.

On the reverse end, there is a less active family we are working with who sells beer and refuses to come to church when they are called in to work on sunday because they say they need the money. There is a huge difference between the person who chooses to have faith and the one who doesnt. Their little girl came to church all by herself and shocked us all when she just dropped by in the middle of sacrament meeting. After church two of her primary leaders walked her back home. These are the kind of people that receive blessings eternal. One day everything will fade away. Everything material and we will only be left with who we are as people.

The sad thing is that people really dont realize sometimes that this is a choice. We are here with our agency. We do have a choice. We can choose to have faith or we can choose to falter.

For those of you who are members, I pray that you will have faith to share the joyous message of Jesus Christ with your friends, and exercise your faith to see the results. Every day Im learning more about this and trying to change to be worthy of the blessings and love that God offers us.

May God bless you all,

Hermana Bendixen