Dia de Independencia!!

Hello!

Okay so this week was nuts! It was Dia de Independencia here! The holiday was the 18th but people started partying on the 16th and stopped today on the 20^th! Haha! That is why I have p-day today! Nothing was open yesterday because it was the day after the holiday! That didn’t make sense to me but it was cool. Sunday and Monday we returned to our houses at 7pm because a lot of people get really drunk and they didn’t want us to be in any bad situations or anything. But the holiday was great! Members hooked us up with food! I sent a lot of photos this week. Sorry I don’t have time to explain them ;) 

I tend to finish showering and getting ready in the morning at around 7:35am, so I have till 8 to do whatever. I like to write to friends and family during that time. Other than that, I really don't have any extra time but it's all good!;) I still LOVE getting letters!

We can only receive packages every 2 weeks at our district and zone meetings so I should get the last one you sent next week. I hung up the piñata you sent for my birthday but didn't take any swings, I like it as a decoration! :) 

I’m happy to hear that my experiences have positive effects on your life and hopefully other people's back there because I don't feel like I contribute a whole lot yet here. It’s getting better though! This week I started to understand the words that people say, I don't know what those words mean because I can’t translate quickly enough, but at least now I know that they really are speaking Spanish! Haha! 

I read in Alma 43 and 44 this week. I tried to think of ways to apply it to our lives today. To me, our armor is the Lord, the commandments, the atonement, and our knowledge. The commandments help us keep away from bad situations. They help us stay in a healthy mindset. The atonement assures us that we will be okay (like when wounded in war). Any time we have hard times or need help, we can have that help through the atonement! Then our knowledge is also our armor. We know that Jesus Christ lives! We know that if we live righteously, we can be together in heaven! I guess knowledge can also kind of go with “reasons for fighting” or reasons to live the way we do!:). We know that there is much more than this life. We also know that our eternal happiness depends on our actions here. We want to be able to enter into the celestial Kingdom when that day comes. We know that as we live righteously, we will have blessings from on high! Blessings that we can't even comprehend. That alone is a good enough blessing to want to always try our best. We have our family to fight for. That is probably the biggest reason for me. I want to do all I can to be with you guys for ever and ever! But just like in Alma, the wars (or our lives) are difficult. Our "spies" or guidance in life are through prayer, scriptures, and modern day prophets. We can receive revelation through the Holy Ghost to help us in all sorts of situations. Then every general conference we are given knowledge on how to live in this day and age. The Lord warns us of things through the prophet and his apostles. I don't know about you, but that is some serious spy work to me! :) But yeah, like in Alma 43:21, we need to make Satan afraid of us by doing our best and immediately repenting when we mess up. We aren't perfect, no one is! So never feel bad about needing to use the atonement! Then like in 43:48, it will be hard at times. I know you have had hard times, but remember your end goal and what you can still fight for! In 43:51, we might be outnumbered at times, but that doesn't change anything. We have the Lord's help especially when we are living worthily. In 43:54, we also need to have the forgiveness of Moroni. He could have easily justified killing them twice! But he didn't! There will be many times people will hurt us maybe knowingly or unknowingly, but we need to try and have charity. It's so hard. I am still struggling with that here. But I know that it is very important. Haha. Sorry that was longer than I anticipated but hopefully it makes a little sense:).

Well, another weird thing here is that all my clothes are getting too big. I have lost a lot of weight and muscle! It's really weird. I might have to tailor some of my pants here if it gets any worse. We get done planning around 9:30-9:40 and 4 days this week went till 10 or later! That's hard because I don't have time to shower and wash my face and stuff, oh or eat dinner!

Okay so for the last thing. I have a challenge for all that want to accept haha! I started reading the Book of Mormon and Libro de Mormon. Every morning I read 3-4 chapters of The Book of Mormon during personal study and throughout the day I read the same 3-4 chapters in the Libro de Mormon. So I am going to read The Book of Mormon from start to finish in 2 languages! About 3 chapters a day and if you or anyone else wants to join me that would be awesome! :) It takes you guys half the time it takes me to read it in Spanish so I know you can do it! It will take like 2 months but it will be worth it! 

Well that’s all today. Hope all is well!

Love Elder Walz