Week 12: Read this One to the End

 

If you have asked to receive my emails, and are going to read anything at all while I am here in Chile, please read this one to the end. 

 

HOLA FRIENDS AND FAMILY--

I am happy and healthy and doing so well here in Chile. 

This week was so fun. I learned and did a lot. We attended a Stake activity where each ward performed a dance from a specific region here and Chile. It was amazing. I love the culture here and the people even more. And I adore this ward, the members here. It is crazy how much my love grows for the people every single day. 

 

 

This morning we, as a zone, learned to dance the Cueca. It is fun and we had a blast. I am excited because next Monday is the 18th of September, which happens to be the day of independence for Chile. And I think it is even bigger than our 4th of July. I am excited to see the dancing, the dresses, the food, the people. The flags are everywhere and it's so cool. The music is so fun and upbeat and everyone is happy.

 

Ya´ll should look of Philipians chapter 3 verse 2 and laugh with me. I carry rocks in my pocket all the time. 

My thoughts this week: 

So I read this book. It is one of my favorites. It is full of adventure and action and love and redemption and everything, so many cool stories. It is full of people of different types--the good, the bad, the people we can relate with and people our hearts can ache for, or whose actions or thoughts we can ponder on. This book is a literary feat unlike any other. It is full of complex and extensive literary devices and is beautifully written. And it would be a crime not to mention that there are words of widsom, little gems, hidden on every single page. Any question you have, any concern, can be answered through reading this book. You want to better your relationship with someone, spouse, brother, sister, child, friend, this book can help with that. You want to learn a language? Heck, read this book. I am reading it in Spanish and I know its one of the big reasons I am not struggling with the language. My Latina companion is reading it in english and she is learning English very fast (in CHILE!) I never get tired of reading it, and its hard for me to find a book like that. This book is fantastic. It is ¨teeming with literary and Semitic complexity¨yet is simple and easy to understand. But it is more than adventure or cool stories. It is more than a literary masterpiece, it is more than beautiful poetic words, more than marriage or parenting advice. It is more than merely a book. 

Fun Fact: 

¨For (187) years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted, and have died- from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spalding, to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book have ever withstood examination.¨

This book is The Book of Mormon. Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It is the word of God given for us in this day. I have read this book. I know that it is true, every word of it. Every single one of us is capable of knowing if we will but read it. Perhaps you can imagine how incredibly frustrating it is when we put the answers, the key to it all, in the hands of the people and they won't read. 

If you are foolish enough to think Joseph Smith (murdered prophet and humble young man with almost no education) wrote this set of scripture, if you are foolish enough to think this book of pure goodness and pure testimony of our Savior, is of the devil, if you are foolish enough to think I would give up 18 months of my life, my time, my family, my educaion, to teach people about a book I didn't know was true, I don't know what to tell you. It is true. 

Shifting gears a bit. The Bible is the word of God too. The Bibe is amazing. It is important. I'm currently rereading it, almost finished with the New Testament. However, to say the BIble is perfect, or that it is, no more from God, is ignorant. The Bible itself references many, many other books that are missing. The text has been changed, altered, with time and people. If you know your history, you know that it was sewn and stitched together to fit the needs of certain people. The Bible, as far as it is translated correctly, is the word of God. I love the Bible, and I love the Book of Mormon. 

The Book of Mormon is for us. It is meant for our days. It ¨was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful¨. Our Heavenly Father, our God, loves us. His love, His words, His guidance has not ceased. How are the people of old who needed prophets and scripture any different than us? Does God love them more? No. God is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. 

I know God loves us. I know He is our Heavenly Father and I know He hasn't left us to ourselves in this crazy world. I know the Book of Mormon is true. It is true or it is not and we can ask God. He answers our prayers, he isn't silent. He is waiting for us to do our part and to ask. I have read this book and I have prayed about it. I know if you will but read it, your life will change and you will know too. 

I want to echo the words again of Elder Holland: ¨I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world...That the Book of Mormon is true.¨

I want to challenge you all, member and non-member alike, to read the Book of Mormon. If you have a phone in your pocket (or in your hand-haha) you can read it. I promise you if you read it you will be happier, you will be closer to God, you will know there is a God. It will change you. I say these things and ask these things because I have so much love for each and every one of you. I say these things because I know they are true. I am here in Chile because I know it is true. 

I love you all, from the bottom of my heart. Friends and family. I wanted to share this joy, these truths with you all this week. 

Have a fantastic and blessed week. 

Con amor,

Hermana Eibert