Email 1/7/13

Hello everyone, Wow this week seemed to partially crawl by. I think it’s just because It is just getting hot and hot and hot. Sometimes people tell me that when I am going to go home that I am going to have to go through 2 summers. I just tell them not really because It’s so hot here in comparison to where I will be that it will be pretty much like winter hahaha

This last week was a little tough for me. Really the last few weeks I just have been exhausted from how much we are trying to get things going in the zone and in the ward here. It really has just taken it out of me. This last week I came down with a super super super huge migraine and fever. We needed to keep working and animating the missionaries. It was very very hard for me to seem happy and loving when my brain felt like it was going to explode. There were a few things that I was able to learn this last week. Really being happy is a choice, but that doesn´t mean you have to rely on yourself to be the source of happiness. If I try giving all my happiness to other people I will run out. I have to help people to go to the source of happiness and light which is God. It doesn´t mean that I am throwing people fishes all the time instead of teaching them how to fish, but hey who doesn´t like a free fish once in a while hahaha.

Also this last week I realized that thinking about things other than the mission don´t make my problems go away. When my head would start to pound and I would feel terrible, I would think of all the cool music that I´m gonna write when I get back thinking that would get rid of my pain and send my head somewhere else. FALSE. Being focused on the moment and completing with what the Lord has commanded me to do is the most important thing. I also learned one other lesson this week. The difference between suffering and being happy is always a choice. I don´t really buy much into the whole.. ¨ The Secret¨ and how the whole world revolves around me but I have come to realize one thing. Its not all about just being able to ¨Grin, and bear it.¨ I changed that phrase when I became a leader with Elder Martinez. Its called ¨Grin, and change it.¨ we don´t need to suffer things that we can change. We need to make a positive decision and go out with a smile and get things done. I always tell the missionaries not be scared when it comes to making decisions. I have learned that confidence can always be a good way of living life. I have also learned that the Atonement is real. Ya maybe I didn´t make the greatest decision, but I can change and I will. I will always try to be the best I can be and with the Atonement of Christ I can be. Step by step, decision by decision.

Really I just love being here in the mission. Despite how tired I am and how much I suffer sometimes, I truly do love it. Not for the ability to tell people that I did those things or that I know it could be worse, it’s because I love my Savior. Helping someone repent helps me remember what the Lord has done for me. That He hears my prayers and that He loves me. I hope that you all can look forward this year with that sort of faith. That it doesn´t matter what we do, we just need to be good boys and girls, honor our covenants, and repent and in the end everything will work out how it should. I love you all and hope you have a super fantastic week.

Rohaihu paraguay ha che familia
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Elder Beatty