One Love

Dawn Patrol Matagalpa

First week here on the swell search with Elder Hobbs. Shark tank is back. We are shredding it out here. We are gonna have a dope time together. Elder Ferrin headed off to Esteli and is doing well. Gonna miss that guy. 

This week Derling Aguilar took a little swim. We hooked it up for Sunday and he and is 2 recent convert member buddies all showed up with some new white shirts and ties and took the Freddie Clemons seat right in the splash zone. The are all so sweet. 

I am really feelin the pressure with this stake buisness here in Matagalpa. I feel like i am back in the office again a little bit with all the office-paper work stuff we have to do as we try to re organize branches and re distribute the members so that we meet qualifications. On top of that we got some serious goals baptism and assistance wise. All that has gotta be lookin good for the end of March. 

I know i say this every week but i love Nicaragua. This place has changed me. And i love this change. 

I have learned more about my Savior and his love in this short time than i had throughout the course of my entire life. As i have learned to take a step back and genuinely try to understand and appreciate his role in life, i have been able to see so many changes in my life and in the lives of others. I think about myself less. And try to recognize Him more. His love is singular. There is nothing matched or similar. There is one love. It heals all wounds. It is the source of true happiness.   

Making an effort to recognize it has made all the difference. I see it right now as i watch our teenage recent convert try to provide for his family of 8, hauling bags of sand for 9 hours a day. I feel it every Sunday when we go out to the jungle and take the sacrament under a tin roof and on a dirt floor and hear the rats and chickens run around under our seats. I felt it purely as we tried to teach a young teenage girl who is carrying a child resulting from abuse, how this love can heal everything. 

My father is an example of this love. I see in him more attributes of my Savior Jesus Christ than in any other person. He has learned to forget himself and bring that love into the lives of so many others. I remember being a sophomore in high school and thinking how much i hated that my father was always gone because of his calling and service in church and that other people took time away from his own family. I had to travel thousands of miles to understand all of that. 

One man's words here in Matagalpa changed my life. "I am poor. I dont have many things. I have my family. And I have the love of Christ in my heart and that is all that matters."

Another man said it like this: 

One love

One blood

One life

You got to do what you should

One life

With each other

Sisters

Brothers

One life

But we're not the same

We get to 

Carry each other

Carry each other

One...life

One

28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

2 By whom also we have access by faith into this gracewherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

 6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

His love is everything. It has changed my life. It will change yours. One love. 

Love you guys. stay sleezy.