Temple Baptisms, Developing on Linux, Thanksgiving, & Depending on Christ

This week was pretty awesome for me! I got to go to the temple and help some converts do baptisms for the dead, which was an awesome experience! I got to be part of the confirming process, and it was just beautiful. One of the converts said that every time she went under the water, she felt like she could hear "gracias." It was such a wonderful process!

Then, I was sitting at my desk on Thursday, and President told me he wanted to meet with me. He has implemented this system to get our key indicators daily through a texting poll. So, he told me he wants me to be in charge of that whole system! The web portal, the database connections, the SMS Gateway connections, all of it! I'm super excited!! He said I can develop it all on Linux, and I have a meeting with the guy who is currently in charge of it on Monday, and it's all amazing!

Also on Thursday we had Thanksgiving! Our pensionista is the best!! They made us think they were moving, so we had to come early, and when we walked in, there was a banquet of food on the table! They had turkey, chicken, masamora morada, sweet potatoes, some really good rice dish, russian salad, chicha morada, and it was all amazing! But when my companion saw it, he started crying. A lot. He had gone to an orphanage that day to coordinate some of the activities that we are planning for the mission, and when he saw all that food, he could only think of these kids that had been mistreated in terrible ways, and that they had never had and still wouldn't have a dinner like this. It was a very sobering reminder. 

I am so grateful for everything that you guys have given me! All the food, shelter, opportunities for learning, the experiences we've shared, and the wonderful relationships I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy. I am also immensely grateful to God for everything He does. He blesses my life every day, and I can feel his spirit so strongly during my mission, I know He lives. I know He loves me, and loves all of you. It's an incredible knowledge that only comes through the spirit. He really can help us in everything. I'm so eternally grateful that He loves us in spite of all our mistakes and flaws, and is always willing to help us in every moment. It's absolutely incredible!!

I was studying the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi in my personal study, and I found some scriptures that are just incredible!! I know that sometimes we can't do what God asks, that we're just not good enough, and one of the things I have noticed as a theme is that God promises that we can, if we depend on him. 2 Nephi 7:2-3 is such a poignant reflection of this, because Isaiah is speaking Messianically, and you can really hear the voice of Christ, how he feels when we don't depend on him:

2 Wherefore, when I came, there was no man; when I called, yea, there was none to answer. O house of Israel, is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem, or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make their rivers a wilderness and their fish to stink because the waters are dried up, and they die because of thirst.

3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

How powerless He must feel sometimes, as He comes, and nobody lets him in, calls, and nobody answers. He, who dried up seas and rivers, that has complete control over, even created the heavens, who delivered the Israelites from Egypt, cannot do anything if we reject him. He can make us everything, He can fill our lives with happiness and peace, and He is the only way we can have happiness after this life. And yet we reject him. It's something that is incredible, sad, and true. But that is the story of this life, to learn how to accept Him in our lives, and apply His atonement. I know that as we develop faith in Jesus Christ, repent daily of our transgressions, and make and honor covenants with God, first among them baptism, that we will be able to stand on the right hand of God at the last day, and be filled with a fullness of His glory and joy. It is so amazing!

I love you all!

--Dallin

P.S. I can't use Google hangouts now, by order of the area, so I will only be communicating by email from now on!