Hermana Thornton and I go get Chick-fil-A every Monday.

The wifi at the church isn't working today.  But luckily right now (and the next two weeks) we're driving A FREAKING 2017 MALIBU so we are sitting in the Chick-fil-A parking lot with our chicken sandwiches emailing from the wifi in our car.  #spoiled

Gah.  On Saturday, I somehow got roped into teaching Sunday School yesterday.  Basically, the scariest experience of my life!  But, I got an email from Mom saying that she taught Sunday School too.  So that's kind of cool.  :)  

I was so scared because...

1. Spanish 
2. Lots of Spanish in front of lots of people = scary 
3. I don't know how to teach Sunday school! 
4. I literally barely know what's going on when I'm just sitting there with the English manual and the Spanish manual focusing on trying to understand the lesson. 
5. I had one day to prepare. Aka I planned the lesson Sunday morning!

Taco Bell for lunch the day before I taught Gospel Principles the first time.
Hermana Thornton was writing her talk and I was preparing my lesson.
She's holding is a salsa packet and she wrote "te quiero" on it because I was stressing.

But I did it. I taught lesson 11 in the Gospel Principles manual, The Life of Christ.  Here's my lesson.  I hope you'll actually read it and think about the answers to my questions!

I started out by asking the question:  What does the Savior's life mean for us?  

From the He Led A Perfect Life part of the lesson: 

From His youth, Jesus obeyed all that was required of Him by our Heavenly Father.  Under the guidance of Mary and Joseph, Jesus grew much as other children grow.  He loved and obeyed the truth.  Luke tells us, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him” 

By the time He was 12 years old, Jesus had grown in His understanding that He had been sent to do the will of His Father.  He went with His parents to Jerusalem.  When His parents were returning home, they discovered that He was not with their group.  They went back to Jerusalem to look for Him."  After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, and they were hearing him, and asking him questions."  “And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." 

Joseph and Mary were relieved to find Him, but “they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?  Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.”  Jesus answered her, saying, “Wist ye not that I must be about my [Heavenly] Father’s business?”  In order to fulfill His mission, Jesus was to do the will of His Father in Heaven.  “I do nothing of myself,” He declared, “but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things… I do always those things that please him."

We read some scriptures and I talked a little bit about how Christ gave up His will to do the will of the Father's.  I asked the question:  What does it mean to you that Christ gave up his will?  

My answer to that question is that it means that Christ has so much love for us.  The knowledge that we have a loving Savior is so important to me.  I want to show my gratitude and love to Him as well.  (Sorry that's so simple but really I can't say anything in Spanish more complex than that. So... #srynotsry)  And then I said that the Savior has showed us how to love and how to serve by His example.  

From the section, He Taught Us How To Love And Serve One Another:

Jesus spent His life serving others. He cured them of diseases. He made the blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame walk. Once when He was healing the sick, it became late and the people were hungry. Instead of sending them away, He blessed five loaves of bread and two fishes and miraculously was able to feed a multitude of 5,000 people.  He taught that whenever we find people hungry, cold, naked, or lonely, we should help them all we can. When we help others, we are serving the Lord.  Jesus loved others with all His heart. Often His heart was so full of compassion that He wept. He loved little children, the elderly, and the humble, simple people who had faith in Him. He loved those who had sinned, and with great compassion He taught them to repent and be baptized. He taught, “I am the way, the truth, and the life." 

Jesus even loved those who sinned against him and were unrepentant. At the end of His life, as He hung on the cross, He prayed to the Father for the soldiers who had crucified Him, pleading, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.". He taught, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you."

I talked a little about how I love the part where it says, "He loved the little children, the elderly, and the humble, simple people who had faith in Him." Christ loved everyone and served everyone. I asked: What is your favorite story from the life of Christ? And why? My answer is the story of the 10 Lepers. I love that passage because it shows how Christ really does love and serve all types of people. He loved even the lepers, who were cast out of their city.

From the section, He Redeemed Us From Our Sins and Saved Us From Death:

Near the end of His mortal ministry, Jesus prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for all the sins of mankind.  He had been condemned to die because He had testified to the people that He was the Son of God.  The night before His Crucifixion, Jesus went to a garden called Gethsemane.  Soon, He was weighed down by deep sorrow and wept as He prayed.   

Latter-day Apostle Orson F. Whitney was permitted to see the Savior’s suffering in a vision.  Seeing the Savior weep, he said: “I was so moved at the sight that I also wept, out of pure sympathy.  My whole heart went out to Him; I loved Him with all my soul, and longed to be with Him as I longed for nothing else."  Jesus “went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

In a modern revelation the Savior described how great His suffering was, saying it caused Him “to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit."  He suffered “according to the flesh,” taking upon himself our pains, sicknesses, infirmities, and sins.  No mortal person can comprehend just how great this burden was.  No other person could have endured such agony of body and spirit.  “He descended below all things … that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth."

And then I asked the question: What are your feelings towards the Savior?

I know that the Savior loves each and every one of us. My favorite thing to teach is that through Him, we can be healed. We all know that through Him, we can be forgiven from our sins, but a lot of people forget that we can be healed from our pains too. Any time we ever feel alone, afraid, or are hurting, Christ's atonement can save us from that as well. I am so thankful to Him for everything he gave for me and for you. And because missionaries always try to leave with an invitation, I ended my lesson with an invitation.  And if you've read this far, then you've heard my lesson so this challenge applies to you too now. 😉 

The Church has put out a Christmas initiative this year called, Light the World. The Christmas season is a perfect time to remember Christ and show Him our love by serving others. Light the World is a challenge to serve someone each day of December and there's a video for each day as well as ideas on how to serve people. I invite you to serve someone everyday of December to show Christ your gratitude for His sacrifice for you.

ANYWAY, I think you deserve a funny story now: So for thanksgiving we went to the Bowen's and the Rivera's.  Mom, I'm assuming you have pictures from both?  Will you send those to me please?  Anyway, both were really good and I had rainbow jello at the Bowen's, which was so good.  Not as good as Dad's strawberry or raspberry jello though.  That's for sure my favorite.  Mostly because of the strawberries or raspberries in Dad's jello.  But as we were getting ready to leave, Hermana Bowen was like make sure you get pie!  So I was like ok, and I went over to get some pie.  I saw that one of the options was pecan pie.  And I just thought about how Mom loves pecan pie.   I freaking started tearing up!  I was trying so hard to hold it all in and be a normal person, but then Hermana Bowen asked me if I was ok and basically I just started crying!  She gave me a hug and it was really nice.  But I seriously had tears running down my face... because of pecan pie.  I WAS FREAKING CRYING ABOUT PECAN PIE.  I don't think I've ever sunk that low before or could ever in the future.  lol.  And Samantha's probably laughing at me right now and thinking why am I not surprised.  Haha!  I cry about everything!  But I don't really feel homesick that often, just when I see pecan pie.  lol.  

Before the pecan pie incident...

Little Rock Spanish Zone

I played my flute in church yesterday.  Thank you so much for sending it!  <with permission, BTW>  I loved it.  I played in both the English ward and the Spanish branch.  Afterwards, Elder Glass said, "I recorded it for you,  I figured you'd want to hear it.  :)  I thought that was really nice of him.  So I'll send you that, but, btw, I think I played better in the Spanish branch. 😊   (FYI:  There's no video, just sound.)

I love you.  Sorry this is super long.  I hope you laughed at my crying about pecan pie!

Love, Arianna