Transfer Time (Mar. 6, 2023)

Hey everyone!! I hope you all had a great week! First of all I wanna give a shoutout to my awesome Grandma Patty and wish her a very happy birthday! I hope you all enjoyed my email last week and could take something away from it. Also feel free to respond to my emails if you have questions about the mission or just anything you want to know from me, let me know and I'm more than happy to share it all with you guys, it's just kinda hard to get all in here in the big group emails. 

So I'll get to the news for ya now. My time here in Chimbarongo has come to an end. I've served here for a little over 4 months now and I will never forget this incredible time of my life. I will forever be grateful for the great members here, the people I have been able to teach, and my 2 great companions. It's been pretty hard saying goodbye to these people that I love so much with a very legit chance that I will never see them again, it's pretty tough. With all of the great that's here, it is time for something new, and I have been called to serve in a new small town. 

Chimbarongo has been great for me because I'm a small town kid and can relate more with the people here, well my new area is another town a whole lot smaller than Chimbarongo. I'm going to a little place close to here called Chepica. The current situation in Chepica, because it is so small, there is no branch or anything, and the goal is to get priesthood and open a branch there. We are going to be attending church in Santa Cruz which is a 30 minute drive. I am so excited for the challenge! I'm not positive, but I am pretty sure this is the only area in the mission without a ward or branch, so I'll sure be getting into a pretty unique work there. I'm honestly just so excited.

I'm super excited about the work, but more than anything getting the news for my companion is what really got me. I'm not sure how well you all have been following my mission or remember who my companions have been, but my new companion in Chepica is going to be Elder Wendel. Yes, the same Elder Wendel that was my companion in the MTC, the same one that's like six foot twelve! Yeah, I'm a little excited to get to work with my man! Like I said, we're going to be attending church in Santa Cruz so the missionaries there are in the district with us, and Elder Holman will be our ZL in Santa Cruz, so I'll be seeing him and working with him a lot again! It's super crazy and I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I'm just ready to get on over there tomorrow and get straight to work!

I had a great message in mind for today in my email and when I went to read Elder Holman's email he was right on the same page as me haha. The importance of having Charity. Ether 12:33-34 says,"33 And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast ^aloved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men.34 And now I know that this ^alove which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father." Charity is the true love of Christ, because he has this charity for each of us, he was willing to suffer and lay down his life for us, the scriptures constantly say we must have charity to return to our Father in Heaven. The first commandment is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Mat. 22:37-39). I know we're imperfect, but this is the first and grand commandment, and I know that by putting our efforts into fulfilling this commandment for truly loving God and putting him first and then each and every son and daughter of him, we will be blessed.

I know this has been pretty long, but I really just hope that you all know how important this gospel truly is, and the truth is I really just want to share it with everyone because it changes lives!! I promise that if you can learn and apply the principles of the gospel that you will be infinitely blessed. I'm so grateful that I have the chance to serve a mission and to do it here in this beautiful country! I love Chile and I love serving the Lord! 

Elder Micheli