Transfers! (Oct. 9, 2023)

Hey everybody!!! How have things been?? I miss y'all a ton!!! This week was a crazy one here in Chile, maybe the one of the craziest weeks I've had since getting here! It was a good week, but it was really sad at the same time.

This week was transfers, so my companion Elder Aravena had to go home, as well as Elder Housley who was serving here with us. Those guys are some of my greatest friends I've had in the whole mission! They're awesome guys and we have a ton of fun together! So all week long we were doing stuff to get them ready to go home and we had some fun sleepovers! However, now they're both gone and saying goodbye was pretty hard. It's alright though because that's the mission, that's just how it goes.

My new companion is Elder Ashton, he's from Draper Utah and he has about 3 months left in his mission. He is a very good missionary, he's super christlike and diligent and we have been working great together these last couple days! I'm really excited about the fun and success that we will see here this transfer!

A good little spiritual thought. I've thought lately about how God blesses us, and there are so many blessings daily that he gives to all of us, however at times I feel like we only notice certain ones. We are usually quick to notice the physical blessings, but not usually as much the spiritual ones. One example is paying our tithing, we've all heard stories about the financial miracle after being sure to pay a full tithe, but in many cases a physical blessing like that doesn't occur. So how does the Lord bless of we don't receive any temporal thing that helped us prosper physically? He can bless us with increased faith and testimony, something that has no price and benefits us for eternity. After paying tithing, instead of receiving a raise, you can gain a stronger testimony of the Savior and be drawn closer to him. When we do what the Lord askes, we will feel the spirit, and that Godly power will bring us closer to him. So what I've been doing lately is not only looking for physical blessing and miracles, but also spiritual ones, the miracle that my faith in Jesus Christ can be strengthened every day, and that I can be blessed with the certainty that this is his church! 

I love you guys all so much! I know that our Heavenly Father loves us all perfectly, so perfect that he sent his son for us. I love him for that and I'm forever grateful. 

Elder Micheli