Luz Gets Baptized

¡Hola mi familia y mis queridos amigazos!  Hace mucho que no les escribo más en español, y quisiera hacerlo hoy :).  ¡Disfruten el trabajo de traducir!  Quizás puedan llamar a Cristina para que traduzca esto.  Estoy muy bien aquí con mi nuevo compañero.  El es rre-bueno, tiene mucho ánimo y muchos deseos de servirle al Señor.  Estoy leyendo el Libro de Mormón en Guaraní.  Puedo entender la mayoría de lo que leo, pero me es muy difícil hablar todavía.  Esta semana voy a mandar por un libro que enseña Guaraní y estudiar eso hasta el final de mi misión.  6 meses es bastante para aprender mucho Guaraní.  Vamos a ver qué pasa.

Ok, that´s enough of Spanish.  You´ll have plenty of translating to do with that paragraph :).  First news is first: we had the baptism on Saturday!  I´ll attach pictures that Elder Beckett took from his camera.  That little girl is the sweetest little girl I´ve ever seen.  Her family is so incredible as well; I´ve really come to love them.  Her little sister Asir didn´t get baptized yet, but Luz told me that after the baptism Asir said "I wanted to get baptized with you." haha.  She regretted not doing it.  We´ll see if we can set something up for her in the next coming week.  She already has her interview, she could get baptized tomorrow if she wanted to.  Also, one of the friends of Luz´s family came to the baptism.  Her name is Chila.  She had talked with missionaries before, but

stopped because her dad kicked them out haha.  Elder Yañez was talking to her after the baptism and gave her a Book of Mormon.  Yesterday I asked Luz´s mom where Chila lived, and she told me that Chila had asked her to call her when we are at their house so she can come over and talk with us.  Cool, huh?  She is really great, I´m sure she´ll get baptized next month.  We´ll see what happens in the appointment tomorrow.

Ok, because it took some time attaching photos, I´ll get right on with the next part of the Plan of Salvation.  Today is one of my favorite topics - the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Quick overview of the story, juuust in case somebody doesn´t know it very well.  Adam and Eve were the first of God´s children to come to earth.  They lived in the Garden of Eden and walked and talked with God frequently.  All their needs were provided for, and they could have lived forever in this state.  God commanded them first to have children.  They were then commanded not to eat of the forbidden fruit.  Satan tempted them, and they partook of the forbidden fruit.  Because of their disobedience, they were cast out of the presence of God and became mortals subject to sickness, sadness, and death.

Sounds like a real bummer, doesn´t it?  It is actually quite the opposite.  Many people do not understand the Fall.  They think it was a big mistake, and because of Adam´s transgression we are all cursed and doomed to misery and sadness and death in this life.  Not so.  In fact, this was the only way that God´s children could return to His presence better than they left Him.  It was a necessary part to God´s plan for our salvation.  I´ll explain.

Adam and Eve lived in a state of innocence and purity before their transgression.  They were as children.  They knew that they could choose what they wanted to do, but they did not understand the difference between right and wrong.  They only experienced the good, thus did not have the ability to distinguish between the two.  They could not become like God (one of the main purposes of this whole plan) because they had no way to progress, no opposition to overcome, no struggles to conquer, and no problems to solve.  Also, in this state of innocence, they did not know how to have children.  They could not obey that first commandment because, being innocent and immortal, they didn´t know how.  Having no posterity, none of God´s children waiting in the pre-existence could come to earth to experience mortality.  The plan of God would have been frustrated.

After they ate of the fruit, things changed.  Because of their disobedience to the lesser, second commandment, they were now able to complete with the higher purposes of the Plan of Salvation.  2 things happened. 1 - their bodies changed and they became mortals.  They were then subject to infermities, sickness, physical pain, and death.  However, they understood how to have children, enabling them to complete with the 1st commandment received from God and kick-start the Plan of Happiness, allowing all of Heavenly Father´s children to come to earth through their posterity.  The second thing that happened: they became subject to sin.  Because of their sin, they were cast out of the presence of God (something called spiritual death), for nothing impure can dwell with God.  However, their eyes were opened.  God said "they have become like us, knowing the good from the evil".  With this new understanding, they were able to make decisions.  This allowed them to progress spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.  Thus, they were on their way to learning how to become like God, gaining an understanding of all things.

We as descendents of Adam and Eve, are subject to the same conditions.  We inherit the effects of the Fall - physical death and spiritual death (separation from God because of sin).  We are not responsable for the "original sin", or the transgression of Adam.  We are responsable for our own sins.  We only inherited from Adam our mortal bodies and our understanding of good and evil which causes us to sin when we choose the evil.  Because of what they did, we are now here on earth participating in phase 2 of the Plan of Redemption.  Because of what they did, we can experience joy, pleasure, and happiness.  The Fall of Adam and Eve was not a mistake, nor a punishment for a sexual sin they supposedly committed.  It was the catalyst that put in motion God´s plan for us.  Because of the Fall, we all have a chance to prepare ourselves to one day become like God and live with Him in eternal happiness with our families.

Love and miss you all :)

-Élder Moore