Viva Distrito Tenerife!!

Pretty great week!


Biggest event was probably our zone finding challenge, the districts competed against each other and we sent a hype video every time we found someone new to teach. We ended up losing 16-10, but we had lots of setbacks and comebacks. Vamoooos Ejercito de Tenerife!


Bishop is probably like 80 years old, but the man moves wooden pallets around like they're nothing, eats whole lamb legs a foot long each, and, this week during our weekly farmwork, extended the scoop on his 60-year-old tractor to the treetops 15 feet high, stood on it, and pruned aggressively with a chainsaw. We just kind of stood on the ground and cut the stuff he threw to us into small chunks. Good time.


This week we met Midalis. She came to English class, participated a lot, and then said "amen" every three sentences. Needless to say we hit her up later, and we ended up teaching a great Restoration lesson. She loves music, English, and the gospel, so she's going to be a ton of fun to teach.


Just to wrap this up, I wanted to talk about our lesson this week with Elisa, the awesome Italian lady from last week. We asked her to read 2 Nephi 2, and she loved it. We talked a lot about agency and the reasons for the Fall. The main reason most people see the Fall of Adam as a mistake is because Eden is referred to as a paradise, but it's important to remember that without the tough parts of life, there were no joyful parts. The Fall brought meaning to life by providing opposites, and opportunities for real decision-making and growth.


The three pillars of eternity are the Creation, Fall, and Atonement. All things were created first in their Eden-like state, which was pretty great, but they had the potential to become better. For that reason, the Fall was necessary to bring the potential for happy, joy-filled life not possible in the newly created Earth. It brings along side effects, like sin and the possibility of stubbing your toe. The way to keep the benefits of the Fall and get rid of the drawbacks is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That gives us the opportunity to erase the mistakes we make in a fallen world, keep the families we had a chance to make, and live again after the Fall doomed us to physical death. In the end, the Atonement-redeemed world will be better than the Edenic one. CS Lewis explains it better than I can:


For God is not merely mending, not simply restoring a status quo. Redeemed humanity is to be something more glorious than unfallen humanity would have been.


We see this principle even in daily life, like when we take something apart, upgrade it, and put it back together even better than it was, or when really anything gets worse before it gets better.


So remember that you'll be sad sometimes, but it's going to be so much better *because* it was hard for a while.


Ciao
Elder Curtis 


Pics
All I asked was whether you believe in God, Pablo.
Lots of direct selfies with people this week 
-Elder Romrell
-Efigenia 
-Midalis
-Manuel
Cool bridge
Standing guard o7








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