How Much Do You Want For the Birds?

Dear Familia,

This past week I've been studying a lot about sacrifice, and how we sacrifice for the things we love, but at the end of the day, we love the things we sacrifice for. (Inspirational thought from Megan Brindley :) In the Old Testament, they offered animal sacrifices. In the New Testament, it was the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ.  What God asks from us now is the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I just LOVE that! Last Sunday in our Principios del Evangelio class, the teacher shared an AMAZING story about sacrifice that I'm going to try and translate and share with you guys.

"One day the young Bishop of the Limache Branch was walking through the park on the way to one of his meeting when he saw a little boy playing with a cage. As he grew closer he saw that inside the cage were 4 trapped birds and that the little boy was poking them with a stick. He asked the boy what he was doing, and the boy replied, "I tricked these stupid birds into coming into the cage and now they are mine!" The bishop asked, "And what are you going to do with them?" "Whatever I want," he replied, "They can't do anything! I like to poke them with my stick and see how they jump and squirm, and I'll entertain myself with them like that until I get bored or they're almost dead, and then I'll feed them to my cat, he loves birds." The Bishop looked down at the birds, and then at the boy, and said, "How much do you want for them?" "No sir, you don't want these birds. They are ugly, and they don't even know how to sing." The Bishop with a firm resolve asked again, "How much do you want for them?" "Give me 20 bucks and they're all yours." The Bishop passed over the money, took the birds over to a near by tree and set them free.

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Jesus looked down at Satan and the world he was playing with, and asked him, "What are you doing?" Satan replied and said, "I've ensnared this world filled with people through my tricks and cleverness and now they're mine." Jesus asked him why he had done this and what he intended to do with the world he had trapped. Satan replied, "I like to make them fight, I like to see the different ways I can make them upset and see how many wars I can cause, how many families I can destroy, how many lives I can ruin. I do it just to entertain myself. I don't really care what happens with them when I'm done, they don't matter the least bit to me. My only objective is to make sure they aren't happy." Jesus looked down at the world and asked, "How much do you want for them?" Satan laughed, and then replied, "Trust me, you don't want this world. They're selfish, and rude, and won't even appreciate you. They'll mock you, and reject you, and in the end, they'll kill you." Jesus looked at Satan and said again in a voice firm and determined, "How much do you want for them?" Satan laughed again, and then told Jesus, "Give me all your joy, all your love, all your time, all your life, and in return I'll give you all their sorrows, all their anger, all their sicknesses, and death." And with love in his eyes Jesus accepted the deal and sacrificed his life for us. 

I love that story! I love the idea of sacrifice! I love my Savior who sacrificed EVERYTHING for me...a little bird who can't even sing (ha and that's 100% true in every way!). I love that I have been able to spend the past year in Chile, sharing with this amazing country the infinite love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ! I feel so blessed and so loved, and couldn't imagine spending these past 365 days doing anything but sharing this life changing message!

 The next time you take the sacrament please think about this little story and remember the sacrifice Jesus made for you, because he loves you, imperfections and all! And all that he wants is for us to accept His sacrifice. The efforts of the bishop wouldn't have made any difference for the little birds if they didn't accept his sacrifice and fly out of the cage. I hope you have a great week!



XOXO-Hna. McKenna



Fun Facts:

I now don't just drink the weird milk out of a box that they sell here in Chile, but I've been drinking warm powdered milk at night to warm up before bed....and I like it! Who would have thought powdered milk was so good!



We went another 24 hours without light this week...what else is new?