What a week… The lord definitely had a lot of polishing for me. I learned a lot about trusting in the Lord, and that I really have no control over a lot of things that happen, but I can choose my attitude and I can always choose to be happy. Why not be happy? We have the restored gospel in our lives, and I have the chance to share it with everyone!
The biggest help to always being happy is my wonderful companion, Hermana Steel. I sure love her. I love that no matter what happens to us, we always are happy with each other and can find a reason to smile or laugh. We have studied a lot about auto sufficiency, trying to link it to the atonement. Why? Well our bishop invited us to give talks this last Sunday in the Progreso ward. What seemed like an impossible task quickly became an enlightening experience and I learned so much about the enabling power of the atonement. It truly is beautiful to see that the atonement is so infinite and applies to literally everything! I think that the talks turned out okay!
This week we did intercambios again with the sisters in El Arco in Auachapan, and I had the pleasure of working with Hermana Crowley. I love her so much. She is such an amazing spirit and a truly wonderful person. I felt that she was there to help me. That is one thing I love about working with the other sisters, you get to learn so much and it is also a chance to see other parts of the mission.
Speaking of seeing other parts of the mission, what madness happened to us! I had to go to Santa Ana on Friday to take some tests and such, but it also happened to be the day we were finishing intercambios… so I had to drop of Hermana Crowly and then go with Hermana Steel from Auachapan to Santa Ana…. it is about three hours on the bus, and goes through all but one of the zones in our mission. So it was a super quick tour of The Lords vineyard here in the mish. It actually was a sick version of “it’s a small world” el Salvador version pero, ni modo. We made it back home and then that night we got a call saying the tests did not work out so the next day we had to go back to Santa Ana…. wow… lots of buses. But I am sure the Lords hand was in it… somewhere. The icing on the cake was that we totally made it Christmas for some random stranger! Some wonderful child of God now has a new cell phone!!!! Some who pass for this situation would call it highway robbery, but since they call major streets carreteras here… I think we are good. It has been kinda hard communicating with others, but what a nice lesson on not being overly dependent on technology.
Sunday was my birthday… yay! I am officially 20…. It was a birthday that I will never ever forget. We had lost the phone and Hermana Steel was very distraught because her plans to surprise me with a cake and party totally fell through. Really, it was just a kinda weird day and I feel very old…. But last night we went to eat with one of our favorite members, Hermana DeLeon. The Elders came too and they asked if they could sing me happy birthday with the platanoes that she had made us. They even pulled out a giant candle that they only use for blackouts and funerals! #classy. Anyways, I went to blow out my candle and then they got mad cuz, apparently the birthday wish thing only works with real cake… So, Hermana DeLeon walks to the fridge and pulled out a cake! Turns out, the Elders totally planned the whole thing and bought a cake! I almost cried… I just am so blessed and so grateful. So, yah, craziness…
Other than that the work goes on… we had a couple baptismal dates fall through this week, but we saw a beautiful family we are teaching get married, and a great baptism…I know that if we trust in the Lord, that all will be worth it in the end and we will all come away stronger….. and a little crazier 🙂
I just love you all so much. I love the mission. I love my Heavenly Father!
Hoorah for Israel!
