What keeps me going?

My desk with my one picture of home that I allow myself to look at every day.

Monday January 20, 2014

Dear Family,

     Another long hard week full of sweat, sun, lessons falling through, stagnant investigators, and physical challenges.  Frustrating.

Monday

We found a great young man to teach – only he doesn’t live in our area.  We received a referral for an interested part-member family –only we found out that they don’t live in our area either.  Maybe this transfer is about opening the door for other missionaries?  We’ve already passed along 7-8 solid potential investigator to the other elders and sisters.  We were able to visit and teach P. again.  Her opening prayer was beautiful. She thanked the Lord for sending “two angels” to help her and her family during her difficult trial.  It was the first time we’ve taught just her, and the spirit was really calm and comforting.  She starts chemo on Thursday. 

Tuesday

     Really hot and not very productive.  We were accompanied by our WML, C. to contact an inactive member that has stopped us in the supermarket and asked for help returning to church…but…his address doesn’t exist.  So we wasted 2 hours of walking and working.

     We also had a district meeting.  Elder Amorin sprung a surprise practice on us ---great for experienced missionaries, but Sister S resembles a fainting goat/heat-stroked guinea pig.  It was rough.  She is getting better during lessons when the spirit is present, but she just freezes during practices.  I know her and I can see that there IS progress, but I received a 20 minute phone call later that day detailing all of the things that other people have done with their trainees and how I am not training correctly.  I think that he means well, but lecturing and bossing aren’t the right ways to go about things.

Wednesday

     We had interviews with President.  He’s a good man with lots of responsibility.  He seemed stressed and hot when he arrived.  Sister S. and I had the first set of interviews.  When I walked in for my interview, we sat down and I folded my arms, thinking that we would begin by inviting the spirit through prayer.  Instead, he started laughing and asked, somewhat condescendingly, “What happened?”  Uh, could you specify your question?  Are you talking about my numbers?  The rest of the interview was very very odd, and I left with 100 more questions, doubts, and feelings of inadequacy….I guess that everyone has off days.  He is a good man. 

Packages from home arrived just in time!

     We got letters and packages on Wednesday!  Thank you Grandma for the PEANUT BUTTER!!!!! And thanks Mom for the care package.

Thursday

     We had a crazy rain and thunderstorm!  The roads flooded and I’ve never experienced lightening so close before.  We were blessed to be with a member and close to a member’s house when the storm hit.  We waited out the worst of it and returned to our house early, only to discover that our roof was leaking on our kitchen’s side and had a good 4-5 inches of standing water.  I love Brazil.  Also every time we use the washing machine, the “septic system” backs up and seeps feces infested water inside.  Not cool!

Friday

     We had a great lesson as the end of another long day.  We taught an in-active family, and arrived there with literally no idea what we were going to teach.  They were our plan “C” for the last hour of the day.  Luckily we were with M. and after saying the opening prayer, we all 3 worked in harmony and taught well. 

     The night ended with noticing blood in my urine. 

Saturday

     I had to go to the hospital and waste a half a day being told what I already knew.  I had a UTI.  Even more frustrating than getting stuck by a needle and wasting my time, was knowing that I was inconveniencing or WML and his wife for a stupid bladder infection.  I didn’t even get the cute doctor, AND my district leader called and chewed me out for not getting my numbers that night. 

     So yeah, I haven’t been the most patient/Christ-like person lately.  The lesson we had marked for Saturday night was the part member family that I mentioned earlier.  We didn’t end up teaching them, but we did end up having the help of L.C. and H. (and their car!)  We were finally able to teach J and E. who were married about 3 months ago.  We had a great lesson and she accepted to be baptized. 

Sunday

     We spent 6 hours walking and having lessons fall through.  Luckily, M was with us.  Seriously, he is a life-saver.  It is so nice to be able to have a member there to make the routine seem a little less routine. He hit his 5th month mark on the 18th and is preparing to go to the temple.  I think that his Mom, Marcia, will also be able to go with him. 

     The highlight of the day was teaching M’s family.  We read 1 Nephi 3-4 with his Mom (a recent convert) and his sister (a non member) .  At first I thought that maybe his sister wouldn’t be interested in reading with us, but she followed along and everyone got into the story of Nephi, Laman, and Lemuel.  We ended up having a great discussion on how this story can apply to our lives.  The Book of Mormon is true and has real power to bless our lives. 

     Well that brings me up to date.  I am really thankful for my sweet companion.  She has a myriad of spiritual gifts – like the gift of being generally happy, smiling and laughing, or the gift of connecting easily with children.  These are gifts that I lack, and I am grateful for the chance to serve and learn with her.  She has patience with all of my many flaws. 

     I love and miss you all.  P-days are hard, especially as I think of and remember all of you.  I am lonely. I miss clean floors and being able to flush toilet paper.  I miss my country and my home.  What is keeping me here and keeping me going is a burning testimony and sure knowledge that this is God’s work. When people choose to live the gospel of Jesus Christ, their lives change.  Being part of that process is priceless. 

Con Amor, Sister Colvin

Storm Hider

January 16, 2014

Some of you might have heard about the big lightening storm in Rio this past week that damaged the thumb of the Christ the Redeemer statue.  It was really powerful and awesome, and I hid the whole time in a member's house.  I have ruled out Storm Chasing as a future profession.

Sister Colvin

Good Enough

Note to self: Look for the beauty of the horse, ignore the chicken entrails you might be standing in.

January 13, 2014

Week 4 with Sister S.

Dearest Family,

Another hard week is over.  After a stream of soul-searching and study I have come to the conclusion that I will “seek the good” and strive for the daily positives, however small they may be. For example, I figured out that the reason that I was getting blisters was that by resoled shoes where heavier and fit differently on my feet than they did originally.  I finally resorted to using my one new pair left in my stash and that did the trick.  Blisters healed and I have not had any new problems with my feet.  That is good news for me...I just need more of these shoes to make it the rest of my mission.  A problem that I know my mom will solve.

Monday

          This was a decent P-day, followed by a great night of teaching.  We visited A. who is a recent convert of about 9 months.  She is only 14, but had the maturity of someone much, much older.  Her mom, P. was recently diagnosed with cancer and we’ve been visiting them on a weekly basis.  A. is really special and has a unique knack for understanding and applying scriptures. She’s almost finished the Book of Mormon, and she’s sharing the gospel with her friends.  The only hard thing is that because of her maturity, she doesn’t “fit in” with the youth in the ward.  Problems of adolescence transcend cultures!  We love her and we are going to do some work with integration with the youth.

Sister S. had a shining moment of teaching and testifying tonight!  She is making progress!  Her personality is sweet, cute, willing but afraid and unconfident.  But, she is really starting to overcome her shyness and do the work!

Tuesday

          Our lunch appointment fell through and we stopped by M.’s house before returning to our house to eat.  She asked us if we had eaten, read our sheepish looks, and quickly prepared a humble meal for us.  We were SO GRATEFUL for her love and sacrifice.  We shared a message with her and her daughter, B.  We then went to our zone training. (rough) Our district and zone leaders chastised us. In summary, “If you are obedient and do ______, then you will have _______.”  To fill in the first blank you can insert random meaningless numbers that correspond to #’s of contact, new investigators, and BOM placements.  The second blank is always baptisms.  I bit my tongue and will continue to do so for now.  The Lord is the only person who knows the desires of our hearts.  Obedience to the Lord’s commands is key, and I will focus on that rather than meaningless statistics. 

          We had a great lesson with G. and our ward mission leader.  I am developing a real love for our ward mission leader and I deeply respect his desire to serve, help, and teach.  I expressed my gratitude and love to him after the lesson and he told me that he has felt an urgency to help the missionary efforts and me ever since I first arrived here.  He said that everyone can see my desire to serve and work hard, and that my testimony touches the hearts of all who hear.  It was a great tender moment that uplifted me when I needed it.  It’s incredible how much more willing you are to give more and do more when you love those whom you are working with, and when you feel as though your efforts are doing some good.

Wednesday

          Another training day…mostly unremarkable, aside from being remarkably HOT.  

Thursday

          We had a great lesson with C.F. on family history work and the importance of temples.  She did the first few pages of the new FH booklet. We then had lunch with our new relief society president.  I was surprised by the disinterest that she showed as we excitedly talked about many of the investigators and less-active sisters we’ve been visiting.  She has no interest in visiting these people with us.  My own enthusiasm wanes quickly when people show indifference for the work we’re doing. 

          Elder A. was one hour late for the baptismal interview with our investigator E., but it wasn’t all that bad because we got to sit and visit with E. in a casual non-lesson setting.  He is a very normal, happy, and kind 18 year old young man.  The interview went smoothly and he thanked us for our help. 

M. , Sister S. and Sister Colvin

We had M. help us in the evening.  He is truly amazing.  With less than 5 months in the church, he is growing, searching, preparing, and serving with incredible understanding and conviction.  He teaches well and is an enormous help to the missionaries.  We always have really good gospel discussions after the lessons, and his enthusiasm lifts our spirits.  We love him – he will do great things and change many lives.

Friday

Crappy day…long….hot…unproductive.  Though, we did have a good finish by visiting two elderly disable ladies.  They remembered us and asked us how our work was going.  As we shared stories and scriptures with them I felt the love of Christ and a desire to reach out and touch these women.  I told them of the love that Heavenly Father has for them as his daughters.  It was beautiful moment…juxtaposed with our district leader calling every 2-3 hours to ask about our numbers.  Sister S. and I were sent into a frenzy of data gathering in order to get him off of our backs.  Not fun.  Not sincere. 

E, and his mother

E. and his girlfriend and mom.

Saturday

We talked with a member of our bishopric on crappy Friday and he mentioned that they are struggling with keeping the chapel clean, and that often times it is just the bishop and his wife, or the 1st counselor and his daughter who are there to clean.  While the problem lies in the member’s sense of responsibility, I felt this as an opportunity to show our willingness to serve and help the ward and to build a relationship of trust with our leaders.  We left our house at 9 am, worked until 10:30-45-ish (I have been trained to speed clean), and then returned to our house to finish our studies.  It felt GREAT to render this service, and the bishopric thanked us.  It was a good use of our time! Unfortunately, our district leader didn’t see it that way because at the end of the day he told us that we are “slipping” and our numbers are bad.  Uggghhh!

Keep in mind that this is after we had a beautiful baptism (E.) today which I try to focus on.  We also had a great meeting with our bishop, and a productive coordination meeting with our ward mission leader.  Still, even though I know that it is not rational, it is hard to not feel like crap when your leader tells you that you are slipping and you need to repent, have more faith, and work harder.  It is really hard to focus on quality over quantity, and to do actual work instead of just running in circles.   

Sister S., Sister Colvin, ward member, new member E.

Sunday

M. (recent convert) gave his first talk in sacrament meeting today.  It was great! E. was confirmed and he gave me a look of gratitude and affection afterwards, which warmed my heart.  After lunch, we finally found R. in her house, after 4 failed attempts during the week.  It was a hard to focus on the spirit with a barking dog, a very uncomfortable moaning pregnant cat, and an overactive half dressed 6 year old. Thank heavens that Sister Sousa is starting to teach and talk more because I was not feeling it.  We also taught M and her daughter J., and had a good lesson using the scriptures.

          In summary, I’ve written about the shining 45 minutes to 1 hour of each day that is scattered through another 7-9 hours of arduous ungratifying work.  I have never felt so weak, inadequate, guilty, and unworthy in my entire life.  I am struggling to find balance between “God loves me.  I am serving him and being obedient.” And. “I am not good enough, and I need to give more and serve harder.”  When is our “all” ever good enough, and what is “good enough?” the answer to that is that nothing that we can do will ever overcome our frail human nature.  We will always be sinners. God know this.  He knew that in on our own, we would always make mistakes, consciously or unconsciously distancing ourselves spiritually from our Heavenly Father.  Yet in His infinite love and patience, He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to live and die for our weaknesses.  Through this incredible sacrifice, and by doing the small and simple things ever day, we can grow closer to our Heavenly Father.  He stands with His arms open to tell us that with the Atonement we can become better.  We can become “good enough”.

“Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work.  And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.”  D&C 64:33

I love you all. I miss you and pray for you every night. Please love and serve your missionaries.

Sister Colvin

My feet have reached their melting point

 January 3, 2014

It is a different kind of Godly sorrow when you have seen someone touched by the goodness and light of the gospel, and then they reject everything.  We have felt a lot of rejection this week.  Tonight we were rejected by Senhor J.  I am constantly feeling responsible for the decisions of the people here.  Could I have done more, worked harder, loved and served with more dedication?  I don’t know.  I think that the answer will always be yes, I could have done more.  The human state is fallen, weak, imperfect.  I hope to be able to develop traits to battle the natural man so that I can say that I have literally given it my all.  I don’t think that I even understand what my “all” is.

Today’s heat index was 50 degrees Celsius or 122 F.  Right now it is 10:15 P.M. and it is 33 C (91.4 F).  We are just sitting here sweating in our room with the fan going full blast.  I have some pretty nasty and tender blisters on the bottom, top, heels, and sides of my feet! But I have faith that all is well and every difficulty will pass.  Plus, a good night’s rest will help.

January 4, 2014

I am battling feelings of inadequacy and missing Sister Z.  I love Sister S, but I don’t love having to be on my game all the time.  Before, I had total confidence in Sister Z that she could and would understand the people’s needs and teach with knowledge and authority.  I miss that.  I am trying to give a good example to Sister S, bu I can see that our contacts and new investigators are suffering.  Hopefully we can be better.

It is really hot, still 32 C in our room, and we are fasting (but only food given the heat index.)  It’s rough.  I need to have more faith in the Lord.

January 6, 2014

Have I told you how hot it is?  I don’t have much energy to write.   This week was hard.  I don’t have much to say, but it was GREAT to see your faces and talk with you during our skype visit. 

The thing that is keeping me going despite 106 F weather (on a cool day) is my personal scripture study and prayer, especially studying the Book of Mormon.  I always find myself relating to the circumstances, and always find and answer to prayer.  It is pretty awesome!  For example, I am struck by the man stories of people going of to war, many times being in a weekended and vulnerable position.  Those who remembered the Lord were given strength and power to conquer.  But, those who are slow to hearken to the voice of the Lord were always defeated.  During our trials we need to trust and rely on the Lord and His power. 

WEIRD SIDE NOTE:

Kite-flying is a big thing here.  On the weekends you will see many grown men flying kites. 

WONDERDFUL SIDE NOTE:

Have you ever heard of he saying, "horse sweat, men perspire, and ladies glow" ? ....not so sure that this is glowing.

The wonderful Sister Brown just brought me brownie mix/dough!  REAL AMERICAN Brownie mix. #simplepleasures.  We have had some great fun playing pass the piggies and bananagrams.  Sister B. is a bananagrams expert!

It's HOT is Rio!

 Monday December 23

            English is getting harder and harder for me to remember!  This past week was really difficult, but it was also an incredible week of personal growth.  I remember when Elder Richard G. Scott visited the MTC he said: “Trials increase your desire and character.”  There have been countless trials this past week, but at every moment there has been a quiet, clear answer to unspoken prayer, a testimony of God’s love for me.  He knows the desires of my heart, and I’ve never felt so completely focused on other people in my life.  Small miracles:

• When I had a rock in my eye, followed by sunscreen, then I couldn’t find an address of an investigator – my sweet greenie said, “be calm, say a prayer.”  This prayer brought non-sunscreen induced tears to my eyes and washed out the rock and the sunscreen. 
• Being lost/walking circuitous routes on many occasions – followed by investigators, new contacts, and members literally being placed in our direct path.
• Having a very limited teaching pool – receiving 7 referrals and also having 2 people come up to us at church and ask how they could be baptized. 

December 26

            I am so tired.  I’ve been running off of adrenaline and faith for the past week and a half, and it’s starting to catch up.  We are working HARD.  Christmas came and went without a fuss.  There is very little Christmas spirit here unless you count setting off bombs/fireworks as a way of bringing the spirit of Christmas.  We worked all gay, and we visited M. and M. - I just love them!  They are doing so well and they will have such a positive impact on this ward.  So tired…time to collapse into a sleep coma. 

Saturday, December 28

            Holy smokes I am wiped out.  It has been HOT this week.  Sister S. and I have been working with E and R this week and both of them have committed to be baptized a week from today.  E. Is a 17-year-old boyfriend of a member.  I was cautious to start teaching him, but he really is making sincere progress and positive changes in his life. 

Monday December 30, Christmas and other Shenanigans

            I am going to actually give a detailed update this week – sorry for the short letters the past few weeks.  P-days have been really busy, but I to my shoes resoled and got errands finished, so I guess the official purpose of preparation day was fulfilled.  A few bullet-list items:

• Sister B and I have been enjoying “pass the pigs”.  It’s wonderful to play completely mindless games. 
• I’m listening to Handel choruses right now…Hallelujah! Seriously.  I’d forgotten how much more balanced I feel when I listen to the symmetry and chord progressions of classical music.
• I cannot WAIT for the New-Years SKYPE! 

Sister S. is a good sport!

 

Monday – TERRIBLE P-day! 

            NEVER leave your area to try to do something fun with other missionaries on P-day.  We literally only had 45 minutes in our house to “relax” and “rest”. Never. Again. My poor greenie had a terrible first p-day.  Actually she had a really terrible first couple of days.  She got bitten by a dog, had an ex-mormon spout off terrible things about temples/missions/Joseph Smith/etc., had someone try to Bible bash during a contact, walked across a ginormous bridge above a highway (she’s terrified of heights), experienced massive amounts of rain, had a sister in the ward chew us out fro not going to a lunch appointment, and many other weird and hard things that happen on a regular basis during a mission.

Hiked up a huge hill in the heat, saw a beautiful sunset over Rio. 

A bad day for Sister Colvin

            On the first full day for Sister S. in the mission field, and also my first day as a senior missionary…we started off with disaster.  It began with looking at he ward missionary roster to try to find the Sister’s address for our lunch appointment.  I have been there twice before, but I was always following Sister Z and trying to process the language and dodging dying kittens in the street.  Turns out that her address is still registered under her Mom, but she has moved.  I then tried calling her mom, the RS president, the RS councilors, the old RS president, another sister, our ward mission leader…NO ONE answered their phones.  Also, we switched phones at zone conference so no one has our new phone number.  Unfortunately, this is the same hypersensitive sister who has a new baby and I had been warned never to stand her up or else.  Anyway, I felt terrible but had not choice but to stay home for lunch.  I also had a district meeting at 2:00, which was going to be very hard to make from our lunch appointment.  Anyway, it was a mess.  At 1:30 I got a very angry phone call from this sister (don’t know how she got my number, except from the FIVE calls I placed to her!)  (Also: we have very limited number of minutes on our phone.  I will definitely run out this month). I tried to explain our situation but all that she understood was that we had already eaten and that we weren’t going to her house because we don’t like her, and don't like her food or her baby, and maybe the world was going to end.  More sincere apologies from me followed…and then it was time to move on.  Honestly, I completely forgot about it until the RS president pulled my companion and me aside after a RS function and chewed me out for not going to a lunch appointment.  Later in the week the WML and my DL also gave me a dose of “how dare you miss a lunch appointment with a member.” Again I tried to apologize and explain the situation, but Brazilians seem to have little sympathy for a directionally challenged American missionary who is training a green missionary with only 11 weeks in Brazil herself.  It is remarkable that one lunch missed due to circumstance beyond our control is the end of the world. The good news is that I can let it go.           

I took Sister S. to a pizza buffet for Christmas!

A little bit more about Sister S.  She is a 19 year old convert of 8 years.  Her mom is a recent convert of just a few months and will have 3 missionaries out at once!  Sister S is from very humble circumstances, but so far our differences in backgrounds haven’t been a problem.  She is very naturally loving and sympathetic.  She has very sweetly comforted me, suggested to say prayers, and related to our investigators very well.  Her heart is in the right place and with some time, practice, and confidence; she will be an amazing missionary.  Training a new missionary is a lot like training ponies.  Sister S reminds me a lot of Peppy – eager to work, but not a lot of background, a little timid, and needing a lot of coaching and assurance.  She often voices her discomfort, but she is making progress.  I use a lot of “ask and allow” – letting her stumble and struggle a little bit in order to grow and at the same time not placing too many demands on her.  The reward is praise when they do the slightest thing right in hopes that they will repeat that correct thing and build on it.  It is very rewarding when you can see them figure things out and make progress.  But, when they throw fits or protest that things are too hard, it is a bit annoying.  Many times in horse training, these fits were merely due to the horse’s own stubbornness and unwillingness to bend to my will.  And in those cases, I basically said, “suck it up and do it anyways.”  The ponies learned that I was serious and they learned to just do it.  Those were the times when progress was made.  I think that Heavenly Father works with me like that too so that I can do His will, and it is my job to help my greenie learn the same way.   One thing though about training, the MTC really does have a distinct purpose and there are a lot of important things to be learned in that weird stifling period there.  Sister S hasn’t been through the temple yet or had the experience of the MTC, so we literally are starting from square 1.  Sister S is very young and little bit stubborn, but mostly just shy.  She hates doing contacts and gets very nervous during them.  I have encouraged her to bear her testimony during contacts. I’m learning patience. I am also realizing how good of a missionary Sister Z was.  She was very obedient and hardworking.  She also was very good at understanding investigators needs. I actually miss her quite a bit – we got close the last couple of weeks…

            Anyway, we were able to have a really good night to make up for the bad day.  We visited P., who is the non-member mom of A. (a 14 year old recent convert).  P.  Was recently diagnosed with cancer and we shared a message of hope and strength with her.  As I shared some Book of Mormon stories that have helped me in moments of difficulty, the spirit was super strong and we felt really connected and uplifted.

Missionary gift exchange

 Tuesday/Christmas Eve

Christmas with the District

People began showing Christmas spirit by setting off fire-works/mini-bombs on a 1-2 minute basis, and drinking massive amounts of alcohol, and blasting 90’s music with the occasional commercial Christmas song.  Our lunch appointment fell through, and then it started raining a LOT.  Then I got a gnarly blister because I am using new shoes.  So the day stared off really well…but we had an   But as soon as we got back to our soggy day and poopy roads, we ended up having a great night.  (plus, more rain = less fireworks!)

awesome district meeting, followed by a makeshift pathetic Christmas celebration as we had a gift exchange and cake and chocolate. It was actually quite a good diversion, but I was in a bit of a pity-party because I was the only person to not get cards/letter or a package.

            We had an interesting lesson with R, who took the discussions a long time ago, but wasn’t ready to live the commandments so she didn’t get baptized.  She showed up to sacrament meeting and said that she wants to be baptized.  She is a really fun, quirky, and high-energy investigator.  She has quite a few cats that she is nursing back to health.  Anyways, this was our second time teaching her and after 2 minutes all of the lights in her street went out.  She had dim battery operated light and so we all huddled around her tiny light to say the opening prayer.  I started praying and about halfway through the prayer I felt a tiny furry bundle jump on my chair and they start clawing its way up my back. I tried to remain composed, but after several pathetic attempts of stifling laughter the comedy of the situation go the better of me, and I just started laughing.  Everyone opened his or her eyes and R. started laughing like crazy when she saw the tiny kitten on my back.  We all got a good laugh and then we taught the Word of Wisdom. 

Wednesday: CHRISTMAS

            We had a great day of teaching, working hard, sharing messages of Christ, visiting recent converts, and staying incredibly focused on our missionary purpose.  The only time that I felt lonely or homesick was at lunch when we weren’t working. 

            Christmas here is very different from home.  They have a huge meal on Christmas Eve at midnight on Christmas Eve/morning - and then sleep in really late the next day. Then, the next day (Christmas day) is filled with food and family.  There is very little music and spirit of Christmas.  Sister Brown and I had a special moment at the end of our long day.  It is so wonderful to have someone with your came culture and many of the same emotions to share things with.  I hope that we will stay in contact after out missions.

The sisters at the end of a long hot day!

Thursday

            Man we worked hard today!  We taught 8 lessons, contacted a referral, and did 33 contacts.  We taught E. in preparation for his baptism.  He has a really good desire to prepare himself.  We also taught R. with our WML.  Our WML is really going out of his way to help us this week to teach.  I think that he changed after I opened up with my feeling of inadequacy and my desire to work hard and serve and love the people here. He has been a big help with teaching R.

Friday

            Long and incredibly HOT day teaching less actives and E. and R again.

Saturday

            How can it be hotter?  SO MUCH HOTTER!  I think that it reached 106 ish plus humidity.  Sooo. STINKIN. HOT!  My companion is a Rio native, so she is not dying like me.  I reapplied my 50-70 SPF sunscreen and spent the entire day walking around with my umbrella and drinking (water) like a sailor.

            We taught Rs. a lesson. She is a sweet lady who we have been teaching since October.  She makes and keeps all of her commitments except for attending church.  Last Sunday I told her that we love her and are here to help her, but that she needed to act to show her faith.  And guess what, she later told me that she prayed a sincere personal prayer and received an answer that she needed to go to church.  She sacrificed a night of catering and came to church!  I just about peed my pants when she walked in!

Sunday

            We left at 8 am to walk to an investigators house before church and it was already 34 degrees (37 is body temperature for reference).  HOT!! The investigator “wasn’t home/was sleeping” so we walked back to church all by ourselves and then R. and E. didn’t come.  R. called us and had woken up late but wanted to come, so we left the air-conditioned chapel and walked 30 minutes to her house and then back to church in the blistering heat.  It was so worth it because R had a great time at church and the chapel was wonderfully air-conditioned. 

            We had a great lunch with L and H, who are among my favorite people in the ward.  We talked a lot about missions and the logistical difficulties of missions.  (Side note: Bring a debit card on our mission.  If you have an emergency, it reduces a lot of stress.) We had very weak plans after lunch, but in answer to prayers, our WML called us and ended up spending the entire afternoon helping us.  We went to a lot of potential investigators house and we were really efficient because our WML knew all f the streets!  Another answer to prayer: our DL called and said that he got permission to get a street map for me and that he was going to go and buy it for me….BEST DL EVER!!! 

We ended up being on our feet for more than 7 hours in 96 degree weather, but it passed by really fast and it wasn’t until we got home that we realized how physically exhausted we were.

            That is something that is remarkable about a mission.  When we feel our weakest, most humble, most inadequate, and we are battling the desire to quit, lay down and sleep, if we just keep working, loving, serving, and teaching, then our own needs melt away.

Richard G. Scott, “For Peace of Home”:

“When we obey the commandments of the Lord and serve His children unselfishly, the natural consequence is power from God – power to do more than we can do by ourselves.  Our insights, our talents, our abilities are expanded because we receive strength and power from the Lord.”

I testify of the power of obedience, sacrifice, and hard work.  When we’ve given our all, the Lord shows us that with His divine help, our all is a whole lot more.  I know that this is the Lord’s work – if not, I would have buckled and quit a long time ago, leaving this dirty, ramshackled city behind.  But this work is diving and we are literally teaching people how they can come unto Christ, receive purpose and one day return to their Father in Heaven.  It is this message that brings hope, power, motivation, and love to press forward in the face of difficulties.  I love this work. I love this gospel. I love the Lord. 

Nutella is my balm.