OH HEY FAMILY!!!!!
WOOOOF. I'mma start out by saying that this isn't going to be the most eloquent or meaningful email ever because I am sick and therefore drugged up and have a limited time because we are going to the temple (!!!!) today. So my apologies.
HOW THE HECK IS EVERYONE??? Is everyone happy? Anyone want to send me leftover Easter chocolate? I love the Spanish culture and everything but they are not big believers in Reeses eggs and I am going through withdrawals. But it was a great Easter! Another Elder in my district and I arranged a song and did it for sacrament meeting which made both of our days. Sometimes it feels good to sing good stuff again.
This week was crazy! (I think I start out all of my emails like that.) We went on exchanges with some sisters in City Heights and it was a blast. It's cool that even on exchanges out of your area, you meet the people that you really needed to meet. I met an investigator of theirs names Haydee and after a while we found out that her niece is one of the members I got the closest too in the Valley. And then later that day we met 2 teenagers who both just said stuff I needed to hear. Usually on exchanges don't feel like the people are "mine" or like I need to be the one serving there, but with Adi and Karen I knew that we all needed to be there for that one lesson. It was good stuff!!
We had out last interview with President Clayton:( it's rough to realize that they are going home in a little over a month. It was a bittersweet interview but every time President Clayton opens his mouth, I swear it's prophetic. He asked where I think I will be in one year.....I'm sitting in front of him all like "The heck! I had my entire life planned out up until my mission, how in the world am I supposed to know what's going to happen in the future??" So all I said was that I wanted to continue being anxiously engaged in a cause far bigger than myself. I won't be a full time missionary at that point and I'm not entirely sure what that cause will be, but I don't want to miss out on the progression that comes with being a part of something great.
There was a stake Easter activity this past Saturday and they asked me to bear my testimony in Spanish for the few Spanish-speakers that were there. It was cool, realizing that the spirit is the same no matter what language and can be felt by all.
We have seen so many miracles this past week with adding investigators, all of which have come through referrals from other missionaries. Man, I am so grateful for those English missionaries who have learned just enough Spanish to contact and get information so that we can go over and teach them....they've saved our lives! We have a very different teaching pool than we did 3 weeks ago, but it just adds more excitement for the work and I know that the investigators we passed over to the other elders no longer needed us, but them. There is always work to be done and we have been busier than ever! Major miracle right there! So we are starting from scratch, literally the beginning with all these investigators and while sometimes is rough because no one is progressing (YET), it's cool to see the process from the beginning with so many new people. From the first lesson to their baptism....this is fun.
Mayra and her family still have a HUGE hold on our hearts! We went over the other day and the first thing they did was invite us over for three different days this next week. They fed us this random El Salvadorian dessert that I don't remember the name of, and just sat down and waited for us to tell them what we had planned to teach them. SO solid!!! We talked about the reality of receiving guidance from the spirit and how all we need to do is ask. The dad, Arturo (who never really talked), opened up and said, "I have been wanting for my kids to know God, and that's all I pray for. While all these other people try to tell them, you two are the only ones who come back.". We just sat there, so grateful for the spirit that was in the room that could be felt by ALL. I feel like that night I learned what it meant to have a full heart. We left that appointment laughing and trying not to cry because we were so dang happy-not because they were jumping up and setting their own baptismal dates, but because we felt such a huge amount of love for them, from them, and we knew that they could feel it from us. So keep the Gonzalez family in your prayers!!!
Some of the things Sister Barnes and I have been noticing about some of the sisters who are struggling is that they are content with having low expectations. They are afraid of losing their personality to the "sister missionary mold" that they think will come if they give %100 to the work. I struggled with that at the beginning of my mission as well, and I think i came to a point where a major decision had to be made. In my mind I thought that if i gave all of me, I would lose parts of me. Oh man, it's funny how the mission proves you wrong. I feel like when i made the choice to give it all to God and be obedient, it was there that I figured out a little of the potential that I had. You really do find yourself only when you give yourself up. I'm not saying I am perfect at this and there are SO MANY THINGS that I need to fix and put on the proverbial sacrificial altar, but you are the happiest when you are obedient, when you give up your pride and when you do what God needs you to do in HIS way. Also, you can be a little cray-cray, sing opera on top of your dinner table at the top of your lungs, and be obedient at the same time. I can testify of that.
I love you all, I pray for you all, and I am grateful for you all!! Have a great week!!!
Hermana Hess
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