Last Group Email

Well, this is most likely the last email I will send as a missionary to all of you. Wow, I am just feeling a hurricane of different emotions, but we're gonna keep this email simple. Or try. Well, we will start off with 2 miracles we saw yesterday, we found a lady from Venezuela a few days ago, we set a lesson but it fired, the other day we had the feeling to go pass by her house and in that exact moment we walked up to the door she was walking out, we talked to her a little and she had a lot of question about exactly what we do as missionaries then she said "you said your message is like 10 minutes right?" Can we sit down on this bench right here and you can share it?" We taught her the restoration and she loved it! She had so many great questions and was so engaged, she wanted to know everything, after we explained the first vision and that we can receive answers from God through prayer, she didn't even give us the chance to explain and said " OK, I've prayed before but have never asked God a question, how do I do it? Will you teach me?" After the lesson, before we could even ask her she said "when can we meet again? What time is church?" She explained to us that she was very interested, and wanted to know more, and she also wanted us to come to her home and teach her husband as well. We will visit her on Wednesday. Then we went running to our next cita with a member who is going through a very hard time, we basically just sat there and comforted her while she cried. She also told us she told us how every Christmas she has spent alone and didn't want Christmas to come because she didn't want to feel so alone again. We were planning on doing a Christmas lesson but kept having the same video come into my head and so we showed her the video. She told us that during the video she had the thought come into her mind that what she was missing was prayer, like God was telling her kneel down and lets talk, she had done all she could to solve her problem but had not even thought to ask God. She cried and told us that she felt and understood that God was aware of her because we came to her house with that message that night. Tonight, we are going over with brownies and to help her decorate for Christmas and the Hermana's will spend Christmas day with her. Bueno pues, (Well, then) I could literally write a 80 page email about everything I have learned and all of the experiences I have had, but we ain't gonna do that today. The mission is the weirdest experience, I understand now why people say its the best but hardest experience. It has been hard. I have never felt so depressed, and so much pain(physically as well) and alone, definitely have cried more in this year and a half then I have in my life, there was a lot of days where I have I felt like I literally could not do it one more day, But at the same time, I have literally never felt such pure joy, it sounds so cheesy but its true. I remember many many nights praying and just crying thanking my Heavenly Father for the chance I had to be here, have these experiences, meet these amazing people and be able to be an instrument in His hands. I have never laughed so hard, been so happy and have never felt so close to my Heavenly Father.  The mission has been the absolute biggest blessing in my life and I would not trade what I have learned here and these experiences for anything. And I am so so excited to come home and apply everything I have learned in my life, with my sisters, in my family and ward. The Lord has helped me understand so much and the importance. I know Christ and our Heavenly Father live and they love us, I feel I have come to know my Heavenly Father a little more, through talking with him, and the trials he has given me and helped me overcome and through the answers he has given me throughout my mission.  He has helped me understand a little more how he works and sees things as he does and I feel like we have become a little team. I know that this Gospel is true. And I'm excited to keep going and do everything I can to live it every day. I have absolutely adored my mission.

 Beach Day

 This week they got told that they now have permission to go on the beach so they played beach volleyball.

 Light the World - Volunteering at the Food Bank

They ate with their African friends and they came out with a giant bowl and a ton of spoons to eat out of the same bowl. 

She said "It was an adventure!"