July 6th, 2015 Letter

I love giving away Books of Mormon, especially on the street. It makes me feel like people have that much more of a chance to accept the Gospel. The Book of Mormon is the most powerful tool that we have, along with the Spirit. It's really amazing to see the effects that it has in the lives of people that we teach, along with our own lives. It has been hard for me to get over my own natural shyness. I don't know if I'll ever be able to fully overcome it, but it's little by little. I've found that I'm good at making people feel comfortable, even in awkward situations. So that's been something that has helped. Sometimes, it's easy to forget how cool it actually is, what we do every day. It just becomes.. Routine, I guess you could say. But yesterday we went and visited a member named Elena. She's been a member for 32 years, the person with the most time in the church in Gijon. She was talking about how much fire she has in sharing the Gospel, and how much she loves to do it. It was really cool and it helped us remember, again, how special the work we do really is.

This week was good! Hard, as usual. Gijon is just hard. But good. We had transfers and there aren't any changes with us!! We're staying together. I'm so happy about it. My companion is so awesome, I love being with her. She's a really happy, low key person and we get along great. We had some really good moments this week. In district meeting, we talked about how we needed to have more progressing investigators as a district and the best ways to do that. We reviewed some principles in Preach my Gospel and it really helped us learn how to become better teachers. Then, we were able to apply them! We found a mom and a daughter from the Dominican Republic the other day on the street, and we went to their house to teach them. They were so awesome. We had a great lesson, and the daughter came with us to church on Sunday.

We also found a Brazilian guy named S. We taught him a few days later and even though it wasn't the best lesson we've ever taught, he wants us to come back and teach him and his nieces. He's worried that they're losing their spirituality. It's been really good. The work has, again, been hard this week. But we made some goals last night and decided that things go better when we are happy. We know we are here in this somewhat dead branch for a reason, and we decided that the best way to help is to work hard and just be happy and do the best that we can. Comparison is really really hard in the mission, because it's easy to see the strengths and outward results of other people without being able to see your own. But when we're able to forget about that and just trust in the Lord and that we are here for a reason, everything else goes a lot better. I'm excited to see how this next week goes. I'm hoping and praying that it goes well. Still figuring a lot of things out, as a person and as a missionary, but I feel like Heavenly Father is never very far away. This is His work, not mine. And He can help us do it!

Life is going good. I learn more every day and I'm so grateful for this experience and for my Heavnely Father and Savior, Jesus Christ. They mean everything to me. Continue to send pictures, if you can, throughout the week!! I love getting them!! Also, scripture challenge: this week I finally figured out Mosiah, historically speaking. I charted it all out. It was so confusing but I finally understand it!! Sooo... See if you can figure it out. It blew my mind. Love ya!!

Be good!!