Hey!!
This week has been long and slow and grey. We did intercambios with the Hermanas in Oviedo on Tuesday. That honestly really threw me off. I was with an Hermana that was struggling with her companion, who is a really good friend of mine. I was trying to help this Hermana and be her friend while still being an example but I left the intercambio feeling like I had sort of let my standards of obedience down a little bit in the effort to try to help her and make her feel loved and everything. I should have been a better example, and the situation caught me off guard. I prayed about it and then called Hermana Pack, the mission presidents wife. She helped me and I decided that I needed to call the Hermana that I did the intercambio with and just talk to her a little more. So I called her and talked to her about some things that had stood out to me from the intercambio and some things that I felt like could help her with her obedience and everything. It wasn't an awful intercambio. It was really good, and she said she felt lifted at the end of it. I just felt bad that I lowered my standards to help somebody feel more comfortable. I did it with good intentions but I didn't feel super great afterwards. I was grateful to be able to call her and talk about it. It taught me a really good lesson- never lower your standards, not ever!! Always stand up for what you know is right. It's something I want to do better at. My accountability is to God, not to anybody else. I'm grateful for the lesson learned, though. It reminded me of a line in my patriarchal blessing- it said that before this life, I was a friend to all and determined to follow the way of the Lord. I thought of that after the intercambio and realized that it's possible to do both. Be a friend to all but ALWAYS follow the way of the Lord. I promised myself that I would do better and make a greater effort to be exactly obedient, especially in the small things. It's a goal that I have for the rest of the mission.
We weren't able to meet with a lot of our investigators this week. It was a little bit hard, but we have been making an effort to work more with the members and it's been awesome. Slowly but surely. There was a day this week when I literally felt like the adversary was attacking me so obviously. I was struggling during studies with tiredness and ended up reading an article in the Liahona about Joseph Smith with some information that I didn't know about him before. It was a little bit troubling for me, not a lot, just kind of weird. Then, we went to contact and we met a man that had been a member of the church in Ecuador and he got baptized in the Evangelical church here. He was bashing on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and it was sort of hard to hear. Super sad. I felt sad for him. Then, next person we stopped SCREAMED at us about how Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet of God and how we're all confused. So weird! Everyone else said no. Like always. But it was just the weirdest chain of events. I felt really down and it was hard for me to hear all that on the same day. And then we found out that the mom of some of the youth in our branch got baptized in the evangelical church and that was really hard- they got sealed in the temple three years ago and she just got really confused. I went to bed that night and just cried- mainly because I just felt so overwhelmed by the whole situation with this mom. It was just such an obvious attack on my testimony and it was weird. But. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know it. My testimony of him is just as strong as ever. Anyways. Just a weird moment.
We also got to go to a futbol game with the Browns!! It was awesome, I loved it. I'll write more about it next week and send photos, I ran out of time today.
I'm so sorry I ran out of time!! But I love you so much!! I'm doing great and loving the mission. I miss you all so much. But things here are going great. Send me pics throughout the week. I love getting them!! Love you!! Read alma 31- two types of prayers.
Love,
Hermana seeg
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