September 28, 2015 Letter

Hello Family-

 Here is a typical lay out of our day-
1) We wake up at 7:30. We get out of bed. I pray, bathroom,
and exercise. I like to do jump rope, p90x or go running.
2) Then, at 8, we shower, eat breakfast, get ready and listen to a
conference talk.
3) at 9 o'clock, an alarm goes off, I get down on my knees, pray, and
then I study the Gospel. Right now I'm working on finishing the Book
of Mormon again in Spanish, I ready PMG everyday, and I do activities.
Then, our other alarm rings, and it's 10 o'clock which means that it's
time to do language study,
4) so I pray again, then read conference talks in Spanish out loud
because I'm working on my accent right now.
5) then, we leave because another alarm goes off and we're out the
door. We pray, recite our purpose, grab Books of Mormon and leave.
6) then, were either teaching, contacting, doing pass bys, making
calls, and just doing the work. Trying to be diligent, trying to be
obedient, trying to rely on the Lord and follow Spirit and not get
distracted and not get hurt when people reject you and be persistent
and use every single second of time perfectly.
7) then we come back, eat and rest for an hour, try to use that
diligently by studying and listening to talks and still talking and
being normal. And just. Trying to be good.
8) then we study as companions for an hour. That usually goes well. We
sing hymns. We read together. We practice. We set goals.
9) then we leave again. And we work. Just like we worked in the
morning. We walk the same streets, we try to talk to people, and
honestly...
10) we come home at 10. We plan for the next day. And then we go to bed.
Lots of prayers, lots of diligence, lots of work and lots of really
good things. And I'm trying to do this unwearingly, with good desires
and lots of faith. Usually it goes pretty well.

 I'm sooo happy that I'm staying in Gijon. I love the members here, I love the area. I just hope I can keep working with all my heart until the very end. I have faith in this next transfer. It's gonna be amazing, I know it is. F. should be getting baptized, and hopefully P. as well. We also had a Catholic friar come to church on Sunday and he LOVED it. He's a really great guy, his name is J.M. We were teaching him a few months ago and he went on vacations for a long time, but then he CALLED US and came to church for a lesson. He LOVED hearing about the plan of salvation and he really loved Church. And that makes me so happy. I want to leave this area feeling like I've done everything I can, and now I have more time to do that. Today has been a good day, were in Oviedo with Hermana Ross waiting for her new companion. We went shopping and it's been really nice to just do something different. I'm just starting fresh this transfer, gonna do the best I can and just get things rolling!! I know we have good things to come. I know the Lord is helping us and guiding us.

I'm so happy to hear that Parker made it!! It makes me so happy. I'm so stoked to hear from him. I love you all sooo much!! It's gonna be a great week!! I love you all so much. I know Jesus Christ lives and loves us so much and helps us in every situation I love this Gospel and I love sharing it. And I'm so very grateful to be here! Just gotta live it, apply it and go everyday. I love you so much.

Pictures:

The shoes that I literally wore out and threw away.  My companion and I both sporting blazers and my district.

September 21, 2015 Letter

Hey!! 

 This week was really good. We were out of our area for four days.  We went to Concilio and we did intercambios but ... We a) travelled to Madrid (5 hours on a train...)b) our comments were valued in Concilio. President listened to what we had to say and c) we got to help plan the zone training and then we gave it with the zone leaders. It was an exhausting, weird week and I'm so grateful to be back in Gijon doing work. But I loved experience. We talked a lot about repentance and sacrament and I understood it so much better. It was amazing. This week was a really spiritual experience during sacrament meeting for me and I was so grateful for it. It's just SO COOL that we get to do that every single week. Jesus Christ is amazing to me. The rest of the week went really well. 

Concillio in Madrid

We have a baptism coming up with F. He's awesome. He's getting a new job at the university and he's gonna be able to come to Church every week. Everyone in the branch is really excited about him, us included. He's going to be the 6th of our 5 active priesthood holders right now. It's going to be a huge blessing to a lot of people to have him around. He's a joy to teach. He understands everything, asks great questions and takes it very seriously. He's amazing. 

Paola is also doing really well. We're focusing on repentance and understanding it better with her, so that she can feel more sure about baptism. We've had some great experiences this week and I feel like I just learning so much. 

With P.-the best investigator a missionary could ask for

It's been a little hard finding new investigators but it's a huge goal that we have going into this week. My companion and I are doing great. She's an awesome missionary and just so great to be with. I love her a lot. 

My compa and I with our youth group in Gijon

Oh, also, just a heads up, I got proposed too. There was this member in B8 that fell in love with me and when I got to Madrid for Concilio, he was there at the train station, waiting for me. He gave me a shirt that he made with a picture of us on it and gave it to me, drenched in his cologne. And he was wearing the same one. And then he gave me this letter and told me I had to wait until I got off the mission to read it. Naturally, I read it later that day. He told me he wanted to marry me and that he was waiting for me to finish the mission. It kind of freaked me out, honestly. So I got permission from President Pack to email him and tell him no. It was sort of a fuerte email. But it had to be done. Anyways. 35 year old Ecuadorian men on the prowl over here in #españa. It was an incredibly uncomfortable situation. But it's ok now, I think. 

 I know that Heavenly Father lives and LOVES us. I feel like He has really answered that prayer for me this week. I know that Jesus Christ was and is His Son and that we need Him always, everyday. I know that the love of God should be the reason for everything that we do and say and think. It's a high goal, but He can help us reach it. I know that this is the work of the Lord. I know it. I'm so grateful to be here, and so humbled by it. But I know it's true and I will keep on going. I love you all so much!!  I love my mission and I love all of you!! 

September 7, 2015 Letter

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 

The Tears of God-August 31, 2015

Ok so the title line is a joke. It's not me being dramatic and overly spiritual. So I'll explain in a sec.]

So this week has been full of experiences, big and small. I'm loving being with Hermana Santiago. She's wonderful and has taught me so much about life and missionary work and the Gospel. We have been working SO hard. It's been so awesome and with the schedule change, we have even more time to work and it's shown in the week that we've had and the results that have come. We had a few days that were literally chalk
full of miracles. 

We were able to set a fecha with Yami, our 15 year old Ecuadorian girl that we've been meeting with forever and seen next to no progress with. We had an awesome lesson with her about the Atonement and the need for Jesus Christ and we put her on date. And then she came to church! It was her first time ever coming and she
loved it. Speaking of church, we had FOUR investigators there. That's the most I've had in such a long time. It was amazing. P. came because she's amazing, and she brought her mom, which was her first time ever coming. P. sang in a musical number with they young women and M. (mom) was so proud. It was a really sweet moment. And then we had this woman named R. that was an old investigator of the elders from about 2 years ago. The branch president gave us her number and we called her and she let us come over. She then committed to coming to church with her two cute, sweet little boys. They are six and three and seriously so cute. And they all came and stayed and LOVED it. It was a huge miracle and we're so excited about her. 

We are progressing with less actives that were working with, we had a bunch of lessons on the street, and F. is still progressing super well. We had a noche de hogar with him in the house of the president of the branch and it went super well. We talked about the priesthood and he's excited to receive it after his baptism. Our lessons were just all really spiritual and uplifiting and I learned so much from teaching them- it was really cool.  Just a great week. I feel really happy to be here and seeing so much progression in the area and in the people we are teaching is a wonderful feeling.

So in reference to the title line- backstory. F. was telling us about Maradona and the "hand of God", when he scored a goal against England by using his hand to swat in the ball. The ref didn't see it, it counted, and after the game, Maradona is quoted as saying that it was the "hand of God". Best moment ever. So we talked about that, and then on Sunday, we had a branch counsel meeting before church, just like every Sunday. We were there and the branch president, Florin, started talking to us about how we need to improve in our member-missionary relationships. It's been a bit hard in this branch, honestly, to work with the members. We had the goal going into next week of visiting more active members, bugging them more about coming to lessons with us, etc. Florin started talking about it and the members just sort of starting getting on us for not inviting them to lessons, etc. It was super hard because we have been trying and it's just hard to work with members because they are all so busy. We do invite them, although it is something that we really do need to work on. So I'm sitting there, listening to this go on, and even though it was a little bit hard to get called out like that even when I felt like we had a great week and we really have been working with members as much as we can and we had the goal of getting better, I wasn't that upset by it. But all the sudden, I started crying. Just crying, right in front of the whole branch. And it was SO WEIRD. Like, why am I crying? I wasn't even super mad or upset or anything. Frustrated, yes. But not to the point of tears. But then I cried and I was so embarrassed and everyone was just staring at me and you could tell they felt so bad. But I couldn't stop. Needless to say, after the meeting, EVERYONE came up to us and started to invite us to their houses and tell us they were available for lessons and that they
supported us. It was embarrassing and unexpected, but let me tell you, the tears worked. We have like 5 members set up in lessons with us already and it was amazing. So.. My companion and I decided after the
meeting was all over that it was similar to Maradona's goal- those tears were the tears of God! The fact that I was crying totally softened their hearts, softened the situation, and I think we're gonna see miracles from it. Haha. Sort of weird, but it was just a funny story. I think the connection between the two stories is sort of
hilarious, although my comp doesn't quite get it. She's more of a volleyball person- the name Maradona means nothing to her.


It really has been a great week. We've been so blessed and I don't quite understand why, but I know that good things come when we work hard and leave the rest to God. There's a scripture in Alma about constantly remembering our unworthiness before God. I think that's the key in good times- always remembering that when the good times come, we still have to rely on the Lord. Always. He'll make more out of us than we could ever make out of ourselves. And I have a testimony of that.


I love you all!! Sorry I don't have a ton of time to write today, this might be the only email that I can get out. We ran out of time, we went to Covadonga with the Browns and it took up our whole  pday. I promise I'll write more next week- but I bought gifts!! Haha. Love you all, have a great week, and remember to rely on the Lord! I'm doing great and LOVING the mission, it just keeps getting better. Love you all!!

Love,
Sam

One of my goals-

August 24, 2015 Letter

Hey Family!!

 I LOVE it here. Every area has gotten better and better for me. I'm trying not to think about coming home because I am really scared- so we're just gonna focus on this week and try not to think about it. :) it'll be amazing, though.

I'm just so, so tired today. Like, so tired. Got like 4 hours of sleep to start off this week, my new companion got here, Medio dia got changed and we've just been KILLING it.. As in, working so so hard. Then, today, we did the most intense 20 minute hike I've ever done in my life. And as a result, I'm so tired. Like, so tired. Never been this
tired. Ever in my whole mission. I'm so happy but so tired and wow. Ok. This email will probably be really scattered.
But just bear with me.

This week was crazy. Hermana Santiago is a boss. She's a really hard worker and she's really bold, which is all that I need. We've been working so hard and I love it. We had 3 days out of our area and we still had a really good number of lessons at the end of the week. We taught F. the law of chastity and he took it really well. He's amazing and we're so grateful for him. He also gave me these super cool books about soccer as this random gift and it was amazing. I was so excited. 

P. is stil going strong. She came to church and the fireside that the mission president gave and she loved it. We've taught her all the lessons now and we're planning on fasting together at the end of this week to help her to get to
baptism. Our goal this week is to really work a lot better with members and to involve them in everything that we can do. 

Our Chinese man is still going really good- he came to the lesson and said that he knows the Book of Mormon is true!! We can't even communicate with him that well at all, but I'm so grateful for the experience I had with
Valentine at the beginning of my mission because I feel like I was prepared to communicate with Lu. I've learned how to take what people say (even if I can't understand it), watch what they're doing, and somehow, the Spirit has helped me get through a lot of lessons understanding them. He's a good man and he really wants to keep
meeting with us, which is really good.

 Also, we had a really cool experience this week. Hermana Santiago got here and said she had met this man named A. in her last area, the Canary Islands. He was from Gijon and knew members of the church there. They got his reference but never passed it- and this was back in May. We called him on her second day here and he was like, yeah! I'd love to meet with you! I've been thinking about you girls a lot lately! So we went and met with him- he's this older Spanish man that owns an art gallery in the center of town. We explained the restoration and found out that he knows our branch president and his wife and a TON of other members here. He's been to church and had a Book of Mormon for awhile. So we set up a time to come back, and we went and told the branch president
and his wife and they were SHOCKED. They were so excited, they couldn't believe that we had found him and we're teaching him. It was the craziest experience- we're excited to see how it goes with him.

Other news: we haven't had hot water all week, we hiked the Cristus statue today and we loved it, we watched meet the Mormons at zone conference and it was super cool. We loved it- I had never seen it before! It made me cry. We started exercising Better in the mornings and it's been awesome. It's a goal of ours. We've just been doing the best we can and I'm trying to make the most of the time I have left. It's going well.

 I know the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and I know He always sends us answers. This weekend was chalk full of answers to my prayers, and I'm grateful for it. I can't even... I love this place so much. I love my companion, I love the work. I love the miracles that God is willing to work through us. I'm so far from perfect, but I have trust in Christ. 

Oh, ps mom, that talk about Joseph Smith was AMAZING. I loved that so much. Thank you for always being in tune with the Spirit. It was just what I needed. Ok, sorry again for the crappy email. I can't explain the tired levels
coursing through my body right now.  Love you!!

Love,
Sam

August 17, 2015 Letter

Hey Familia!!

So just to update you on the changes that transfers brought:

1) I am staying in Gijon.

2) I am getting a new companion named Hermana Santiago. She's a good friend of mine, from Texas, has 2 transfers less in the mission than I do, and she's awesome.

3) We are sister training leaders together for the Leon Zone. Our new mission president, president Pack, instituted this new thing where there are 2 STLs in all the zones in the mission, and that they are companions. It's the first time there have been STLs in the North or the Islands and it's pretty exciting. It means that we do intercambios and that we also go down to Madrid for Concilio once a month with the zone leaders, and we do zone trainings together. It's pretty cool. It's cool that I get a second try at this thing, because I feel like it was trial by error the first time, and I'm excited to apply the things that I learned. I am feeling a little overwhelmed, but in a good way. I'm so so so sad that Hermana Stephenson left. She's one of the best friends I've ever had and seriously such a great companion and missionary. She's going down to Villalba, a pueblo outside of Madrid. I sent her down this morning and right now I'm chilling with my friend Hermana Freestone in Oviedo until our new companions get here. It's been a good day, although sad. Im EXHAUSTED, though. So tired. We have gotten little to no sleep in the last few days, thanks to transfers and packing and cleaning the piso and just trying to get caught up on everything. It was a bit of an emotional week, but it turned out great. It'll be so good to start a new transfer and see what we can get going in good ole Gijon. I'm so glad I have more time! It's my third transfer here and I'm loving it.

Ok. Experiences this week: We made it in the news! See photo below:

So last pday the Oviedo Hermanas came up to Gijon and we went to the fair with our branch mission leader, Santi. He took us out to eat "comida basura, estilo americana" (garbage food, American style- his words, not mine) and then bought us all a gift. Like, seriously, nicest guy ever. This is what he made us eat while with him (he was paying, we couldn't say no. Literally, we tried, and he just refused it) : a literal platter of meat. Bread. A huge slice of cake. A ginormous ice cream cone. Coke. And then, 20 minutes later, he bought us another ice cream cone. And then he offered to take us out to snack and we were like, Santi! We have seriously eaten so much today! And he was like- what do you mean? You've eaten so little! He just didn't understand why we were so full. Did not understand at all. Anyways, that was just a little side story. As we were walking around in the fair, this guy stopped us and asked to take our picture for the paper. He was doing a piece about the fair, and he was trying to show that the fair was international. We literally stand out so much- haha. He took our picture, and the rest is history. We had to laugh because it probably just furthers problems with people thinking that Mormons are polygamists- its like Santi with his 4 young wives. 

But the Hermanas in Oviedo has a cool experience with it- this guy stopped them and told them that he saw them in the paper and that he wants to know more about the church! It was really cool. Hopefully they'll see progress from him. We had breakthrough lessons with P. and F. this week. P. told us that she knows the church is true. She just feels it, she said. The situation is hard with her family right now but she's so sweet and just so strong. We love her so much. She was sad to say goodbye to Hermana Stephenson yesterday. She still doesn't feel prepared to get baptized, so we're working on it with her. Little by little. I told my companion that I'm really sick of little by little- i feel like it's been the motto of my whole mission and it's getting old- but she was just like "you're not going to progress any faster now than you did at the beginning. Life just comes one day at a time. Just because you have more time on the mission now doesn't mean that progression will suddenly come faster." I liked that. Patience is so essential in all facets of life, and it's something that I've had to learn so much about out here. Anyways. I liked that. She taught me a lot. 

Also, F. is just progressing so well. He's receiving answers right and left, he's so sad he can't come to church more because of his work, and he's just the sweetest guy. He's read the whole Book of Mormon. And now he's reading it again. He's just... Prepared. It's the best way I can think of to describe him. Just ready. He told us that he wants to wait to get baptized until the work situation evens out a little bit because he doesn't want to make a covenant with God and then just not be active. He took tithing really well and he's just so amazing. I can't even begin to describe how lucky we are to have the chance to work with him.

We had a zone training meeting this week in Leon and they announced a new rule that we have as a mission. They're changing Medio dia. So what we're doing is that we usually have 2 and a half hours of study in the mornings and then we go out and work, Medio dia starts at 2:00, we eat and rest a little, and then we're out the rest of the night.

Every mission has 2 hours to eat, we just have ours together in the middle of the day. Now what's happening is they have changed it all up so that we have one more hour of proselyting and one less hour of food/rest time. Well now just have 1.5 hours of study in the morning, leave the piso and hour earlier, and then during Medio dia, we have one hour to eat and rest and another hour to do companionship study. It's still two hours, but one of them is for study. It's s pretty big change, and I'm thrilled about it. When I got my release date, I was really sad because I felt like it was just too soon. So I was praying and I asked God to give me more time. I told Him I would take any opportunity I had to have more time on the mission. As I said that prayer, I felt a lot of peace. I felt like He was gonna give me more time. I was sort of waiting to see if there was an option for an extension of the mission or something, when this announcement came along. He gave me more time, in the form of one more hour of work a day. It adds up to roughly 115 hours total, or, in other words, 2 weeks worth of more prostleying time. Exactly the amount of time that was taken off of my mission. It was an emotional moment to realize

that God answered my prayer. It may seem like a little thing, but it didn't feel little to me. I'm grateful for it and excited to have more time to work! I'll probably drop dead at the end of it- I can't imagine getting more tired than I am right now, and yet I get tireder

everyday. It's insane.

I've been learning a lot lately and realizing just how imperfect really am. I have so much to work on- so much. I know I'm inadequate and always will be- but I'm learning how to better trust in Christ and Heavenly Father. They are my everything, and it's only through them that I am able to do anything. I'm so grateful to have them and to have the chance to serve them. I'm not perfect- soooooo far from it. But luckily, this isn't about me! My motto as of late is "forget yourself, and go to work", with emphasis on forget yourself. I'm trying to forget my will, forget my desires and forget my struggles and just do my best to help the Lord. It's a work in progress and it always will be, but it's in the journey that we find what we need.

August 10, 2105 Letter *My release date is December 8th*

Hey Fam!!
How are you?? That's nice of what Sister Knapp said. She's a really nice lady. She told me that my Spanish was good, as well, which I was so happy about- she's a Spanish professor!! She knows what she's talking about! Haha. I think she was just being nice, honestly, but I do really like her. It was fun to have her family here for a few weeks, they literally almost doubled the size of active members in the branch, which is always fun.


I got the email about my release date, as well. I was shocked! I couldn't believe it. I'm not ready to come home- there's so much left to do! I'll probably feel like that up to the date of my release, though. I am working on being more accepting of the fact that I do have to go home eventually. I'm mentally trying to make myself excited, and I've set a lot of goals so that I'm busy and working. I am excited to see all of you again, that's for sure. It feels like a really long time since I've seen all of you. One of the reasons that I've been grateful to be here is because I think it's helped me a gain a greater appreciation of what a great family I have and how much I love you! I never realized quite how blessed I was. It's seriously strengthen my testimonies of families so so much. So anyways. I've got 4 more wonderful months left here, and then a lifetime of wonderful months there! Just gotta make the most of it :) I really like what you've said about making it the best 6 then 5 then 4 months of my mission. I've been really trying to do that and I feel so good. It's been such a good process for me to realize that i can and should continue to improve, and that God doesn't wait for perfection to be pleased. I could possibly finish in Gijon, but I don't think I will, it would be a long time in one area. And Hermana Stephenson and I definitely won't be together the whole time,  transfers are this week and we're thinking that she'll probably be leaving. But we'll see. :)
The plans for the Europe trip sound great! I'm excited for that. Europe is amazing, especially Spain. Honestly, I just want to visit all my areas and see everybody. I love them so much! 

Ok so I'll tell you about my week now. It's been a really good mix of everything missionary. We contacted a lot, knocked a lot of doors. We got a member reference which is a big deal up here, but he's actually an apostate member, so we can't really count it. Kind of a weird situation, but his mother in law that we started teaching is really really sweet. We found this Spanish guy on the street and even though he didn't want anything, we ended up getting all of his information, went back and taught him with a member, and he said he would read and wants us to come back. That was cool,honestly. I really felt the Spirit testifying so strongly to him, and I know that Heavenly Father loves him so much. We taught P. a lot this week and she's doing really good. She still has this weird fear of baptism but I think she's slowly but surely getting over it. She has a hard home life right now but we talked a lot yesterday about setting goals so that she can make a better future for herself. I think she's starting to see the link between the Gospel and the Church and living a better life. She's young but wonderful- we just need a little bit more time with her. We've seen a lot of great
miracles with her. The Dhinese man is great, as well. He was so excited to get the Book of Mormon in Chinese! I'm trying to give you a good run down of the week but I'm realizing its impossible, especially with the limited time that I have. It was just so good. So spiritual,so hard at times, but hard in a good way. We had time with investigators and times the street and everything in between. Oh, and F. is doing great. Turns out he's basically always lived the word of wisdom and he's plays soccer on the beach from time to time. It's like, come on! I'm teaching a Spanish soccer playing man. How much more blessed could I get? I'm really loving it here and loving what we're doing. Everything is just so good. Not perfect, but good. And that's all we need.


I love you all so much, I hope your week is wonderful. I pray for you everyday. I'm sorry this email is short and lame, but it's all I've got time for today- we'll see if we find more time later on. I really am happy and we just keep on keeping on! I'll let you know about transfers next week. Love you all so much!!

Love
Sam

Teaching with my companion, Hermana Stephenson