A Week Full of Surprises

June 29, 2013,

Dear Family and Friends

The first thing on the agenda this week is a huge, giant, full of love shout out for Miss Sarah Ballard…because I got her package this week and DIED. It was full of loose leaf tea from teavana and chocolate chips and  pintrest workouts and Sarah. You are a pure ANGEL. I don’t even know how to thank you enough, or how I ever got lucky enough to have you as a best friend!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

But this week has been full of surprises and has made me think a lot about the mission itself, and what an incredible gift it is. Sometimes people say that a mission is like a little bubble from the world, and I can understand why they would say that…I mean, there could be world war three and we probably wouldn´t know, I have no idea what songs are popular and what movies are coming out, but I can promise, on the mission we learn intimately about PEOPLE…their struggles, their heartaches and the obstacles that exist in the world. 

On the mission I have held the hand of a man who is clearly in his last days here on earth and tried to give what comfort I could to his soon to be widow. I have hugged an atheist who asked us to come and sing to her dying mother because our faith could bring comfort that she simply could not feel. I have felt the grief and frustration of men who don´t know how to read and are ashamed to come to church because they can´t afford church pants. I have talked to young women burdened with depression that don’t feel like they deserve anything in life, Families faced with guilt and fear, and with all of these moments I have learned that life simply is not going to be easy.

And that is exactly why we have the gospel. The message of Jesus Christ, the message that we are more than simply human beings, that we are divine and have a purpose that can lift us beyond our own capacity is the essence of what we can give to those around us. It´s the call of hope and light in a world that is fighting to feel happy. Because those around us desperately need what we have. And what we have is hope. Hope in ourselves, hope in life, and hope in the savior.

But on a more light note, where else but on the mission are we going to experience other things that are simply irreplaceable. I mean, who knew that I could eat this much rice and fried eggs? (this is the most common food is Peru and since we live with two peruvians, we eat this a LOT.) And this week I FINALLY mastered the art of starting a fire! Finally!! And just today...this was actually hilarious, we went to a baptism and the font had flooded the whole chapel so we spent the first hour rescuing the chapel and THEN we had the baptism. I was chucking to myself the whole time at lame jokes about sanctification. 

But seriously. This gospel is the only medicine that can help a hurting world. Don´t keep it for youself. SHARE it.

Love you!!

Hermana Monroe