Wedding Bells are Ringing

Dear Family and Friends,

Helloo family!!! Greetings from Purranque (well, technically right now I am in Osorno but you know what I mean...) where I think that summer is a myth here. They tell me it exists but I STILL haven’t seen or felt it. haha. But seriously...I have yet to sleep without socks and my sleeping bag.

Wedding bells are ringing!!! Fernanda and Fabian got married this week, and I had to fight back tears the whole ceremony. Because it wasn’t a little thing either! It was a full-blown ceremony with a five-course lunch, and starters and a dinner after and coordinating decorations and a location in the field that overlooks the mountains in the distance. And all of this is the product of her faith and her desire to follow the commandments of God. 

I thought a lot this week, because quite a few people have asked me about my difficulties on the mission. They say that they want to know what is hard, what stresses me out etc....and so I wanted to tell you all the three hardest and three best aspects of my mission- 

1. People´s agency. When people KNOW what is good and they don’t do it. Monica and Elmo, a family that I have worked with almost all my time here, I had to decide to leave them-stop visiting them this week. Because they are simply not progressing. They love our visits, but they are not willing to change, to act. And it broke my heart, because I feel like this is how heavenly father feels. He does absolutely everything for us, paves the way, and it is all just hanging on our decisions, on how we decide to use our agency. 

2. The Food--don’t get me wrong, I love the food. oooooh fresh bread, cheese, meat. But they give us SO much and lets just say that it does NOT help me feel healthy. 

3.Trying to help everyone, and trying to meet the needs of EVERY person. It can leave you just a little bit…exhausted. There are so many needs (of companions, the ward, investigadors, leaders, less actives. everyone you meet..) that I feel so young and we have the responsibility make a lot of decisions that are BIG and hard. 

The best parts

People´s agency---when people decide to act. Fernanda,… for example. She has done absolutely everything that is in her power to follow the Lord. Just yesterday, she bore her testimony and with tears in her eyes she said "like all investigadors, in the beginning I doubted, but I tried. I began to read, to pray, and I could see the difference in my life. As many of you know, on Thursday I got married, and because of all of this, I have come to know that..it´s true. All of it"

And I had tears streaming down my face because this work is so much more than mine, and when we invite and people choose to act, there are MIRACLES and true conversion. Alondra, also, this week we taught her law of chastity and do you know what she said, "well, I am going to have to throw away my pills!" her faith is so REAL. And it inspires me. This is the part that brings me the most joy in the mission. I think this best part is where we see how little we really are in the grand plan of God. 

2. The people and their love (and food)--because they all show love through FOOD. But the people know how to love, how to accept, how to make people feel their love. It’s incredible. The papitos, for example, have done SO much (this week they let us use their shower, surprised us with smoothies one morning and drove us places...)

3. The language and culture. I love Spanish, I love the culture, and I love the green. I mean, with Hermana Lazo, I am learning how badly I actually speak Spanish (someone asked me yesterday if I was from Croatia. Croatia?)

Yikes it was so hard to only choose three...I could go on and on. But really, for example, on Saturday we had a day were we walked ALL day, all of our appointments fell through, I got the stomach flu, had the shivers and ten minutes before curfew we went to knock a door and the dog BIT me. I have never wanted so badly to kick a dog in all my life. I burst into tears, and then halfway through beginning to cry decided that it wouldn’t help anyone and so decided to laugh...and I didn’t die and so it was all fine! But for this…I just want you to know that I am happy. Every week there are highs and lows, but I am not having a hard time. I think this is the essence of faith. We can focus on the good or the bad...and the faith to believe in the good that will come is hope. We teach a message of hope. And I worry, as I type this, that I am going to have an awful next transfer for saying this. But my mission hasn’t been hard. It hasn’t been easy, but not for one minute have I been so desperately unhappy. In the words of elder villagran "the mission is not easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard either."

I love you all!!! 

Hermana Monroe

waiting for a bus to go to a meeting