Hermana Lauren Best: WEEK 10

(Her email subject line was "got transferred to Guatemala") Nah, still in puebla!!!!! Wow I am SO happy . This past week at a training i got PHYSICAL MAIL!!!!! Two from my family and one from Amber! This mail was from late June and early July so now its safe to say that yes, probably email me if you want to get in touch with me haha. I also received wonderful emails this week from friends about their testimonies and am completely blown away by the caliber of people in my life and thank you so much for sending those to me! Yes, even missionaries need to be reboosted spiritually.

This week was pretty intense. As we{re here more and are more involved in the peoples lives we also learn about their trials. A lot of our investigators and recent converts are facing some really tough challenges. These people all put on a brave face and you would never know it, but some of them opened up this week, and man, some of them just have the weight of the world on their shoulders. We are doing our best to listen to them, and to comfort them, but sometimes things are just out of our control. Our very very very special investigator family that i talked about last week are facing more difficulties. The daughter, Brenda, had a miscarriage. The last time we were there she was laying on the couch holding her stomach during the lesson and <i just cant believe that this happened. Her mom called us the day of to tell us what was going on because we were supposed to meet, so we hope to see them as soon as they are ready to meet again. they are the kindest people i have ever met, and have already gone through so much with the loss of their dad|husband, i hope they know how much God loves them and will comfort them in their trials.

I really like these scriptures from Corinthians:

3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

I am here on a mission because in my darkest hour I found peace in the scriptures and in the chapel. I felt that God truly answered my prayers and I wasn't simply sitting in silence when I said them. Once I found that comfort, I wanted others to have it. I hope we can take the time continually to look for those that need our help. Sometimes we think a person we know is "perfect" or we think "that family doesn't have problems" but the truth is, we all are facing adversity, and everyone cold use someone to talk to, or a smile, or an email just saying hey just wanted to see how you're doing!

One awesome thing that happened this week is we had a training for new missionaries which means I got to see my DISTRICT FROM THE MTC!!!! And even better, I somehow got lucky enough to spend the whole day with hermana dalrymple one of my BEST friends form the mission! holy cow we had this long bus ride and we were laughing AND crying the whole time. hermana dalrymple is a beautiful example to me of a positive attitude. it was really nice to speak english with someone i'm friends with haha. we had a hilariously mission-ish experience with street contacts. we approached this lady and she started asking us if we were sure about our message. ARE YOU SURE ARE YOU SURE YOU NEED TO HAVE MORE CONFIDENCE! I'm not sure what kind of confidence this woman was looking for- does she know how far I am from my house?! I'm pretty confident!!! she said she's a Christian and she teaches sunday school or something like that. Then she gathered us in for a prayer and wanted us to shout out what she said and we said politely oh no we don't like to repeat in prayers and she said well then, we aren't sure. it was so hilarious, she smiled, shook our hands, and kept walking.

Spending the day with Hermana Dalrymple!

I LOVE the mission. I'm so grateful every day to be here. Even when there's a huge cockroach by my head in the morning when I'm working out, even when our gas is out for a couple of days, even though of course its been hot since the one day I said "wow its getting kind of hot here now" The people, the gospel, and the experiences I'm having all make it worth it. I think about all of you often and know that the Lord is watching over you.

I've attached pictures of me and my faaaaaaavorite girls here - fatima and evelyn. Don't want to leave them at all.