Sisters pday, arepas as a district, awesome lessons, workout updates, member meals, and a BAPTISM!!

 Large Plates 

Sisters pday, arepas as a district, awesome lessons, workout updates, member meals, and a BAPTISM!!

Another good week! I hate to say it again but this week really did fly by. I feel like I was just writing that same thing in my email like 2 days ago haha. Pday was fun! We got a bunch of sister missionaries together and got our nails done and went shopping and got smoothie bowls. After we did all that we went to have a barbecue with the Elders but it started pouring rain out of nowhere so we just got soaked instead haha.

We taught our district how to make arepas! We all had lunch together after district council and it was such a good time. Also it turns out Elder Jensen wants to open an arepa truck at BYUI so we decided to just make a chain of food trucks together haha. All of my post-mission dreams include arepas for some reason.

We had a couple of really awesome lessons this week! We had our first in-person lesson with Ana and her boys. Those boys are so smart. They're just a super sweet family. Also we started teaching this lady named Iris! It's cool because that's my grandma's name. (Hi grandma! I know you're reading this so I thought I'd throw in a shout-out for you and grandpa. Love you both. We also had a super powerful video call with our new friend Osman. I won't go into too much detail but essentially he has heard of baptism and the Holy Ghost before but has never really known what they are. We taught him about them and told him the spirit would confirm to him the truthfulness of our message and it would tell him if he needed to be baptized. We could tell he was very impacted by what we said. He sat back in his seat and basically just said "wow." The spirit was so strong and we could tell he was feeling it too. He was physically impacted by it. He could hardly hold still. I don't know how to describe it but it was awesome!

We've been trying to get more exercise because our morning workouts consist of going on a slow paced walk with a senior missionary and we don't want to make her feel bad by stopping the walks, so we haven't gotten any cardio or strength training in months. But! We moved our dinner hour to the last hour of the day one day and we decided to go on a run before we ate! It was so refreshing to get real exercise. Later that night our District leader suggested we all work out in the church gym the next morning… Long story short, I'm sore but I'm sleeping so well! 

We went to dinner with a member from a different ward at this yummy Mexican place! Hes funny but he's crazy. Also he got bit by a shark. No joke his arm is all messed up now. Also we ate at a different members house and he fed us blood sausage so that was fun...

Also Liduvi (the knocking miracle from a month or so ago) came to church! And Fransis and her boys! They're all so awesome and I'm excited to see them progress. 

The highlight of the week was ANDRES' BAPTISM!!! He's such a sweet kid and he really wanted to be baptized. It's been a long time coming. He's super smart and really good at the piano! Also he wanted spicy cheetos at his baptism so you KNOW we bought him some. Also those yummy sugar cookies with the frosting and sprinkles. His baptism was a little chaotic cause the primary was having an activity in the room we needed to use but it all worked out!

Small Plates 

Where can I find happiness?

We've had a couple of lessons with this guy named Robin. He used to be a professional soccer player in Venezuela but he got hurt and hasn't had good luck in his soccer career since. It's a sad story. 

But the saddest part is that his entire life has been consumed by his disappointment. It's all he thinks about. With every principle we teach him, he interrupts to tell us more about how he could be famous but he's not. He even interrupted us when we were talking about Joseph Smith's first vision. We said something like "and he decided to pray. When he prayed, he had a really cool experience." Robin interrupted to say he thinks he's had really cool experiences from when he was a professional soccer player that Joseph Smith would like to hear. Long story short we didn't teach much of a lesson, we just let him rant. 

But the central theme of his rants is always the emptiness he feels because his expectations were unmet. He says he feels like there's a hole in his heart that he doesn't know how to feel. 

He would never let us talk long enough to suggest that maybe the emptiness he feels isn't going to be filled by fame and soccer, like he hopes. Hopefully we'll be able to tell him soon. 

The idea behind this thought isn't really about Robin though. It's about what I learned from him. Or rather, what I learned through him. 

The only source of true and lasting happiness is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Any happiness we find through worldly things is temporary. Even professional soccer players who don't have career-ending injuries have to end their career sooner or later due to old age. Any worldly success we want can only bring us happiness for a time.

But the gospel of Jesus Christ will always bring us joy. It brings children joy as they sing songs about prophets and rainbows and Jesus. It brings young adults like me joy because it gives us direction and strength in this scary world. It brings parents joy as they raise their children in faith. It brings even the most elderly joy because they have no fear for the future. They have their families and know those families will be theirs forever.

If you're disappointed by unmet expectations, and feeling like something is missing, my best advice for you is to make a little more time in your life for Jesus. He always has and always will be the most constant source of joy in our lives. And all the other sources of joy we have ultimately come from Him too. Christ heals all wounds and all sorrows. He knows how we feel in any and every moment. And he knows how to help us through the tough stuff. We just need to turn to Him and allow Him to help us.