Called to Serve: week 21: somos las hermanas CANSADAS

hola a todos!!

What a WEEK this has been! I feel like so much has happened, so last Monday feels like a month ago, but also it flew because SO much happened!! It has been a busy and exhausting week haha.

Where to even start? How about with some good news? Hermana Gomez got a call on Thursday that she is going to Pachuca, Mexico on April 6!!! It is a week after she hits a year on the mission, so it is so so perfect! We also found out we are staying together until she leaves(not sure if it'll be Spanish only or both stakes still, but YAY!!!)!! Our trio was split on Wednesday when a sister was sent to Brazil, so everyone is off to their OG assignments!

Other exciting news is that we got to road trip to Vernal this weekend for the Breen twin's baptism! It was so so so good to see them and their whole family so happy together! They gave me huge hugs and their mom cried and told me how glad she was that I was able to come back for the baptism because her life had been changed since the day we showed up at her door. My missionary heart was SO FULL!! I also got to see Sis Gill and meet her new comp, get ribs at our fav restaurant, teach an after baptism lesson to our friend Kasey, and visit the temple. Talk about BEST. DAY. EVER!! If I don't live in Morgan, I'm moving to Vernal bc that place is my FAV!!!

But back to Springville...Who are we teaching?

1. JENNIE- She is the HS friend from Texas of one of our members, so we are teaching her completely over zoom. She has been progressing slowly and has a lot of struggles going on in her life rn. But we had a POWERFUL lesson last night on revelation and she told us that her heart was being softened by the gospel. She told us that she doesn't always receive answers to prayers, but when we showed her Bednar's Patterns of Light video and shared personal experiences with her, she said she felt so much peace. It was so good and the spirit was so strong! Sadly, we are passing her off to her missionaries in Texas this next lesson, but it's been awesome to see some progression!! (ps if anyone knows the Anna, TX missionaries, lmk)

2. VICTOR- This guy is ready to be baptized!! But sadly, his whole family is still in Ecuador and he wants to wait for them to be here for it(which is totally fair, but kinda a bummer for us). We taught him about families and temple work in his last lesson and he said it is something he wants for them! During the week, be visited Temple Square and was excited to send us some sweet selfies haha.

3. SANTA RIO & JOSEPH- They are brother in laws who live together because Santa Rio(holy river haha) just moved from Florida. The first time we met, he brought out his bible and we thought he was going to bash us, but he was super open to learning more! Before our next lesson we had him read in 2 Nephi 2 and he had a lot of really great questions about agency and obedience and joy v happiness. We are excited to keep teaching them and see where things go!

Milagro: We are also teaching Rebecca, the mom of a recently baptized teenager, Jonathan. She is from El Salvador and has gotten super close with us! That's good and bad though bc our lessons often turn to her just talking about her life. We taught her this week about how we can have faith during trial and trust in the Lord and it turned into an hour long chat about some hard difficulties she has had in her life growing up! As we were wrapping up the lesson, a scripture I had read that morning during my studies came to mind. It was 2 Nephi 4:20-21 that says, "My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep. He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh." I shared my testimony in solid Spanish and used words I didn't even know I knew. It was definitely a gift of tongues moment and was so powerful and cool!! We found some good friends for her at church yesterday who are going to visit during the week so that we can be her teachers now, so things are going well with her too!

AND we also got updated COVID restrictions, so we can finally eat homemade meals instead of only takeout, have in person district activities every week, and accept rides from members. Slowly but surely getting back to normal life! I told my President I would stay here in Utah speaking Spanish and enjoying summer weather until he goes home in July, so hopefully England gets on the normal life train soon too!! Miracles all around!

♡hermana dougall