Señor te necesito

This week there was a world wide devotional for the missionaries and I learned two very important things: #1 I need to completely change how I pray and #2 I need to recognize how much I rely on the atonement each day. 

I will be the first to admit that I am a "general prayer" type of person. I pray for things like "that my investigators will feel the spirit", or "that I'll have a good day". This week I learned that the more specific my prayers are, the more specific my answers are. This has changed my week and probably my life. 

I also realized that in order for my investigators to feel that the atonement is more than just repentance, I need to truly know and love my savior and have a better understanding of what he has done for me. He understands every hardship, heartache, and disappointment. My week was so much easier once I allowed him to help me carry my burdens. 

Me and my companion were in a city of our area called Dorado this week. It's so beautiful there and it's one of my favorite places to visit. It's basically right on the beach!

I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week :)

Let's all go to the beach!

Today we had a district activity and so we were able to go to the beach and play soccer! It was so much fun but it was also super weird not being able to go hop in the ocean to cool off! Everyone was probably wondering why we were in pants and t-shirts too, but it was really nice to spend the day admiring the ocean from afar :)

I love the people here and I love how much they care for the missionaries. This week I learned the Lord truly blesses and protects his missionaries. I also learned the agency is the greatest and worst gift that we have. It's difficult to see my investigators struggle to keep their commitments, especially coming to church. I never realized just how important church attendance is until I saw the difference between investigators who attend church and those who don't. 

"Angel"

Dogs love me and they follow me everywhere. This particular dog always walks with me and I call him my angel. I don't know if he's a stray or what so I'm really scared to touch him and he's always super dirty so this is my reaction every time he tries to get me to pet him. 

We're fine but the car...Not so much!

So this week was exciting! The engine stalled when we were on a hill and the car went down the hill (with us in it) until we were stopped by a brick wall.... Yeah it was not fun and my neck did not feel good the next day. Hopefully, if everything goes well, I'll still have my driving privileges because it was a malfunction with the car and not my driving. After we called the president and told him what happened, he told us to go to the nearest Frappe truck and get something to help soothe our nerves. I was more than ok with that! Frappes don't have coffee in them here... they're basically like milk shakes. This came at a really good time because all that day I was craving an Arctic Circle Reeses PB shake. My Frappe wasn't quite as good but it's what I had to work with.

Ouch!

It's true...ice cream (or frappes) can make everything all better!

We had to drop one of our favorite investigators this week because he isn't progressing and straight up told us that he wouldn't keep any of our commitments. He let us take one last picture with him though... He was like our grandpa in the mission. 

We found a Sign with a V and an M on it which is cool because Hermana Garcia's first name is Valarie and mine is of Course Mary. 

A Moment of Pain is Worth a Lifetime of Glory

This week was pretty uneventful actually! I'm still getting into the swing of everything and my Mission President gave me a challenge: go an entire day not speaking English... I agreed to not speak English but I'm guessing writing my family is still fair game! 

The Lord loves me and I prayed about it and the risk out weighs the benefits of visiting that lady with boyfriend that does drugs. The lord will protect me but I have to be listening to his council. Each day is a little easier. I'd like to quote my favorite movie (Unbroken); 

                                       

"A moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory"

That's my theme right now because this work is not easy!

Here's some pictures from this week! The ward here is amazing and I love the people here so much! I have some really cute next door neighbors, there's spiders that are a big as a child's shoe, and I hit my two month mark last week!

I learned to accept that sometimes God has other plans for you and it's good to plan for the future but we have to also be willing to adjust those plans. "We make plans and God laughs". 

Cute "boys" from next door

Spider as big as a child's shoe

God will protect His servants

Yesterday I was teaching a lady who lives in Naranjito. I feel really good about her but there is this one huge problem holding her back from being baptized, she's not married! She broke down yesterday and told us that she is a recovering drug addict and the reason she doesn't want to get married to her boyfriend is because he is still doing drugs and he isn't the kind of guy that she wants to be stuck with for all eternity. While we were teaching her a man came to her door and as soon as I saw him I got this feeling of pure terror. I knew immediately who he was and whom he served. I knew that he was a drug dealer, I don't know how but I just knew. When I was experiencing these feelings of terror, I heard a voice, other than my own, saying "I will not allow him to harm you, you are my servant. I will protect you". He left shortly after and the spirit returned to our lessons. 

I know who I serve and I know that He will ALWAYS protect his servants while they are doing His will. Even though I have sketchy moments like that I never feel like I'm in danger. 

Merry Christmas

Merry (late) Christmas!!

This Christmas was very different from any that I have every experienced... but in a good way! I wasn't bundled up, sleeping in, or surrounded by family. Instead, it was basically like every other day on my mission with a couple exceptions.

 On Christmas Eve my companion and I went and visited those who don't have any family to spend the holidays with. We brought them Christmas cards and tried to cheer them up. I have a picture with one of my favorite sister's that we visited that day. She's amazing and always trying to feed us! 

I spent dinner that night with a family visiting from the states and it felt so good to be around a family... and to be speaking English!!

Christmas day we went and visited a sister in her retirement home. She is like our grandma and loves taking care of us. We went and visited others who were alone and then headed to the Davis, another American couple, for dinner and to Skype our families. I can't even begin to describe how great it was to speak with my family!! This Christmas was my favorite even if it was different than what I'm use to!

Christmas Love from Home!

Since there is no snow in Puerto Rico Missionary Mom sent a "magic snowball".  After all, what's Christmas without snow?