Not a Perfect Missionary

Hello family and Friends!

Oh my goodness. I never thought that I would actually survive until November! It seemed like one of those things that is so far in the future that it won't ever actually arrive. Guess what... now it is here. For some reason it finally hit me this week that I am coming home soon. For a long time it just felt like I would just stick around here forever however I realize now that it is coming. Also, 3 weeks seems a whole lot shorter than 4 weeks! I am sad about that. I am really excited to go home and see all of you but it makes me sad that this part of my life will be over. Even though the mission is hard, it has been a wonderful experience for me.

This past week was a little interesting... We went on exchanges with the Oleander Sisters and I got to go to their ward with Sister Pauslen who was my roommate last transfer. She has been having a very hard time. She has only been out for 5 months and is the Senior Companion in a new area that needs a ton of work! I was able to share some advice with her that Zack shared with me before Sterling went through the temple. It just talks about taking one day at a time! After I spent the day working with her I was amazed at everything that she has done for that area in just 3 short weeks. I could just feel that she has changed a lot of things and that the members, investigators, less-actives, etc, all trust her! They can tell that she is a good missionary and that she is there to work hard even when it is hard for her. It was a good experience to work and learn from her this week. I realize that I have so much to learn from all of these younger missionaries and it is a little hard because I feel like I should know these things by now. Shouldn't I be the perfect missionary?! Haha nope! I still have such a long way to go. 

This past weekend was a very sad weekend. On Saturday we went to visit with Aileen and she told us that she won't be getting baptized on the 14th anymore. It is so sad but she let the fear of her sister overcome her and she started to question everything that she knew. I was heartbroken. I have never heard of someone receiving as many answers and she had done and it broke my heart that she was using her agency to go against it. For one of the first times in my mission I was unfearingly bold with her. I told her that as missionaries we were there to help her. I also told her that at that moment we were there to warn her of the consequences of her decisions. She still decided no and the spirit left and there was nothing else we could do. It made of a sad Halloween. After that we had to go home and we got to have 3 hours to study, write in our journals, etc. I started and almost finished writing the invitations for the Departing Devotional which was good!

Sunday was also a bummer. Nobody came to church. Not a single investigator, or less active. We were so sad. How does that happen?! One week everyone had a ton of potential and we are all excited for them and the next week is just the opposite. We were really bummed but the rest of the day got a lot better. We had dinner with Aileen's mom and Aileen hid in her room. But we were able to help her mom a lot since she is a recent convert. Also, that night we went to visit a part member family that we are teaching and it turns out that it was Francisco's birthday! (In that family there is the mom Matilde, her daughter Johanna and her four kids, Johanna's husband Fransisco (a less active), and his sister Teysi.) They had decided to wait to cut the cake until we got there and since we had to leave to be home on time they have us a HUGE slice of cake to take home and share. It was the perfect ending to Sunday because the cake was delicious! It amazed us how this family that we met a couple weeks ago had so much love for us. I gave them their invitation to my Departing Devotional and they told me that they would do everything they can to be there. What a wonderful family!

I don't know if any of you remember that I got an ear infection. I have more news! So when I went to the doctor there was so much liquid in my ear that they couldn't see my eardrum. They gave me medicine and I went back this week and they were able to see that I had actually ruptured my eardrum! How fun! It was just a small hole but it makes sense why I can't hear very well. They were asking me if it hurt and I said yes and they were just surprised that I wasn't complaining more because it should hurt a lot. :) Yes! I finally have a high pain tolerance. Woot!!!

That is about everything for this week. Sorry it was little long! I hope that you all had a wonderful Halloween and got lots of candy that you are waiting to share with me when I get home. ;) Thank you so much for your love and support!!! It means the world to me. 

Love,

Hermana Morey