Week 24, January 18, 2015

¡Buenas dias!

Quiero compartir mi testimonio en español para ustedes, si esta bien. Yo sé que tenemos un salvador viviente hoy, Jesucristo. El es nuestro redentor, el primogénito del Padre en el espiritu, y el unigénito del Padre en la carne. El es mi mejor amigo y puedo hablar con El cualquier tiempo. Estoy muy agradecida a estar una misionera de Cristo y Su iglesia. Mi deseo y esperanza es que ustedes pueden conocer el y aceptar su evangelio. 

Okay, I'll go back to English now =)
This past week has been very interesting. We have spent a lot of time trying to contact potentials and finding so we can keep up our investigator pool. The people we have and had on date are awesome! We did run into some hard news though with one of our investigators on date, Alejó and Yairi.
We had awesome lesson with Alejó on Saturday night and it was the first time his parents were there. We tried to get them involved but they didn't join us. The lesson felt good to me, but afterwards Sis. Pecjak said that he seemed off, or different than normal. Later that night he sent a text saying that he wasn't going to church and that he didn't want us to stop by again. We kept trying to figure out what happened but his answers were very vague and we were left feeling sad because we know he's ready but we don't know what happened. We have thought about visiting him but we feel like that would make whatever is going on worse. When we asked his uncle, who's in the ward, he said that Alejó just isn't ready; I felt a bit angry at that, but I took it to the Lord and  He helped me feel better. We also haven't been able to get a hold of another investigator who was on date, Yairi.
Basically, while we've had a lot of ups, we've had quite a few downs. I know this is part of mission life, but yesterday was really hard. I love these people and watching them reject the gospel, reject Christ, for whatever reason is just painful. I'm starting to see how God sees me and I never want to cause Him or our Savior this pain. I'm trying my best each day to live well and I repent at night because I know that I mess up. I'm so grateful for the Atonement, not just for others but for myself as well. I wish that those I'm serving could just make good choices! They're getting there, and we'll keep helping them.

Besides that, life is good. I keep moving one day at a time and try to stay focused on why I'm here. If I can remeber what Christ did for me, and the confirmations I've had, I can keep working. I love this miasion, I love these people (even when they're being difficult), and I'm so grateful to be here. My advice for anyone who wants to serve a mission: expect heartache but learn to take joy in everything. His will be an extremely hard experience because of how emotionally attached you are to those you meet, but it's all worth it. The joy is so amazing, so overwhelming, that that's all you'll remember.
What could be better than serving others? (Mosiah 2:17)

I love you all and hope that you have have a great week! I hope that you learned something new and have grown this past week. Smile big, laugh out loud, and love life.

Love,
Hermana Lindh

Pictures are from an activity held January 15th in Salt Lake City and Provo (I think). Eight companionships were asked to come to SLC and/or Provo to meet with Elder Bednar, Sister Oscarson, and President Clayton to record a group discussion for the first ever world-wide missionary training that was broadcast to missionaries only on January 20th. Rachel and her companion were two of the companionships that got to be in a small group teaching situation with some of the highest leaders of our church, including an apostle.