Breaking your heart over and over

Arrived Feb 17 2016

Love you more than….Muddy Buddies!!!! Holy cow! who knew that chocolate and peanut butter covered chex mix with powdered sugar could taste so darn good!!! Sheesh like best birthday present in the mission ever!

  

Chocolate cake waffle and frosting for Elder "waffle boy's" birthday 

This week was a good week! We are still working with my favorite family to get the mom back active and the dad to accept a baptismal date so the daughter can get baptized. Heydi wants to get baptized so bad and I feel bad we keep having to push her baptismal date back but she needs the support of her immediate family to continue coming to church and not going inactive. I think that’s a big goal with our mission right now, more quality over quantity. Cristofer, he missed church these past to week but he is super ready, just kind of a similar problem because he lives with his mom, all while his dad and step mom are the active members and also in the branch. Elder Bouwhuis and I are working hard to get new investigators since our last batch or lack of a better term, are never home and so we can’t ever share! The Caribbean “go with the flow” and “pass by anytime” feel is frustrating because we can’t ever get set days and times, people just about agree with any day we tell them. Sometimes I think people don’t have anything to do but sit in rocking chairs on their porches, blast their crazy music, play dominoes, smoke cigars or hide from missionaries. It’s like everyone is free until Christ and his teachings come looking for them, it’s like they think we are the CIA or something. 

Elder Bouwhuis is progressing a lot with his Spanish. Sometimes it’s frustrating when the people will straight-up tell him his Spanish is terrible even when I thought it was fine. We are getting to be good friends and we have fun and work hard. I think it’s funny how we either get really good contacts or really difficult people.

Lately we have been waking up early some days to work-out more. He has a new missionary appetite and yet we (and most of the mission) have a deathly fear of the Dominican rice belly. It’s like a curse that you hope you never get, but you pretty much eat rice everyday for most, if not all your meals. 

This week was another week though when I realized that the mission is full of awkward times and also breaking your heart over and over. I have made some amazing friends, almost like family, yet when they aren’t willing to change or don’t improve it breaks your heart. Luis and Angelina haven’t been progressing and its because Angelina isn’t very interested. Luis however is like my best friend and he loves reading and talking about the gospel and enjoys talking to me about dirt biking, paintballing, food, hiking. IT breaks my heart how many times he says he wants to go to church but Angelina (Wife) and family-in-law don’t want to leave the Catholic church. Every time we go to tell them we can’t pass by as often they feed us or something. 

 

Valentine's (and my birthday) Party with the Branch

I was thinking about how thoughts of ¨What if¨ or ¨If I had only¨ are like poison to the mind. There have been many times in the mission I’ve been thinking about if I had only been better at___ or if I had only shared___ or what if they had___. The more you think about things like that the more I feel like you lose confidence in yourself, in others and start to doubt yourself. I think this is a big part to discouragement and a loss in confidence in faith. I love a scripture that was shared in elders quorum the other day, 2 Nefi 4:19  I know in whom I have trusted in. Once we begin to trust Him, it should only strengthen us and increase our faith. From before we got here, we trusted him. I can picture in my mind Christ and Heavenly Father in Heaven sadly pleading for us to only trust. Like Christ said, “fear not, only believe”. Every time I hear that, I think of Elder Jeffery R Holland’s voice saying it. The best way to live, and the only happy way to live is to trust, even when it is difficult and hard, and to fear not. There is a silver lining behind every cloud and a happily ever after just around the corner. 

“I trust every man, I just don’t trust the devil inside him” Italian job 

“And it came to past that I am the best” Nate Sheffield

Asombro me da el amor que me da Jesus

Elder Sheffield