June 17, 2014 Miracles and Mysteries…

Hello everyone!
This week has been insane! A lot of plans fell through, but there were also a lot of surprises! 

All week, Sister Boyd and I have been working soo hard to find people to teach, help our investigators progress, meet new people, do service, and other things. It's really tough when you are working as hard as you can and can't see any kind of progress or success from it. It didn't help that one of our roommates, Sister Swapp was sick this week, so we were doing splits with Sister Livingston and taking turns 'Swapp-sitting'. So we didn't have a lot of lessons or contacts and it was coming up on the end of the week. Sunday rolled around and we needed 6 more lessons to reach our goals. 

Well, miracles happen! Not only did we get 6 lessons, but we got two new investigators!! It's amazing how the Lord blesses us when we are serving Him and serving others. One is Ernie and he is a really interesting fellow. He has no idea what he believes, but he is willing to take the lessons and just 'listen and learn'. But we're hoping he'll learn and progress and get baptized! The other is Jack and he's the son of a current investigator of ours. He has studied Theology a lot and just wants to study the Bible with us. So we'll see what we can do to help these people come closer to Christ.

Monday was amazing! It was a much needed trip to Santa Cruz!! We ate at Pizza My Heart, a pizza joint that is only near the coast (meaning not in Livermore). We all missed it so we just had to eat lunch there. We spent time on the beach and to our surprise, there were tons of other missionaries there too! It was a nice surprise that Sister Bassett was there because she's serving in Santa Cruz now! So we had a lot of fun just hanging out, catching up, and playing in the waves. After the beach, we went to the Mystery Spot. It's a place in the Santa Cruz mountains where the gravitational pull is different, so crazy things happen there! I'll try to send pictures! It was really trippy and awesome. 

It was great to go to Santa Cruz and spend time with some of my favorite people and just have a day to relax. I can honestly say that I am serving in the best mission in the world. (:

I have been at a really interesting and vulnerable place recently. I have been struggling with a lot of things and trying to figure out other things. This whole transfer so far has been a hard one. Possibly the hardest. On top of that, Sister Livingston is going home in three weeks and she has been like a sister to me for the past 9 months of my mission. But I've been finding a lot of comfort from the scriptures recently and it has helped me to realize that things are okay. 

There will always be more to discover, more to do, more to feel. There is joy in serving the Lord and in the grand scheme of things, this is a very short time. So I've been trying to make the best of it and take every opportunity I can to serve others and the Lord because I love Him. When you really break it down, nothing else matters. We do this because we love Him. And He loves us. I have learned on my mission to never take that for granted. We have a work to do here and our purpose is to help everyone to feel that love.

I hope everyone has an amazing week!
Mom and Dad, have fun in Belize! (:
Amo Jesu Cristo;