Vale la Pena

July 15, 2016

Hi family!

Quick update.... 

Things have been very busy and I haven't had a lot of time to write. These past few weeks have been good, but not without their challenges. 

The hardest thing has been that I got really sick.... again. I had basically perfect health all my mission until these last 2 or 3 months and I've gotten sick quite a few times. This last episode was pretty miserable... I don't know if we ate something or if I got some stomach bug or what.... but I was up all night just crazy sick. It was the first time in my mission that I thought "I just want to go home." That's normally not something I would share... that I had a rough time or that I thought about wanting to be home... but I share it because it makes the experiences that followed more meaningful. 

After that bad night, I started to get better. By Sunday I was still feeling a little sick, but well enough to go to church and work. However, I was still just feeling a little sad. It was the first time I had gotten really frustrated in my mission because we had had some investigators drop us or decide not to get baptized, all while I had been so sick, and at the same time I was training a new missionary and trying to set her up to have the best, most successful mission possible. I was just feeling a lot of pressure, and maybe like I was failing a little. But that Sunday, as I sat in church thinking about all of this, I looked around at the investigators around us. I watched as they took the sacrament and thought about how I was helping them to progress towards making covenants with God. Just then, the Castillo Family from my first ward walked in. They were my first baptisms in the mission and had come to our services here in Neza to see me. I couldn't help but cry. I just felt like God was telling me that what I was doing was worth it. That He knew that it hasn't always been easy for me, but that He has always been helping me and He appreciates my work. 

The Lord brings us down so He can build us up. He tests us so He can make us stronger. 

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

This scripture has become one of my favorites. The Lord has given us weaknesses. God needed to remind me that this isn't my work and that I can't do this on my own. That I need him. And He is changing me. I have grown so much and I understand the gospel so much better. I want to bare you my testimony that this is the true church. I know what I am doing is worth it. In Spanish the expression, "it's worth it" is said "vale la pena" -- which litterally translates to "it's worth the pain." And it is. The mission is not easy. But it's worth the pain.

But in general, things are really good here. I'm healthy, we do have some progressing investigators and my companion is great. I hardly even feel like I'm training because she is such a great support. And I love being here. I really do. And I live with 3 Latina missioneras, which is just a BLAST! Imagine sassy latin ladies talking super fast in spanish... that's my life and it's so fun. (:

One crazy thing is that tomorrow I turn 21 which means that I will have never seen my family in person while having been 20 years old! wierdddd....

I love you all so much. Thank you for all your love and support. Have an awesome week.

Love,

Hermana Aubriana Wolferts