Update...

Familia,

A week full of ups and downs. (Do I write that every week or what?)

Habits I´ve developed on the mission that mom would never approve of:

-eat everything with your fingers and hands...everything

-wipe dirty hands on your clothes to clean

-don´t shower for 5 days...(just kidding, I shower every day)

Update: So last Monday I got tests done to see if I had parasites. Good news is I don´t have parasites. Bad news is I have an infection in my intestines apparently. They gave me an antibiotic that I took for 5 days and a strict diet, which consists of absolutely no grease, no sugar, and no milk products. So that´s been a boring week with food as almost everything is cooked in oil and everything is loaded with sugar here. But it was kinda nice, we talked to our cook and she made us plain rice and lots of veggies and meat that was cooked without oil. So it´s been good. I´ve actually quite enjoyed lunches on the diet. I´m done taking the antibiotic, but need to take care of my diet well or I could get this crazy bacteria that some missionaries have gotten and some have gone home for it. And I´m not coming home...not until I finish the mission at least, so I´m going to take care of my diet.

The hard stuff: If I´m honest (which I guess is what people want to hear), I felt pretty burdened and frustrated this week with my companion. Her way to go about things is a little difficult as it´s her way, her time, and she´s right. We had interchanges for two days this week and I was grateful for the break. I guess there are some bonuses to being a leader. :) I prayed hard and was looking for ways to get rid of this feeling of resentment, knowing that we could never teach by the spirit if I kept it. I prayed hard and have received more patience and strength than I have in me and was grateful. I´ve looked to remember the good in her and have found more love and appreciation for her and these past couple days have been better. The Lord has helped me see that while I´m doing my best, she´s doing her best also, and while it might be different, we´re both imperfect, trying to do our best and I need to be more patient and loving and see her good qualities, like I did the first few weeks. So I´ve seen a change these past couple days and I do love her. It´s a testimony builder of the Atonement and the role it plays in our lives. Christ is willing to take our burdens, we just have to let Him and hand them over to Him. That is what I´ve worked to focus on and let Him take it from me and I´ve seen the grand difference, things I definitely can´t do for myself. 

And we´re not perfect as people. We´re all imperfect. We all make mistakes. But we need to learn to love each other and see the good in each other, and see others as God or as Christ sees them...that will make everyone a little more happy. It might not be easy, but it just requires a little effort on our part, more prayer, more dependance on the Savior, more patience, and more love.

I´ve felt the biggest desire to play soccer lately. I have only played about twice on the mission, and it´s just a part of my heart, so recently I´ve been craving it big time. One night this week I was frustrated and burdened and as we walked by the church, before returning home, there was almost the entire ward playing futbol in the cancha (field or open area outside). I had ganas para ir y jugar (the desire to go and play)...and in that moment all I wanted to do was go play. I wanted to go change my clothes, and run back to the cancha and start playing. It would help me get my frustration out, I´d enjoy myself, and it´s the game that I love. It was hard just to walk away from that. But maybe one of these days I´ll get to play.

Well, aside from that, we saw some miracles this week as we worked to follow the spirit. We found a new investigator that is super positive, and we only found him by the spirit. We left a house and started walking up the hill. I saw a woman and her son sitting but we kept walking. I felt like we should go talk to them so we turned around and walked back down and contacted her. Well she´s catholic and wasn´t the most friendly, didn´t want anything to do with us. Hmmm...interesting. We started once again to walk up hill and I was thinking, "why did I feel like we should talk to her?" But as we kept walking a guy rode down on his bike and stopped in front of his house when we walked by, so we contacted him and he let us in to teach him. He came to church on Sunday and really loved it. I learned that if we never talked to the angry lady, we never would have talked to him, because he would´ve rode past us on his bike. So I am grateful for the spirit and I am working hard to really rely on the spirit more and let God use me an instrument in His hands, as this is His work, and not mine. It´s hard, but I´m working on it. Poco a poco. (little by little)

I love you all lots and lots! 

Love,

Hermana Wright

The only pics I took this week. Meet my new friend...Iguany.