San Sebastian - Week Five

Hey family! How is everyone? Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK! I'm glad my letter came!!

Did you all love conference? Man, I was just eating all of it up haha I loved it. So since the hours are different here we watched Saturday morning session on Saturday night (along with the relief society broadcast) and then Sunday we got to see the Saturday afternoon one and the Sunday morning one. Bummer is, we didn't get to see the Sunday afternoon one.. but hopefully I get to see it eventually. I am always so obsessed with conference talks these days. We have a bunch of church magazines in our apartment so I probably read two or three talks a day during meals and stuff. So I was pumped outta my mind for conference. AND IT WAS IN ENGLISH. Thank heavens, it was so nice to watch it in English.

I totally thought it was interesting how much they talked about keeping covenants. It's true though, we are so blessed when we keep our covenants. I of course loved President Monson´s talk on enduring through our trials. It's so true though, we have trials to help strengthen us. We couldn't progress if not. I have seen that so much already since being here. If there hadn't been hard parts along the way, I wouldn't be able to progress. I have such a testimony of going to the Lord in prayer when we struggle. He is ready and willing to help us if we just ask for it. Another thing I really liked was the quote that says  "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." So simple and so true. GAH love conference.

Anyway, this week was good. One cool experience we had was with an investigator named Christina. She's from Spain (say whaaaat?) so cool cuz most people here don't want much to do with us. Anyway, shes been struggling along, especially with prayer. She gets so nervous and always refuses to pray with us. I think it is because it is so unfamiliar to her. She feels like she doesn't know how to do it right. We have even practiced with her a bunch, but she won't budge. This last time though, she FINALLY prayed! It was way cool. She was incredibly nervous though, I think it is just really out of her comfort zone. It's sad to think that people don't know about the blessing of prayer, ya know? There is SO much power in prayer. Sometimes I just want to pray forever haha. It just feels good. Anyway, we were really happy. The bummer is, shes outta town this week so we can't go see her but we will keep with it when she gets back.

Another cool thing this week was that we were looking through our list of less active people in our ward, people we could go visit and we found this woman named Soledad. Shes from Chile (hollllaaa for a dollaa honey boo boo) .. (I'm so embarrassed I said that, but it's all for you tytybtwizzle) Anyway, she's so sweet. She's such a strong person, and could be so strong in the church, but she got divorced a few years back from her husband and doesn't want to go to church alone. I think she is worried the people will judge her for it. It's sad. She is active in every other way, she is doing it all, except church. So I'm excited to work with her and help her get back on track. That's something that I've learned about being out here is that it's not all about just finding new people to teach, sometimes you've gotta take care of the people you've got. There are a ton of less active people in this ward that need a lot of help. The hard thing is, the economy is so bad that people are always working. Everyone works Sundays. People just have to work whenever they are needed otherwise they don't work. It makes things more difficult.

Hermana Benson got sick this week. I heard there's some weird virus going around haha. A bunch of the missionaries have gotten sick (don't worry Mom I'm being really careful) But we stayed home all day Friday cuz she was way sick. It was nice though to get some good study time in and stuff. It was kind of a slow week this week though. Conference took up a big chunk of our weekend and then with other meetings and stuff we had during the week, we didn't have that many lessons. Our investigators are struggling a little bit though. I don't know what it is, but lately they are all having trouble progressing... but we are doing the best we can to press forward with it. Oh also Onome.. I don't know what happened, but after the baptism Saturday, we have had zero contact with her. We have called so many times. She lives far though, so it's hard to stop in and see her. We just called this afternoon though and she finally answered, so maybe we can help her. I have been praying so much for her. She really needs the gospel in her life, I just hope we can help her get back on track. Anyway, the work here is good, I hope we can continue to find more investigators and help the ones we have to progress more! I just have to remind myself, I've just gotta do the best I can and not worry about the rest. I am excited for what this next week will hold. I love you all so much! Have a good week!

besos for dayzzz

Hermana reid