Just Keep Trying

Hello Everyone!!!

Summer has hit hard here. The mosquitos are starting to make there way to my skin, and I am wearing my sombrero almost everyday. We are looking for a new pencionista. I think Hermana Ortiz will be our new one as of next week. My comp and I lose our appetites everytime we walk into the house of our pencionista. She's great but we are gonna have to change. 

Yesterday 148 people attended sacrament meeting! Our ward is really strong. The attendance just keeps rising! We have been visiting one less active family the whole time I have been here in Sullana, and they finally came to church yesterday! Miracles exist.

President Grow when he came to our mission told us how important it is to not pass one family in the street without talking to them. At first our president gave us to goal of 12 families each week. This last week Elder Grow told us we should be talking to 24 families in the street every week! This goal shouldn't be hard, but sometimes it is. We are always running late to appointments, then we see a couple in the street. First I think man we have no time right now to talk! We are 15 minutes late. Sometimes I pass families and my gut hurts so I chase after them and look like a weirdo. It is a good challenge. I challenge all you missionaries to never pass a family in the street! The church needs families. 

In November a member of the Seventy is coming to our mission. Elder Evans. I can't wait. Everyone is going to Piura for this conference. I will get to see all my friends! 

We are teaching a 30 year old named Claudia. (She and her sister were the ones who invited us to eat sea food, from which we almost died).  Anyway we are teaching her, her sister Silvia, and her friend Wendy. They are very interested. Claudia has a baptismal date for November 22, but she still hasn't come to church because of her work. I am praying that she will be able to come to church and this date won't fall. 

I love this gospel. My testimony grows everyday. I am not some spiritual giant or anything but I feel that this church is true. I just know it. I am not alone. I feel God's peace and love in my life. He is the one who gives me strength and pushes me to walk another step or eat another plate of rice. I am humbled daily as I see all of my weaknesses. I think everyone needs a mission, just to be humbled. It's like God gives me a shovel and shows me really how much I have to grow and improve. But I am trying. I am shoveling that dirt as hard as I can. One day I will be able to see the good soil. And that's what I want to say to all of you. Just keep trying. Just keep trying. 

Love you all to death.