Week 8: Nothing like a family all dressed in white

Hola Buenas familia amado mio,

Sounds like y´´all are having a blast visiting Jess and fam in Utah, and now yáll are driving to st. george to visit Grandma Flake. Tell her I love her please! And that I´m thankful for her faithful example that she has always been to her huge family and posterity. She is awesome.

Thanks so much for praying tanto for Familia Vargas! They really needed it because it´s a huge change for them---Juan to stop smoking and drinking, Yahaida to commit to be faithful to her husband, and all of them to be members of this church which is something that will always require much effort from them. The wedding was a little awkward at first, not a whole lot of people (including the abogada (lawyer lady)) didn´t show up right away, but eventually they got there. We had quite a few investigators come that were family of the Vargas family, so that was good. The baptism was much less awkward. It was directly after the boda, and so the turn out was great. Me and my companions shared a poem and song about knowing people before this life and commiting to finding them and teaching them the gospel. We brought lagrimas to the parents eyes. They are wonderful and I am so grateful to have witnessed the change in their life.

We have a lot of work to do now that Familia Vargas is baptized. We need to keep on teaching them all the lessons again, and work our tails off to find another family to teach as well as teach those investigators we already have. We have a lot that aren´t really progressing, so we´re going to determine this week if they´re going to progress or not and if not we will have to drop them....I feel really bad about it because some of them I feel like we might have neglected a bit, and that´s why they´re not progressing.

One of my comps straight up told me that she is expecting me to take charge now and to tell my comps what we´re doing each day (to an extent) and to put all of the baptismal dates on our investigators and to initiate every lesson. Phew. It´s hard, but it´s good for me. Definitely making me be less focused on myself and very humbling. They keep telling me that this is MY area and that since they´re leaving, they´re not obligated to do anything anymore. So, here goes to another humbling and hard week (not to mention sometimes awkward, like when my comps just stare at me expecting me to start, haha) and did I mention humbling? Still trying to find ways to serve them (if you have ideas, give them to me por favor...) but doing the dishes and buying some necessities for our quarters just isn´t quite enough. So true that having companions prepares one for marriage (i´m just glad I´m not going to be marrying two women who can be emotional rollercoasters sometimes, haha) I´m so grateful to have my two missionary moms who have been teaching me a lot about myself and what I need to change. And not to mention spanish and how to teach using examples and stories. They´re great and I am glad I have them as my trainers.

This Sunday, after the confirmations of Familia Vargas, Elder Tobar and I gave quick 5 minute talks, mine about Fe and his about esperanza. We found out the night before that we had the discursos this sunday.... luckily they only had to be 5 minutes. I wrote half of it down and the rest I just shared a personal experience, which was actually easier than I thought it would be. yáll know how bad I am at giving talks verbatum without reading...but that part was actually better than the part that I wrote. haha.

The longer I´m here, the more I realize just how important our attitude is. People are intrigued in those who are happy, smiling, and positive. I´ve realized that talking to people on buses, or just in the street. They will want to hear what I have to say when they see that I am happy to be here sacrificing time, education, employment, memories with family, etc. to be here sharing the gospel with others. And another thing is the importance of unity, in my case with companions, and in yalls´case, within the family. When we are united in purpose and attitude, we can have the spirit with us in our lecciones. Like I said, it´s been a humbling experience. Turn outward and look forward with faith!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Sarah Flake