Physical And Spiritual Gains

Hello! Buenas Tardes!

I am going to be completely honest with you, this has been a had a few faith testing days for me. It was a struggle but I am doing a lot better now.

So over this past transfer we have seen a change from the leaders being normally loving and obedient STLs to complete eyes on us. We have been rebuked every other day from the STLs and it's been taking a bit of a toll on my mental health. I am not going to say that I am completely innocent of certain things that happened, but at this point we are getting rebuked without any love. I don't feel that they trust or have confidence in me and my Companion ( as missionaries, really) and it makes missionary work really difficult and discouraging. 

At one point I broke down. I did some soul searching and my companion shared a story about how she had to find humility amongst her struggles. I have been receiving a lot of messages around me from the spirit about letting go of certain pains/prejudices that I thought I had dealt with a while back. I have been finding peace when I drop those nets and follow him. So things are on an uphill again and i'm working on being humble to my leaders council. 

We met this man named Jorge! We knocked on a door that had a Spanish name and he referred Jorge to us and so we had a lesson with Jorge, the fellowship Member and a fellowship of our own. All of us thought he was a really Inactive member and then all of a sudden... he told us he was never baptized and we were like whaaaat? (Dun dun dunnnn) so we are now teaching him! He has 2 acoustic guitars and I think the message got lost in translation but I think he either wants me to try to play a song for him the next time I meet him or he wants to give one of the guitars to me as a gift. I will update you which one is the right one next week! In the meantime I have to learn how to play the guitar in a couple of hours. Does anyone know how to play? I have a Ukelele so I kind-of know some chords? My companion has been teaching me music theory so I can identify chords in a song so that I can play them on the ukelele. Anyways I know that Heavenly Father wants me to use my musical talents so we'll see how it goes!

Also I don't know if I mentioned it last week, but I have officially finished my last appointment in physical therapy! I will do my back exercises 3 times a week after February 1st and keep doing it that way until I for sure know that my back is fine. We met this family that is going to let us use their home gym. Don't worry Coach Jen! I'll get back in the pool and it'll be like I never left! 

- That’s mostly a joke ;)

Sunday was really cool. We had some unexpected nonmenber friends came to church and it was a great experience for them. One of them was a pair that was dropp3d because they were busy and the woman was sitting next to us asking is questions and was really interested in how we provide those that passed away an opportunity to be baptized in temples. She got really excited about it! We also met this RM (his nsme is Elder Church) that showed up to church that came home early from his misison (he left at around 15 months) and just really wanted to be part of a Spanish ward and participate in their culture. He served his mission in somewhere in Oregon Spanish Speaking. If you know if anyone that has come home from their misisons, I would Invite you to reach out in love or pray for them. (I have 6 names on my list right now to pray for) 

The spirit helped me see in the eyes of Christ to see that thanks to his hand in my life I am stronger than I used to be. Every day I get stronger and I can fight through the battles and I can't even imagine what my life would be without his help and having his light as a focus in my life. 

Have an awesome week!

Hermana Vestel