Satan is a jerk!

So something that I’ve discovered in the misión is that Satan can be a real jerk! I guess i already knew that before, but I’ve had a few more experiences in the misión to realize that he is real and that he is working hard for us to be miserable like himself. But another testimony that I have gained in the misión is that God will always win! No matter what curveball Satan throws at us, God is always there with his perfect love ready to help us up and give us the blessings. So this week I have been working hard to develop the Christlike attributes. Faith, Love, Patience, Knowledge, Diligence, Obedience, and all of those divine qualities that help us come unto Christ and become like him. So i tried to focus on one for a couple of days. And whichever one I was focusing on, I saw more challenges and dificultéis trying to live it. Por ejemplo…

Diligence – So the day I decided to study diligence, I was completely committed to being diligent. But then, I didn’t get any sleep the night before. And it was an especially hot day, which always makes me a little lazy. So we spent the day running to different appointments, and it got to the end of the day and I didn’t want to go anymore. I was tempted to spend the last hour in the house of a member and just call it good. But Hna. Mortensen and i knew that we needed to ¨endure to the end¨ and we decided to knock just a few more houses. And then we saw the Miracle! We found an Amazing investigator that we honestly interesting to learn about the Christ’s true church. We taught him a little bit and then set another appointment when we could teach his whole family!

Patience – The day I decided to live the principle of patience, we lost our light. We didn’t have electricity in the apartment for about four days. This always happened when the cold came back. So we would return to the apartment in the dark without a heater and have to try to plan for the next day. And then our oven broke and all of our food went bad in the fridge and the hot water was cutting out, and I was pretty much close to yelling curse words. I never lose my patience!! But this one day, everything bad was happening and I think Satan was just right there laughing at me and trying to figure out what more he could do to make me mad and lose my patience. But thanks to the calming influence of Hna. Mortensen and more importantly, the calming influence of God, I started to hum ¨Love at Home¨ and I was able to regain my patience.

Hope – When I studied the Christlike attribute of hope, Satan sent me one of my biggest trials that I’ve experienced. We have been working for a long time with a teenager named Mariela that has a baby. She was preparing for her baptismo and everything. She was reading the Book of Mormon everyday, and going to church every week. But then her parents didn’t want her to be baptized. She wanted to be baptized but needed the permission of her parents. We still continued to teach with all of them but this last week they told us that they didn’t want us to pass by anymore. It pretty much broke my heart. I just don’t understand what happened. But I just went to my Heavenly Father in prayer and asked for the strength and the hope and the comfort to go forth. And it came.

I know that Heavenly Father loves us and will always comfort us. Satan is real and is trying to ruin our lives. But we just have to put our trust in our Heavenly Father and rely on Him always. That’s when we find the joy and peace that we need in our lives. I love the misión and even more, I love the Gospel in my life. The Church is true. I love you and miss you and remember to Pray Hard!

Les quiero,
Hna. Ellsworth