Enduring To The End

Hey all!

So this week was VERY interesting, and VERY stressful. I do have a funny story to share with you. We finally got mail this week!!! YEAH!!! We only get it about once every 6 weeks so we were pretty excited. I got a package from the Streits... but it was for Hna ScanTon.... oh my ha ha. Everyone was asking me who exactly sent me this package and when I explained that they were family friends practically since my birth it made the joke even funnier. So I am now know as Hna Scanton... :) The package that they sent was awesome though.... a christmas tree!!! Ha ha we love it in our apartment. Although I am not gonna lie, with the temperature in the 90´s with almost 100% humidity some days... Christmas is probably the last thing that I feel that I should be thinking about.

This week our investigator Mari got baptized!!! I have been teaching here since I got to this area so it was a really exciting to see her be baptized! Also the ward is really happy about all our work, which also is nice. How are the Elders doing in the ward? I actually think about them a lot and how hard it must be to be a missionary there. I know Dad is doing his part to help them out... So hopefully everyone else is praying for missionary experiences as well.

I have often felt that the mission is very much like a "mini" life. It has all the emotions of a life packed into a very short time... it´s stressful and hard.. but so great at the same time. This week was to put it very frankly, a very challenging week for me and I felt very discouraged. As I contemplating my feelings I couldn´t help but have the impression that satan uses the same tactics to try to prevent us from succeeding here as he does in normal life... the feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt, always attacking our weak points and those things that are close to us. I have realized in my mission that the baptism and confirmation isn´t the hard part... that feeling that first spark of testimony isn´t the part that we struggle with the most.... that hardest part is enduring to the end! In 2 Nephi 31:20-21 it says that we need to press forward with a FIRM faith in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope and love of God and ALL men, and if we continue on, delighting in the word of Christ and endure to the end, then we will have eternal life. This is the only way, and there isn´t any other way or name on earth for which we can be saved in the kingdom of God. (Sorry if I slaughtered that.. I had to translate it from spanish) This is the challenge that we all have ENDURING TO THE END. I have realized that the disappointments that we face, whether in the mission or in life, are what bring us closer to that perfect day, our own "refiners fire" as we call it and that as we learn to have perfect trust in God and that all that we face in this life is apart of His plan for us, we can have peace and comfort even in our darkest hours of need. I pray for all of us that we can have the kind of faith in God and hope that He knows what is best for each of His children that we can always put our trust and confidence in Him and His plan.

I finally sent pictures! The first picture is me with syrup.... I was super happy. The second picture is me with one of the little kids in the ward... her name is evelyn. The third picture is me with my comp and Daniel, the girl that lived in the states for 16 years! The fourth picture is me with one of my converts, Juan... he is a K-po....

Well gotta go!

I think about you often, pray for you always, and love you forever!

Hna. Scanlon