WEEK 28: Achievement Unlocked: A New Hope

 You are walking across a bridge. Its an old rope bridge with planks of wood to walk on. You look behind you and see the same bridge you are on now. Some parts of the bridge are nicer and some parts are worse. You look ahead of you and cant quiet make out the path in front of you. Eventually, there is wind that starts to pick up and a deep heavy mist starts to form around you. Eventually the wind becomes strong and you hold on to the rope bridge with all your might. Eventually the wood breaks from underneath you and you start to fall. flailing helplessly in the wind, not being able to see because of the darkness. You start to give up. "I will never get back to the path I was on. I'm not strong enough, I don't have the strength to keep going." Eventually the winds cease and the darkness unfolds. You find yourself hanging from the bridge being held up by someone who caught you before you fell too far. This person helps you back onto the bridge. You go to thank the person and find a book of scriptures, friends and family, and most importantly The Savior. You realize that these people have helped you along the path. Waiting patiently behind you so that when you fell, they would be there to catch you. 

At the beginning of this week I got caught in that awful snare that is negative thinking. Thinking that I wasn't good enough. Thinking, why am I not in a different area? Or a different mission? How come other people are having more succuss than me? Why isn't this situation going the way I want it too. Did you notice the problem with these thoughts? There is no happiness, no success, and most importantly, there is no hope. 

This last Thursday we had an emotional resilience class with all of the Gringos in my mission. In this class we talked about 10 different bad thinking habits and I realized I had been thinking about 9/10 of these unhealthy habits. We were prompted to change these bad habits by thinking of ways to make them more positive. For Example, Instead of saying, "There is no one in the sector to teach" say, "if we work more diligently we will eventually find those ready to accept the gospel." 

The first counselor in our ward gave a talk last week where he said, "If one person in a room of people in miserable, eventually, everyone else will start to feel miserable." Its so easy to entertain those bad thoughts that come into your head. Its so easy to think of the worst and to look back at the past instead of ahead in the future. 

After this class I decided that I needed to change. I started praying for the gift of charity and I finally started seeing the beauty of my mission in Ecuador. The houses, the people, the food, my house, and even the disgusting gross dogs that roam the streets. I started feeling happier. I started to love my mission and started feeling more joy. 

I testify that the savior truly bore our griefs and felt our sorrows. I testify that the atonement is real and can help us with more than just sin. But it can help change every single aspect of our lives. 

Les testifico que el evangelio de jesucristo es verdadero y que podemos cambiar. Podemos sentir este gozo y paz en la tierra y tambien por la eternidad. Yo se que si tenemos las buenas obras en esta vida y si miramos a Jesucristo con cada cosa. estaremos feliz. Les testifico en el nombre sagrado de Jesucristo, Amen. 

OKAYY lets get these bad feeling out of here and move on to the good stuff lol. This week an hermano in our ward painted my guitar! He drew an iguana, and 2 birds cultural to Ecuador which is sick. Also, we found 1 new person to teach that has potential and we haven't before.

Also, yesterday the bishop in our ward told us we had to give a talk... He gave us 5 minutes to prepare but it went really well! I was praying super hard but luckily I have a book of Mormon and a new testament with marked scriptures in it and I gave a solid 5 minute message lol. 

I haven't really talked about my mission much either but in my area every single house has at least a second house on top of it and sometimes in 1 cuadra there are 5 houses stacked on top of each other. Its sick. Also for the food here, we usually get served a big soup and once I finish it I'm thinking, wow that was a good filling soup, BUT NO the people then give us a SECOND plate and 3/4 of this plate is just white rice and the other 1/4 is meat or sauce and I'm tired of eating straight white rice everyday lol. 

There are also a lot of people here that just randomly speak English when they see me and they love saying, "Mister Mister, 1 2 3, how ah you?" And my personal favorite, "WHAT THE %!@^#." I don't know who taught the kids to swear but sometimes its funny hearing it in their terrible Spanish accents lol. 

Also, with the language I'm pretty good right now. I can pretty much understand and respond to everything and if I don't know I don't know a word I can ask my companion or someone else to explain it for me and I can understand. There are still some words I can pick out but I'm happy to learn every day. 

I love you all so much 🫶🏼 thanks for everything and I appreciate you all so much! 

Les queiro mucho