Birthday, year mark, folk dance, oh my!

Wow what a wild ride it's been these past 3 weeks! Just a quick summary and some thoughts I've been havin,

- our most progressing friend Annie hasn't been able to have lessons/ come to church but she finally had her baby! 

- Adrian the soccer boy is praying about baptism 

- Lupillo, the one who's mother's dying wish was for him to not change religions is on date!! God's been fr softening his heart the past few weeks. 

- lots of member dinners and creating such good memories with them. Simi Valley sp. Branch will always have a special place in my heart

- had a lesson with a Persian man from iran

- I turned 20!!  we had interviews with President, studied at the mall and got cheesecake factory cheesecake, ate cafe rio with some sisters, 

 

went to Starbucks with some members, taught english class, then after they had a surprise party for me and smashed my face into cake!! Such a dang good day.

 

- Since we have no sisters in our zone we're over the Newbury Park ones. Exchanges are loooong days but so worth it! I went on one with sister Angilau who's cousin (shoutout hermana Vi) was one of my MTC comps!! 

- We got free tickets to the BYU international folk dance since we were bringing a friend and it was so vibrant and fun!! After we went to Cafe Rio with a bunch of missionaries and the friends they brought. l felt like a normal person for a  night!

- I hit my year mark. Mission time is so wack and hard to describe. Soo much is packed into every day, and the beginning of the mish was fs slow. But I'm starting to get lost in the work more and more every day. 

- there was a bit of a misunderstanding with my comp and she got her feelings hurt. It was hard to not blame myself, or think abt what I could've done better. I tried my absolute best to make things better but they just weren't. I learned a lot abt only worrying about what I could control and to just be there to listen and have a shoulder to cry on. 

I got really good advice to just start loving every part of her and voice my appreciation for her. After some time and a good comp council, all is well:)

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:43–44).

- now dont worry, she isnt my enemy, it was just a tricky situation! If someone is having a hard time with you, love them, pray for them, and serve them like Jesus would. Kill em with kindness really does work huh selena Gomez

Hugs and kisses!

<3 hermana jermy

Bump set and spike the Mexican way

 - this past week in our mission a bunch of elders got covid, a sister had apendicitis, and there was 3 ETs (emergency transfers) so at MLC there was a lot of things to figure out it was fun

- played lots of volleyball  with the branch this week, and we've started teaching 3 people because of it! 

- Sunday we had 10 friends at church. Wild ik. Getting friends to church is hard because it's so based off their agency. But 1- our members are awesome and bring them, and 2- we hype church up tell everyone it's gonna be the best 2 hours of their week. 

-One gal who came, Jennifer, had called us the day before because she's going through a hard time with her family rn. She sat by me and ohhh is she a sweetheart. Please pray for her and her baby! 

- Empathy is very important being a member of the church. In our baptismal covenant we promise to mourn with those that mourn, give them comfort, and share their burden. Sometimes we're the ones mourning or needing the comfort, but helping take others burdens honestly lightens our own. When you serve and help others you're obviously not focused on your own problems, but it also just gives you so much joy. There's definitely hard days where i don't wanna go out and teach lessons and id rather take a nap or sum, but everytime i do and I testify of Christ, that lifts me up more than anything else possible.

 God is good, hugs and kisses

- hermana jerman