Know. Live. Love.: There is always a way

Wow. What a week. I don't know where to start. We honestly had the lowest lows and the highest highs. I learned so much, and my testimony and my desire to work harder is so much stronger! That's life though, right?

First of all, things are unfortunately a little rocky with all of our investigators right now. Hermana Orton and I were getting a little discouraged at one point because of how hard we are working and how little of a reward/success we are seeing. We know logically that every bit of missionary work is important even if you don't immediately see results...but sometimes it's hard to really remember that. Satan is so good at making us feel discouraged, it's not even funny.

One of our ward missionaries had a day like this too this week, and we learned a lot with him. I was reviewing lesson two one day--the Plan of Salvation so that I could be ready to teach it to one of our investigators, and I re-learned something really important. When we came to the earth we passed through the veil, which means we forgot a lot of things about our pre-earth life. We lost a lot of our perspective, and we are now here to learn again what the purpose of life is. But what helped me so much is that Satan didn't have to pass through the veil. That's why he's so good at making us feel discouraged sometimes, because he knows just what to do, and just what thoughts to put into our mind so that we feel inadequate. Yet! The gospel is a gospel of hope because the Lord sent us to Earth to have success! The Lord called me to the Bahía Blanca mission to have success! The Lord gave all of you the challenges and trials that you have because he believes in you and your strengths, and knows that you will have success! I love it. With the gospel there is always a way.

Our ward mission leader gave both Hermana Orton and I a blessing this week. It was really neat to hear in Castellano what my Heavenly Father specifically wanted me to hear in that exact moment. I know he knows me personally, better than I know myself! He knows where I am, what my questions and concerns are, he hears my prayers, and he blesses me every day! All I have to do is look for the little blessings!

One of the recent converts in our ward got really sick this week. In all honestly, I'm not really sure what exactly happened, but she had to go to the hospital for some heart condition, and then the rest of the week she has been home pretty much on bed rest. She and her husband are some of the humblest people I have met. They live in what the call here: ¨the Villa." It's an area of old train tracks where the more poor people scramble anything they can find to try to build a house. Their home is so simple. (It'd probably fit in our garage...with room to spare!) They have dirt floors, a door that stays shut only when tied with rope, a hose for their kitchen sink, a tiny little table, and random little odds and ends that they have probably found in abandoned houses or in the street. Yet they have both the picture of Christ and a picture of the temple that the missionaries gave them when they were baptized. :) It's amazing how strong the spirit is in their home. We went by to visit G a couple times, and I am humbled every time to see how much more "rich" they are now that they have the gospel. All the little material worldly things really don't matter!

Thank you everyone for your support! I hope you're all doing well!
-Hermana Vawdrey