Faith Among Earthquakes and Opposition

Hey Family!

How have you been? I haven't heard from any of you the last two weeks. Maybe there's something wrong with my e-mail. Actually, you're probably all really busy, I imagine. It's a busy time of year and you probably have midterms and things.

So, last week I had changes. There was an Hermana that needed to be emergency changed out of her area, so I got put here and she is now in Los Arcos. I was a little bit sad about that, because I wanted to stay in Los Arcos for at least six months. There's a little joke in the mission that I'll never be in the same area for more then two months. There are some hard things about changes and some nice things too.

My new area is hard. There is a lot of opposition to the work here. My companion is wonderful. We are both happy all the time and we love to work, but we are not having much success. It's not too hard because we know we are doing our best and feel good about our efforts, but it'll take a lot to have baptisms here. We are fasting weekly and looking for all the other little sacrifices we can make. For the first time in my mission, people are closing their doors before we've had a chance to say anything. A few other times when we started to make some head way with people, their family members would actually come interrupt us and ask us to not talk to them anymore. It's a really good experience to get a little taste of what it must be like in other missions.

The good part is that the ward here is wonderful! The Bishop is the greatest bishop I've met so far in my mission. The ward is tiny, but has a lot of potential. We had a really fun activity last week and taught them crab soccer. They LOVED it. Soccer is huge here and they thought crab soccer was the best idea. Next week we're going to teach them broom hockey. What are some other fun games like that or other activities that we could do here?

On Thursday there were three earthquakes. Three. They are so strange. Earthquakes feel unreal. They were just little ones. The first two lasted about 15 seconds. The third one was longer, about 30 seconds, but they were pretty mellow. Still, very strange feeling. Earthquakes are normal here. I've felt little tremblings a few times before but not actual quakes until this week. It feels like one of those simulated roller coasters, only everything is moving. It's funny, but somehow I could just tell we were going to have all three. I pretty much just slept through the last one.

We got food poisoning this week. Haha. If there's one thing I'm learning on the mission, it's how to work with a stomach ache. We're fine now and it only lasted one day - the day of the earth quakes.

We don't really have any investigators right now, but we are starting to make some head way. We are opening area which is hard. And the missionaries here before us complicated things a little bit. But it's a fun challenge. It's nice to feel like we are doing everything we possibly can. Even if results are slow in coming. But we both have faith that we are here in this area for a purpose. There is an important purpose for the two of us to be here.

My companion has a year in the mission. She told me that she hopes we can be companions for her last five months. She goes home in March. That would be really nice to have some consistency and we get along perfectly. But at the same time, I've gotten so used to changes so often that I'm not expecting it. But she's good friends with the mission president and usually gets to do what she wants.

Oh, good news! This week I might be able to visit San Fransico El Alto again! I would love to! That would be the greatest blessing!! President is planning on taking my companion and I and two other Hermanas to the market there just to shop. Oh I hope we get to go. I want to say hi to Clemente, Yesica, Migdalia and all the wonderful ward members there. Unless something comes up, I should see them on Friday.

Everything is going really well.

I learned something yesterday. I remembered a quote I have in my scriptures that says Holiness speaks when there is silence. My mind is always so full and active here on the mission, but I remembered that quote and decided to try something. I am trying, as often as I can remember, to just quiet my mind and let Holiness speak. It's been wonderful. Every time I do that, all I feel is peace and the love of the Lord. When I do that, it feels like Heaven is at my side and I know what to do. I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much and is grateful for all that we do.

I love you all and hope you have a very wonderful week. You are in my prayers!
Love,
Hermana Finch