9 months-- halfway done! :(

Marayna aga po sa indo lahat!

On the 20th, I hit my halfway point on my mission. It just happened to be the day of our exchanges, so I spent the day celebrating with one of our Sister Training Leaders, who just happens to be the one and only Sister Geralde, my trainer! It made me so so so happy to work with her again, and we both saw each others' growth as missionaries. 

Our work has really taken off this week as we have made the decision to not be discouraged by our rejections but had the faith and hope to find the people that God has prepared for us. I have probably already shared this scripture here, but it's my favorite scripture so here it is again:

 

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. - Ether 12:4

Discouragement makes us ineffective, so we need to work to have the hope and the expectation that we are going to accomplish our goals and everything is going t work out. If we have this hope, we will always be working effectively and most importantly- happily - despite how much our feet hurt. If you don't know where to find this hope, it is found in Jesus Christ, for He is the Light and the Life of the world, and the enabling power of His Atonement can make right anything unfair about life. 

I thought I would end with a funny story:

It was night time, and we just got out of a lesson and started walking home. As we approached a water pump, we see this guy pumping water, and stop to and start a conversation with him. After I bore my testimony, he looked at me really weird and then suddenly he lifted up his arm, half of his arm fell down as the top bone was broke in half and he pointed to it "you see this? its been like this for 8 years." Then he grabbed two huge buckets of water and walked away leaving me and Sister Makanda shook. HOW ON EARTH DID HE CARRY THE BUCKET?!  Anyway, you see some weird stuff as a missionary. It's the fun part of talking to absolutely everyone.

Hope you all have a happy, hopeful week!

Love you all!

-Sister Gray