On fire

Hey fam :)

It's been a good one! We're not gonna talk about last Monday or Tuesday cause that was a sad time. My compañera is Hermana Rosario! She is from Puerto Rico and just had her "golden" birthday yesterday! She is awesome and I love her. It was a small group this time, only four people came in; two sisters and two elders.

We had an awesome week full of tender mercies. My favorite was Wednesday, I believe. We were doing a look up to clean out our areabook a bit. We were trying to find this lady who had been taught in the past but not for almost a year and as we were walking up to the door we saw two Hispanic women with two kids coming down the street towards us. I have lost discernment between the Spirit telling me to talk to someone and my own "Hispanic! Let's go talk to them!" gung-ho-ness, but it doesn't matter, I felt like I really wanted to talk to them! No one was answering the door so I started to run down the steps to them as they were saying goodbye and parting ways. Then the door opened! Augh! The lady we were looking for didn't live there so we apologized and looked for where the women had gone. One was walking into a house one way and the other was half way down the block in the other direction.

Sister Rosario looks at me, "can we follow her?" Yeah! We ran down the street after her and caught her just before she was going to leave. #throwbacktoeverydaywithHnaVoss #chasingdownhispanicfamilies #notcreepilyjust...excited 😂 To Spanish people, you can say things like "we're representatives of Jesus Christ" and they believe you and get it. Therefore, if we got up to her and said that we were there looking for this person but then felt we really needed to talk to her (hence running her down #besttwoyears) she would get it and it wouldn't be weird. So that's what we did. We told her that and the Spirit threw out as well that He sent us to her. It was really cool. We told her what we do and she said she would be interested in learning more if we could come back Monday. We're going back tonight :)

At another lookup yesterday we asked a lady we passed in the street if she knew where the address was and then extended a card to her. We told her what we do and she said, "I'd be interested in learning more about that." It was actually really funny cause Hermana Rosario's eyes got all wide and she was like, "you would??" We asked for her address and she wrote down her name, phone number, address, and the whole shabang. We will be seeing her tomorrow! Tender mercies everywhere!

We also taught four new people this week for the first time. We were really blessed this week in finding people. This time around training is such a contrast from the first time as far as the work goes. We went from no "official" lessons the first two weeks with Hna Voss to four new people and double digits in lesson count this round. I have had some really, really hard times on my mission and I think that has helped me see God's hand in the work. My understanding has changed a bit and I truly understand that God is in charge. I've come to accept and understand better His plans and His timing --even though I don't know what they always are. That change has made me incredibly aware of His hand and always grateful when He gives us success.

Life is so much happier when you know how it all turns out and when you live trusting God. We're not perfect, so we will make mistakes and have bumps in the road because of our choices, but we also will have curves come and go that are necessary for our progression and journey. It's hard sometimes to hope for the good on the other side of the curve when we can't see it, but Sister Reynolds always says a curve in the road is only the end of the road if you choose not to take it.

I've learned a lot about positivity and hope; really a lot about faith. Being still and trusting in the Lord. I used to second guess the Lord a lot because I doubted myself but I've learned confidence I didn't really know was possible and I can't believe how freeing it is. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for me, for each of us. Jesus Christ is central to that plan, and I find so much joy in that! I don't think we can ever understand fully the joy in store for us. I'm really excited for the rest of the journey cause I see myself taking it bit by bit and tasting more of the joy. Even though I'm experiencing more of the spirit and Their influence in my life, I feel I thirst and hunger for it more. I didn't always understand why thirsting and hungering after righteousness was the way this feeling was described, but now I get it.

If you have a desire to come closer to your Father in Heaven and His Son but don't know how, "ask the missionaries; they can help you"!! :) I love you very much and hope it is a great week! Goodness gracious, I love my mission.
Mucho amor,
Hermana Karra Gourley