August 4th

Aka the week of madness.

Hey fam! This week was nuts. We have had 5 normal weeks and all at once this week, EVERYTHING happened! First of all, the news. So I´m training (you already knew that. I won´t know who the heck my hija is until tomorrow.. AHH!!) and then Hermana Lionetti is going to Elche 1! Its sad we only got a transfer together, but we are both excited for our future opportunities and she goes to byu, so this isn´t the end! Haha

So Monday I had my first intercambio for the first time in 6 weeks (it was a nice, long break! haha) and it was PERFECT. But really, perfect. We saw everybody we had planned to see and taught awesome lessons and got to spend time with each other and she saw recent converts, less actives, progressing investigators and news. I have never had a perfect day like that before in my mission. SUCCESS.

Tuesday I went to the mission home and we had trainers training. I´ve been so not even thinking about the fact that I´m actually training so it was odd being there and all of the other trainers were sharing their concerns and thoughts upon finding out they were training. I felt kinda dumb cause i was just like, well I´m excited to be here! I guess also cause I was the only one there who had trained before, so they didn´t know what to expect. On that note, apparently I´m old now! Everybody keeps asking me how soon I go home! ITs dumb. I´m NOT going home. And thats that.

Wednesday was the day of adversity. We had to testify various times of the truth of the gospel to people who were flat out telling us that the Church is a lie and that what we do as missionaries is despicable "leading people away into darkness" but the interesting thing was that during one of those times, I had the distinct thought, "Even if I were the ONLY person in the entire world who knew of the truthfulness of the gospel, I would still know with the same certainty that it is true and I would live it and share it just as I do now." It was a cool experience having the Spirit testify to me that I DO know that this is true and it really strengthened my testimony. Funny how what those people were telling us had a backwards effect on me than what they intended! THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!!

We met this family from Senegal a few weeks ago and we have been teaching them with this older member from our ward, F.., who speaks French (one of the languages spoken in Senegal, so she can help a lot). And they are super cool. They are 3 brothers: A.., L.. and B... A.. is evangelist and married, L.. is divorced and was muslim (he speaks better english than I do, he married a british woman who now lives there with their 10 year old son) and B.. is young and doesn´t speak very much spanish nor english nor french (he speaks wolof). But the first time we went over, A.. was super argumentative and wanted to bible bash, but we stayed calm and then when we went over Friday, he was a completely different person. He had had a complete change of heart and asked if we could give him a Book of Mormon and he said he wants to try the promise.

 

RANDOM THINGS

O.. got dropped after he refused to read the book of mormon but only antimormon literature he found online (i got sassy and told him to call us when he decides to listen to the truth... oops.), but R.. is doing really well! We keep finding so many people through him! I think the majority of our new investigators lately have been found through him!
 

As we have been doing family history as a mission, i keep thinking about how blessed I am as well to come from families where the gospel really is the center of our lives. On my mission I have met so many people, companions, investigators, members, less actives, etc.who don´t have the same blessing I do to come from a family that loves me and even more, loves the Lord. I read "True to the Faith" teh talk Elder Walker gave at conference this week and I loved what he said about this: "The more connected we feel to our righteous forefathers, the more likely we are to make wise and righteous choices." I love you momma! I hope you have a great week! And tell Uncle David congrats from me! LOVE YOU!!

They are really making a focus in our mission about learning about our family history and as I´m doing mine, I´m like, "I KNOW NOTHIGN ABOUT THESE PEOPLE!!" but we are really blessed to have excellent grandparents like grandpa who go and put a lot onto family search. I´ve learned a lot from what he´s written on there! I really like our elders, we all have at least a year in the mission right now so we all know what its like to work together and it's good!

 My scripture is Ezekiel 34:6,8 the Lord entrusts us with His sheep. They are His. So how are we going to take care fo them? We need to adapt an attitude of service and charity and take care of ALL his sheep!!

i love you all so much! have a graet week! LOVE YOU!!!!

Hermana Folsom