1 Month Mark!

Here is some of Aerin's latest letter:

I don't know where to start. So many things happen in a week and I just don't know what to tell you anymore! I've had good times and hard times. We've had a little bit of success.

My highlight of the week was that yesterday we had a little girl from the ward be baptized and our investigator SHOWED UP to the baptism. I didn't know if she would, but she did and it was so great. She was able to feel the spirit, and we answered a lot of her questions and concerns. We are hoping and praying she comes to church next week. She thought that she had to make her son sit through all 3 hrs of church. But when we told her he goes to nursery she was relieved and excited about it. The baptism was amazing yesterday. The little girl was so cute. I haven't been to a baptism in a while so the spirit was strong. Her family invited a lot of people and we were able to talk to a couple families yesterday. We also had 2 media referrals but they are about a 30 min drive away so we haven't been able to visit them. Hopefully this week we can.

Our area is huge...three towns. Rumor has it that next transfer they are going to split our area and add another missionary couple. I'm a little nervous that they are going to send my trainer to one area and me to the other...but I don't know what's going to happen and I know that it will work out the way the Lord wants it to. By the way we got a GPS, so no more getting lost! Hooray! :) And we still don't have a fridge but the landlord said that we were going to get a new one sometime this week. (She doesn't know when though) So she is lending us a small fridge to use for the time being.

I've come a loooong way though from last week. The first of last week I was getting pretty discouraged because I was upset with how nervous I got when I talked to people. And I felt like I'd never be the missionary that I wanted to be. But my comp helped me a lot and we did a bazillion role plays and lessons....so I have been doing a lot better. I still get a little nervous but I'm starting to feel more relaxed and confident. I have felt the Lord's strength a lot. I've been praying a lot so I know God will help me know what to do.

I still get along really well with my comp though. We are going to go running tomorrow for exercise so I'm pretty stoked about that. Turns out that she is an amazing athlete/bball/rugby player. And she has such a great testimony on the Atonement. Love her so much! 

I haven't received any mail yet :( If you send mail to my mission home address, they send that to me only on Wednesdays. If you send mail to my actual address I can receive that anytime during the week. But it's a little iffy because I don't know where I'm going to be in 3-4 weeks. Speaking of mail, I got a message from my mission president and they changed the email rules for the mission: "Missionaries are to write to their families each week and are also authorized to communicate by email with friends, priesthood leaders, and new converts."

So I think it's saying I can email friends now?!?! That's crazy!!! I think that's what it means. Right???

Anyways I am loving it here. Some days are hard but I've had days where I'm like, "I can do this!" I love the ward members still and I've had some amazing dinners the past couple of days. I'm hoping this week I can continue to talk to others and improve. 

I guess I'll end with a spiritual experience. I think this was a little more than a week ago but we were tracting and it was like my 3rd or 4th day of doing this. I was getting pretty down in the dumps because I just didn't know what to say when someone answered the door. But all of a sudden my companion turned to me and said, "open your scriptures." It caught me off guard so I did so. She flipped to a page, pointed to a couple scriptures then said, "read this." It was Mosiah I think it was either 24 or 27? And it was the last two verses of the chapter but it was the Lord talking to Alma and his people saying that he would "lift up their burdens that they would be light" and that he would strengthen them. And it also said, "and they were cheerful in their affliction and bore their burdens with patience" or something like that. I read that and started bawling. haha. But that was a tender mercy of the Lord. I know he is looking out for me, and my companion is really helping me and is strengthening me. The Lord is going to help me, and I need to be patient. He is always with me. He is with me, you, and everyone!

Keep sending updates. You are always in my prayers. Love you love you and LOVE you! :)