A Day at the Beach

HA! This week was full of lessons that I needed to learn that I can't describe!

First, let me start out by saying that this past week we didn´t have P-day because on Wednesday we went to San Juan del Sur!!! Well what we thought would be San Juan del Sur turned out to be Playa Gigante which is a small little beach but it was still freaking awesome to see the beach and sea! We woke up at 4:30 Wednesday morning and took a taxi to the church where we met up with other missionaries and then we had a 4 hour bus ride to Playa Gigante and arrived around 11:30. After we got there we ate Hamburgers and got to socialize with the other Hermanas. Then we changed our clothes and went onto the beach and played soccer, broom hockey, and ultimate frisbee. Broom hockey was us just brushing a bunch of sand all over the place which was funny and Soccer was us kicking sand at each other. It was a good day! The only thing I was super sad about was that we couldn´t put our feet in the water. Every time a ball went into the water the elders would just stand at the edge of the water and finally a man got the balls for us and I´m sure he was like "why can't they touch the water?" They must be weird. It was a good day! 

Playa Gigante with my companions!

This past week we had a baptism! His name is Alcide and he is so sweet!! He is hilarious, he´s always like " Hermana Party, you are my friend?" and he always has a smile! 

This picture is of me at Playa Gigante!

  

Another beautiful picture of the  beach.

This is a statue in the middle of a park of the Mother Mary. It´s Catholic town here! This is a city by the beach where we stopped at super quick.

Rice and beans for days!

2,158 baptisms this year!! Highest baptizing mission in the world right now and president told us that our goal for this year is 2,600! Freak!

My first companion sent me this email and I loved it so much I want you all to read it. Please take the time because it changes everything about your week!

This morning I listened to President Uchtdorf's talk, "A Summer with Great-Aunt Rose." It's about a young girl named Eva who has to spend a summer living with her Great-Aunt Rose while her mother recovers from a surgery. At first she doesn't like it at all. She didn't want to go, she wanted to stay with her parents and her friends for the summer, not go far off into the country to live with Rose. However she goes, but pays little attention to her aunt and spends much of her time as far away from her as possible.

Eventually however she noticed something. President Uchtdorf says:
"Over time, Eva made a surprising discovery: Great-Aunt Rose was quite possibly the happiest person she had ever known!
But how could that be?
What did she have to be happy about?
She had never married, she had no children, she had no one to keep her company except that creepy cat, and she had a hard time doing simple things like tying her shoes and walking up stairs."

The answer, as Great-Aunt Rose put it, “There is enough that doesn’t go right in life, so anyone can work themselves into a puddle of pessimism and a mess of melancholy. But I know people who, even when things don’t work out, focus on the wonders and miracles of life. These folks are the happiest people I know.”

She continues saying, "God didn’t design us to be sad. He created us to have joy! So if we trust Him, He will help us to notice the good, bright, hopeful things of life. And sure enough, the world will become brighter. No, it doesn’t happen instantly, but honestly, how many good things do? Seems to me that the best things, like homemade bread or orange marmalade, take patience and work.”

Our lives are far from perfect. You can look at your life and look at all the things that have gone wrong and pity yourself or call out for attention, but none of that will ever make you happy.

So what is supposed to make you happy? Well as Great-Aunt Rose says:
“Faith,” Aunt Rose smiled. “I discovered faith. And faith led to hope. And faith and hope gave me confidence that one day everything would make sense, that because of the Savior, all the wrongs would be made right. After that, I saw that the path before me wasn’t as dreary and dusty as I had thought. I began to notice the bright blues, the verdant greens, and the fiery reds, and I decided I had a choice—I could hang my head and drag my feet on the dusty road of self-pity, or I could have a little faith, put on a bright dress, slip on my dancing shoes, and skip down the path of life, singing as I went.”

I just really loved that talk. It's one that has stuck in my mind since I first heard it, and I thought I'd share the highlights with you.

My favorite part is that "God didn't design us to be sad." Your life isn't meant to be a series of sad events and unhappy feelings strung together. It's meant to be filled with happiness. Turn a crying moment into a laughing moment. Find a positive spin, even if it seems ridiculous, when everything has gone wrong.

And have a little faith. “Now is part of eternity. It doesn’t only begin after we die! Faith and hope will open your eyes to the happiness that is placed before you."