one year no beer no fear

A year ago this week I made a super scary choice and walked into the gates of the MTC in Provo Utah and didn't know what I was getting myself into. Little did I know that the people of Burley, Boise, and Twin Falls Idaho would change my life. A year in the mission has helped me grow in ways that I didn't know I could and learn things I didn't know I needed to. 

Me and Hermana Corona are counting our blessings (these will guaranteeeee be the last weeks we have together) and keep saying that we've been 2 bless to be together in this incredibly hard area. We've been yelled at, rejected, our faith has been challenged, but we still laughing and eating good food, still doing happy. HOW? Idk man. But we is. And it feels good - we haven't had a ton of people to teach, we've found an overwhelming amount of new Hispanics in the area, but none of them have wanted us to come back. But it still feels good. 

President Bartlett said this week that "Repetition is the soul of learning." We've been trying things that we know in this area, things that have worked in past areas, and we've figured out ways to improve and keep learning. Our motto for the transfer has been BE PREPARED TO TEACH THE PREPARED. Me and Hermana Corona feel like we're the best missionaries we've ever been in this area (still with lots of faults and lots of improvements to be made and lots of broken-ness) and have been working hard to work with members and improve our teaching skills to be more prepared. 

We were lucky enough to see some good foooooood from our preparation this week - we taught a new investigator named Diana. She's really intelligent and knows the Bible like the back of her hand - she's grown up with religion and has a strong testimony of God. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and we both agreed that it was one of the worst times we've ever taught it; we stumbled on words, we couldn't find the scriptures we wanted to, her daughter was screaming, we brought a member and didn't have her say much, it was a wreck. Like getting pounded at Hukilau during the winter. In the middle of the Lesson, we started talking about Jesus and it caught on a little, we started doing a little better and at the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized on February 17th. She accepted our invitation - we were in shock but I guess God is real and let her feel something from our crazy words, something that was real and true and good. 

Sometimes we feel like we're drowning and can't breathe; when we're at our lowest, we stick through it, do our best, and have hope that God is still there helping us along the way. Sometimes it takes a long time for the malasada at the end of the rainbow to come, but it does. I promise.

Love you long time friends. Email me if you need anything <3

LOTS OF LOVES,

Hermana Hanatea Elkington