My Week :D

Sorry, so you probably saw what my week was like this past week. It was super good and super fun :D My comp and I are doing good. Transfers are next tuesday, so we are going to find out what happens to all of us. I already know one thing that is going to happen to me. We went to visit my mission president to have a companionship study with him (he's so great! you'd understand dad. We just had a comp study sesh with him and it was super good and he's super cool) and he told me in person that I'm going to be a sister training leader next transfer. Don't know if they had those when you served dad, just cause the number of sisters I don't think was so big. But basically the sister training leaders are over a certain number of sisters, usually the ones in their zone. Kinda like zone leaders but not quite. ... hahaha of all the people to choose, the Lord chose me and well, I guess you can say I feel quite inadequate and pretty humbled. I don't know where I'm going next transfer or who my companion will be, but that will be my assignment next week. Yeah, I'm pretty scared, but pretty excited for this next adventure. 

I don't have much to write this week, but I sent a lot of pictures that I hope you all enjoy. I'm not really sure if I wrote about our investigators yet, but if I did, I'll just give you a little update.

This Saturday, we are going to have a baptism of Yuliana. She is a 28 year old woman who is very independent and has been visiting the church for two years. She kinda has a mental problem (meaning she's super intelligent and smart and can do everything on her own, but she just sometimes has moments when she acts like a young girl.) But she is going to be baptized this week! And she is stoked! Hopefully her baptism will open the door for us to teach her parents. 

We are also visiting with a lady named Carmen. She is in her 40s and has been taking the lessons for a while. We put a baptism date with her for this saturday, but we are thinking of postponing it because we didn't have too many opportunities to visit and teach her more of the lessons. but she is super sweet and she makes her own juice to sell. 

Moises is a 10 year old kid we are teaching that is so ready for baptism and has been taking the lessons and going to church with his grandma for a good year now! But his mom wants to wait for his dad to come before he can be baptized. The thing is, his dad lives in new york ... and we have no idea when he is coming. but we shall see :)

We also are teaching a family, the familia Ferrera. They consist of 2 parents and 3 kids, 2 boys, and 1 girl and they are pretty amazing! We've only taught them a couple of times, but they seem to be ready to hear the gospel. They actually found us. We were walking down the street one day, just talking in english and laughing when the dad called out to us and asked us where we are from. So we talked to them for a little and set up a return appointment and are now continuing to teach them. they are pretty cool :D

We also have this girl named Flor who we are teaching. She's very shy, but she seems to have interest in the church. There are some problems in her family that they are working on, (half are members), but we are hoping to be able to help her feel comfortable in church and gain a testimony so that she can feel ready to be baptized. 

Anyway, that's about all for now. Sorry that it's a little long, but this was my week :) There were tons of miracles that happen and that are still happening. Maybe you can see them in each email, maybe not. But the Lord is working miracles here in the DR and I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to see them all happen and hopefully help some of them happen. I hope you all have a great week and do lots of fun activities with the family! Just take some pics and enjoy the water for me! :D Love you all and take care!

Love, aloha, y amor, 

Hermana Ho

I got to drive my mission president’s car!  It’s super nice

Ask any of these three girls :D

Went to the mission office to speak with our mission president! It was a long ride there and I was super tired ... and we waited for a good while too. But it was a good time to take a few pics of us and of our beautiful office! (yeah, might've cleaned it with my comp while we waited ... we were a little bored.)

We got locked out of the house one day .... and our area is super far and we had to use the bathroom. So while we waited, we took some selfies ... don't mind us, it was after a long day and a long ride in the guagua (guagua means a long bus ride crammed with people in the heat, with the driver speeding and stopping ... yeah, it gets a little nausous in there ...)

From our rooftop ... we were still locked out of the house. So here you can see a little where live. Those black things are the tinacos I always talk about that store our water. Everyone has one here! And yes, i got bored again so I tried to be photographer. not bad, right?

yes, we were still locked out. And it was a long morning, if you can't tell hahaha

Played pictionary for our group missionary activity and it turned out pretty good. Not a lot of people came, but it was fun :)

Today for pday, we got together with some of our old friends in our zone, Elder Sauceda, from Honduras, and elder Herrera, from Guatemala. We just played uno, ate, and played some soccer. And then went out in the rain. Yes, those three girls have problems. And believe or not, I'm forced to live with them!! hahaha jk jk i love them all :D

Nothing's Ever What It Seems

Hey guys! First of all, a big shoutout to mom! Happy belated birthday! Sorry that I'm all the way out here on another island and can't celebrate it with you in person, but I was thinking about you! Thanks for being a great mom and for always looking out for me. Not only are you my mom but you are also my best friend who has done a TON for me! Thanks for all of the times you listened and guided me and helped me walk through this life. I love you so much and hope that you had a great birthday! This week or next week, I will be sending home a package to all of you. This is going to be something new, and the mission pays for this kind of thing, so don't worry. But you're all gonnna have to tell me if you got everything in one piece :D I'm excited for you to get it!

Not too many exciting things went on this week. Well, in other words, I should say, nothing new happened this week. Everything is an adventure, but sometimes I forget that somethings that might surprise you guys are just the norm for me for now. And Alana, thanks for your prayers. I've actually, surprisingly not gotten sunburnt. Just once or twice throughout my entire mission and that was only a little bit. And I'm glad you are feeling better! I hope it wasn't something super bad. It could be some kinda bacteria that's in your body, so make sure you drink lots of water to drain it all out. 

And Alliyah, to answer some of your questions, first of all, yes, my personal progress helped me. You know, you may not think about it until later, but as I look back, I think that it's one of the best things you can do to prepare yourself for later in life. Personal progress was the basics and the foundation of my own testimony. It helped me learn about the basics of the church and the first principles and ordinances of the gospel for myself and throughout college and up until this point in my mission, has maybe been the key to my testimony. A testimony isn't a huge thing, but when you look at it, it's definitely the foundation of my things. There's the scripture that says "By small and simple things are great things come to pass" and Personal Progress is definitely that small thing :) Also, it helps when you are trying to help the young women in the misison do their personal progress because you have your own experiences that you can share with them. And sweet ode by the way! I think it'll be great! Thinking of going into writing in your career?

And dad, yes, the power outage is normal here. Here we call electricity "light" or "luz" in spanish. Usually we have luz in the morning until 10am, then it come back on at 12ish sometimes, then goes, then come back at like 3 or 4 and stays on for the rest of the night. It was worse in our other house though. But in Hato Mayor, it was perfect :D like everything was in Hato Mayor :D And I'm working on smiling more. It's super hard though ...

Well, there really wasn't much that went down this week so I think I'll talk a little about the pics that I'll send. Thank you all for your emails, pics, and love! I'm so glad to be here in the mish and there really are so many miracles that happen here. I'll caption all the pics so you can get a glimpse into the adventure I'm taking right now. Sorry if I repeat some of them. Love you all!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

So we lost water last week and found out it came. The only thing was that the bomba/water pump (the orange thing) wasn't pumping it to the roof where we store our water.  Then there wasn't any light, So we had to collect the water like this and fill up some buckets. Finally, when we had light, we took water bucket by bucket from this thing and hauled it up to the roof. yes, true manual labor. Good thing was had power cord or whatever dad calls it! :D

And yes, this is our washing machine, mom. Just fill it up with water, let it turn for a bit, then you have to hand rinse the clothes and put it in the little spinner on the right, which spins out all the water 

Don't know if you can see the difference between the new shoe and the old one ... but one has a hole and the other doesn't!

This is normal in the DR. Some dude riding on the back of a motorcycle, carrying this big glass window or something. Just another day in the mission life. 

This is a guagua, or a public bus. On a busy day, you will see these babies packed to the max, people standing and sitting on top of each other, stuffed all the way up to the door. 

The simple joys in life. The hamburger is what we call a chimi and is soooo delish! It's full of nice good stuff and is great to eat at the end of the day. Luckily we have a clean chimi place near our house. 

Then we have a dessert that we tried. It's basically no bake cookie mix over bananas. Gotta be healthy somehow. :D

This was in Hainamosa, the area before the area that I´m in. This man is Yiara's husband, and one of my favorites! He helped us a ton in this area!

Then this is me and my comp. Gotta love the polys here :D

And here we are eating at an ice cream place, sweet frog!

Hey!

Yes it was super nice to talk to you guys! I'm so glad to see everyone is doing well. And I'm going to keep this one short so I can try and send some pics. But yes, I'm doing good :DSorry that I'm THAT awkward missionary now lol. But alls going good. Thanks for your examples for me and for your emails. And thanks for my plan mom!  But yeah, the interview thing ... was a joke. A stinkin joke from the office elders. I swear, they abuse their powers as assistants to the president lol :D But they're cool. I saw their number pop up on the phone, so when I answered, all I said was "I didn't do it! I swear, I didn't do it!" and that's when he said I had an interview. But he also called my companion and told her I had an interview, which is why we thought it was real! But it's all gee, Imma talk to him today, cause I'm going to the office ... stinker. 

Anyway, I'm going to try and send some pics now. And thanks for all of your stories and questions! Seriously, if you guys have stories, feel free to send them. I can't promise I'll respond back, but I can promise that I read every single one and think of them :D And dad, yes, I understand your mission stories now! It's weird you and grandma and grandpa didn't talk more about your missions. not saying that it's bad you guys didn't do it! But they're fun to hear. And you can bet I got a LOT of stories to keep you all up for days! :D hahaha well, that's all for now. Love you all and talk to you later! 

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

Me & the Hato Mayor sisters together again!

Me & the Temple

(yes, they straightened my hair.  Well, Hermana Gingell really wanted to do it so I let her)

Not the best pic of me, but this is Junior and Yiara (Jara) from my other area who are so amazing and super cute :)

Some of the youth that I got to know and teach

Another cute couple who helped us out a lot in Hainamosa.

Reunited in Hato Mayor or the baptism of the familia Diaz.

The adorable family (only one of their 3 kids)

The family Diaz and all the missionaries that went, who at one point taught them :)

And I'll Never Be The Same

Hey guys! So idk if I told you, but I did receive the package of crocs and I love them! They are super comfy :) Thanks for the snacks too! I loved receiving the package and I seriously do appreciate all the time, love, effort, and money that is put into each one. THe only sad part is that my crocs are already dusty and dirty ... we live in a dusty area and are walking like crazy everywhere! And thanks for the spiritual upliftment mom (that's a word right?). Seriously, I appreciate hearing the talks and lessons that you all learn because it's interesting. You don't know exactly what I'm going through, I don't know what exactly you're going through, but yet we still receive the spiritual and emotional nourishment that we need from each other. The Lord sure does work in mysterious ways. Needless to say, I'm rolling through the punches a little too. I realized that I'm losing my smile (I have a legitimate excuse for that one, I promise! Sometimes people take a smile the wrong way here in the DR ... if you know what I mean. Idk if you remember what a freco is? Basically creeps and flirts put into one. Yeah, I try to smile, but if I smile too much, well ... but don't share this info with anyone haha) and just surviving. But in reality, like you said, it's only for a minute. So we should be thriving! And I'm STOKED to talk to you guys this Sunday. We are going to try and work something out, but for now, I think 7pm here or 1pm Hawaii time would work out best if that's okay. You guys will probably get a phone call from my companion, Sister McFarland, this week,  who will confirm the time with you. So if you get a phone call from a weird number, don-t be afraid to answer it! Hahaha 

And that's so great that you guys are helping people to come more unto Christ. It's not easy, trust me, but it never was easy for the Lord. When we ask people to come to church or to some activity, we are helping them in the process of repentance. I know that doesn't really make sense. It took me some time to figure that one out. But our missionary purpose is to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them received the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." So step by step, or as we say here, poco a poco, we help people come unto Christ. Remember, if they know we're mormon, it's not only our words that they listen to, but they also watch us and watch us closely. This past week, me and my comp were walking down the street, laughing and talking in English when someone in their house called out to us from the Patio and asked where we were from. As we started talking to him, his wife, and his two kids, turns out that the missionaries always passed down that street and said hi. ... but never stopped to teach them. But look at what the examples of those missionaries did for me and my comp: it provided an opportunity to share. In a couple of hours we are going to go back to that house and teach this family for the first time. We'll see how it goes. 

As for the title of this email, yeah, this is a time where I'm being tested more mentally than anything else and I can promise you that I will never be the same after this transfer. I love this area! There are amazing ward members who are more than willing to help us and come out with us and they are very excited for the missionary work. We are continuously finding people to teach through their efforts and ours. I hope that by the time that I leave this area, I'll have made a difference. We have two baptisms coming up! ONe is a 10 year old boy who has been going to church for about a year now with his grandma (who has been in the church for almost a year) and he has taken the missionary lessons before. So all we are doing is putting a date. This past week he has been talking about how he wanted to share his testimony in his baptism (he had gone to a child baptism and had seen that boy bear his testimony in his baptism). When I told him that he could share his testimony on Sunday (yesterday) and didn't need to wait until his baptism, he prepared his testimony and yesterday, presented it in front of everyone! It was great and I was so happy for him! And you should have seen his happy proud grandma :) The other baptism we have is a woman who is 28. She's super intelligent, graduated with some of the best grades in her class in college and is a sweetheart. The only problem that she has is that she has a mental condition. So although she is super smart and is changing her life to live the commandments, she is like a little child. innocent, sweet, and the way she talks and sometimes acts is like a little girl. So we need to talk with the presiding bishop of our ward to set up an interview and see what he thinks. Because we think she could be ready. 

So that's a little about my area. Physically, my area is different than any other area I've been in. I'm used to seeing either humble circumstances or well-to-do circumstances ... and here it's a huge mix of both. It's so confusing, but it's definitely putting my skills to the test! Haha From our house, because we don't have too much money and can't catch a ride in a little taxi all the time, we walk. And walk. And walk. It's about 30 minutes from our house to our area, and sometimes, when the person isn't home, or is a little farther, it's a good 45 minutes. There was one day where we just walked and walked for about 1.5 hours in the heat... it was definitely an "I appreciate cars and A.C." moment! But I love this area. We've had to change our teaching tactics to contact people and to teach, but I like it better this way :D We live in a cute little house and we ran out of water last week. Don't worry, we filled it up. Water is always a problem in this country. But in our area, it's not even a consistent problem. Water comes when it wants to, not when it should lol. So it's a little rough, but it's life now and I love it! No worries, if you guys have any questions, feel free to ask me on Sunday (dad lol). Seriously, just prepare a whole bunch so that I don't ramble on and on about nothing lol We can have like an interview sesh :D

Anyway, love you all! And for all the wonderful moms, thank you for all that you do! I realize that sometimes it's a sacrifice or trial to let your kids go to college or go on a mission or to another country, but thank you for doing it. we all love you and appreciate all you do for us. 

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus

Hey guys! It's really good to hear from you all :) Thanks for your emails and for keeping me updated. And nice, we have a lot of Returned missionaries! I'm glad to hear that they are all doing good and thriving. They are probably leaving with the Missionaries a lot too haha and in that picture, I thought that was Kawika!!! Is the guy growing his hair out?! 

So can't say that this week has been the easiest I've had. As you can see by the title of this email, I'm trying hard to be like Jesus. And in the process, more trials come up haha I'm trying to develop the Christ-like attributes that are found in Preach My gospel, but it's super hard. But the group I am in is super helpful! The members have been super nice and loving and so willing to help. Our group leader/future branch president (hopefully) is amazing. There is also a member that took us around to visit all of our investigators and all the members who live in our area. It was sweet! And we've found a TON of new investigators! There's been a lot of little miracles that the Lord has blessed me with, despite everything else. I realize that this is probably the most difficult week I've gone through since my first couple transfers, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. But, so is the life. As we try to become my Christ-like, Satan works harder. There's a saying that I like that one of my professors said: "Satan works hard to bring us down. So we need to work like the devil to stay ahead of him!" And it's true :) But I can testify that the harder that we try to stay ahead, the more the Lord helps us too. We do our part, and He does His (DyC 82:10).

So I'll just tell you all a little about my area: it's not as big as Hato Mayor. In fact, it all fits on a map! It's a fairly new area and one of the fastest growing communities in all the DR. We have tons of apartment buildings and tons of super nice and priveleged homes. I haven't been anywhere like this area and it's a little out of my comfort zone. Plus, a lot of people speak english here! It's like really nice homes in the middle of these fields. It's like someone took these huge homes and just plopped them in the middle of fields and cows. So it's throwing me off a bit, but it's nice :) We actually live in a house too! All my other homes have been on the second story or apartments, but this is actually a  house! The only problem is that we don't have water and some people aren't very happy about that. I'm totally fine without water, there's a lot of easy solutions of what we can do, but it's bringing a hard toll on some of the other sisters in the house. 

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm sorry this one is a short one, but there will be plenty more to write the next time I believe :) Thank you all for your love and support, your emails, your prayers. Each one is felt and each one plays a role in the missionary work. I love you all and have a great week!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

P.S. Miss you mom! I know mother's day is in a couple of weeks, so we need to figure out a time and day to skype. Our group leader said he could hook up his computer to the tv in the chapel so we can have a nice big screen! But we'll see what happens. But I figured it wasn't too early to say that I love you and really missed you this past week ... or more like these past couple of days. You're one of the only people on this earth that actually understands me and knows how to help me. You too dad. I miss your hugs. And to be honest, I'm the one that's proud to have you as a dad. My friends are really looking forward to meeting you ... they might've heard a few stories about your craziness ... hahaha love you guys! Please give everyone a hug for me! 

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed

Okay, so I got time to write today yes!! So much has gone down that I'm excited and scared for, but first things first: 

Thank you for the package! I haven't recieved it yet, but rumor has it that it's in the office. So I'll probably get it on Thursday. As for the stamps, don't worry about it, it's not an emergency. And I'm using the ipod and the speakers. Well, and so are my housemates. Speaking of which, you get to meet all of them soon! Oh shoot, I'm jumping ahead. Yes, that is next transfer. Aka, tomorrow. :D And no worries, my area is not sketchy. Or maybe things are less sketchy as a missionary. sometimes I forget it's not the norm in the US. haha now it's just the norm here in the DR.  And mom, you're going to do great with the lesson! Don't even worry :) and what a cool story! It shows how the Lord makes us all instruments in His hands, even when we don't even know it. We can see the importance of needing to be good examples to all and to fulfill our callings, because that's when the miracles come, when we least expect it. 

So, here's what's going down. I have so much to tell you, not even joking! But anyway, so, yes, transfers are tomorrow. And my whole entire house is moving. yes, that means all four of us have another transfer together. Woo hoo! And so you get to see Hermana Hernandez again :D and meet my companion, Hermana McFarland, and Hermana Gingell! I'm so excited! Anyway, we are all moving to this place in the same stake called Amalia. ... Nope, not a ward. ... again no, not a branch. Yes, guys, I'm moving into a group. A group of about 45 people that meet on sundays in a house. And this is the first time sisters are going to be here. I'm stoked! It's going to be rough, but I'm glad they are keeping the four of us together because we're going to help each other whitewash this place. No, we don't even have a baptismal font. Well, if you count an inflatable pool as one then i guess we do. It's so crazy! And for this reason, we are moving out today. I'm pretty sure we are moving into a house that is even smaller than the one we have right now ... But that's okay. It doesn't matter because the work in Amalia is going to be AMAZING! 

So that's what's going down here. Also, something amazing happened on Saturday. Idk if you remember the Familia Diaz from Hato Mayor, but the couple got baptized this past Saturday!! I was so happy for them. And another cool thing: I got permission to go!! :D Here's what happened: So the Wednesday before, the sisters who are there (Hermana Nazaire and her companion, Hermana Ortiz) called me and told me that Hermana Diaz asked if I could come to the baptism. But we had so much to do. Of course I wanted to go, it would've been a dream! But at the same time, we had to prepare our area for the elders we knew who would come and whitewash here, plus look for a house for them, plus do a ward activity on Saturday. On top of that, it's about 300 to 400 pesos to get to Hato Mayor from where I'm at, including a 3 to 4 hour guagua ride. It was a lot of time and a lot of money. So friday night, I called the sisters back and heartbrokenly told them I wouldn't be able to make it to the baptism, but to tell the family I said congrats and that I love them. I was really bummed. I woke of the next morning thinking of them. As I was studying in the morning, an elder working in the office called. I was so scared because this was the day they were calling everyone about transfers and who was going to be leaders or whitewashing and stuff. I was scared. Here's or conversation: 

"Hermana Ho, do you have any baptisms today?" 

"no ..."

"Do the other sisters have any baptisms today?" 

"Not that I know of."

"Well there's a baptism today in Hato Mayor."

"Yeah I know elder, it's the Familia Diaz." 

"Well, would you like to go?" 

I couldn't even think! "I would love to go elder! But the thing is does the Lord want me to go?"

"well, President Corbitt has given you and Hermana Hernandez permission to go because she was also in Hato Mayor with you. We would swing by at 4pm to pick you guys up."

"I'll talk to my companion"

Hermana Hernandez, when she heard, just screamed and the both of us were stoked! Plus, we wouldn't have to pay for a guagua and the elders were willing to drive us there! All in all, these plans worked out perfectly! And with the permission from our companions, we went. And it was wonderful :D I saw everyone again from Hato Mayor and the baptism was so amazing! I almost cried. ALMOST. but I didn't :D I'll send some pics when I can. But it was a surprise that the two of us were coming. Only the other sisters knew. It was such a blessing from the Lord that I could see this wonderful family, my family, be baptized. The Lord works in mysterious ways and His blessings are wonderful indeed :) 

There were so many things going on this past weekend and I haven't slept too much with everything going on. But I'm excited for this new adventure in my life. This past week has been crazy. Crazy, crazy crazy! preparing our area, transfers, packing, moving, the baptism, going to Hato Mayor, actually seeing the familia Diaz get baptized! I remember telling Hermana Nazaire that I KNOW that the family will get baptized, I just don't know if I'll be around to see it. haha and wow, does the Lord bless us. In our crazy lives that we live, sometimes we pass up the blessings that the Lord has for us. Or sometimes we forget to count them. And in this process, we don't see that the blessings outnumber and outshine the trials. It took me Saturday to realize that. I hope that it doesn't take you a long time to realize how merciful our Heavenly Father is to us and how much He wants to bless us. We just need to look for those blessings, to strive for them, and to share them. 

I'm grateful that I have this time to serve Him, and not only that, but also for you all who support and pray for us missionaries. Thank you all! I love you all so much and I'm really sorry if I don't email or write you all back. But thank you all for everything! Love you and take care!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

Some pages turn, some bridges burn, but there were lessons learned

Wow, some pretty amazing stuff went down this week! Congrats on everything that you all are doing and for all of your success! I'm so happy to hear from all of you and to hear all is going ok. I was informed in an email today that my english is getting a little bad hahaha sorry, but I'll try to do better. I'm just used to speaking spanglish and people understanding me and also, the keyboards here are not the greatest ... But still, the grammar is off, I know, I know. 

So the song I used I believe is sung by Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood ... idk which. But here's the story behind it. This week was rough one. Haha Lots of stuff is going down in the DR and of all of it, we had little success. So yes, they are changing our area from a sisters area to an elders area. We talked with our mission president this past week about our area and it gets a little dark at night. What you gotta know about the DR is that there isn't electricity or light, as we call it, 24/7. It comes and goes and we use inversedors ... I think in english that's a backup generator, for things like light in the house. Small stuff. But when there isn't light, we can't use the microwave, the washing machine, and the fridge light goes out. That also means there aren't street lights on. So at night, it gets really dark in my area and it's not a problem. What is a problem is that we have to walk 20-30 minutes without light in the street from our area to our house, and that's a little sketchy. So for our safety and the safety of future sister missionaries, our area is being changed to an elders area. So we've been working our butts off to prepare the area for them. We've dropped some people who haven't been progressing, we've been finding new people to teaching, we've been working hard to get members in every lesson so that they can help the elders out. Also, emotionally, it hasn't been easy either for me or my comp. It's been a rough road. Thus, some pages turn, some bridges burn. But the lessons learned? There were many :) 

1) Turn out. There have been so many times when members have dropped everything and come out with us on the lessons or done us a favor. It's been such a blessing and a miracle to see. And yeah, life happens and the natural man gets you down feeling like you're inadequate, or helpless, or tired, or like you just want to give up. But the example of the members help the missionary work thrive, despite the challenges that arise.

2) Have faith. the Lord sends things our way for a reason. In the moment we don't know why. I still don't understand why. but I know that He is here and that He will help me, if only I ask. 

3) Be patient. Like I said, the Lord sends things, but in His time. Sometimes we can't see why until later. And yeah, it's frustrating. sometimes you want to scream or cry or hit something hahaha but people have their agency to choose. And you have the Lord. So turn to Him and plead to Him. 

4) Endure to the End and live in the moment. Things pass and go. The book is still there to read, page after page, and the water still keeps running after the bridge is burned. So why stop and focus on the bad stuff? or why not appreciate the moments as they come? There is still good things that are waiting to come, but we need to keep moving forward. We need to keep turning the pages of the book and reading or, as my wonderful brother would say, "Build a bridge and get over it." the faster we can overcome our difficulties or bad spots in our lives and can keep enduring to the end, the faster the blessings can come or the faster we will be able to spot them. 

Haha the mission is so amazing and an awesome experience and it's amazing what you can learn from each and every moment.

One more thing that I want to share that my dad brought to my attention: How, after a day full of hard work, crammed with family stuff, social lives, and church callings, can we find time to share the gospel? When, at the end of the day, we realize that we didn't open our mouth or invite anyone, did we miss the opportunity to share with someone? there is a phrase one of my companions shared with me and it goes something like this: Everyone has the duty and responsibility to share the gospel, and we should be doing it all the time. And, if  necessary, use words. Sometimes we think that missionary work is about talking to people or going out with the missionaries. And those things are great and it is missionary work. But sometimes its the small and sincere things too. Our examples. Our service. Standing up to our beliefs. There really isn't enough time in the day to be able to survive the challenges of life, plus put on our church clothes and proselyte with the missionaries. We have families to support, bills to pay, meetings to attend. But I can promise you, that when our friends and family see our service, when they see our faith through our examples, when they see us read church material during lunch breaks, or ask to pray before doing an activity at work, or refuse to take a drink during happy hour, they will be drawn to the light that we have. They will somehow be drawn to ask or to wonder. And when the right moment comes and we take advantage of it to speak about our beliefs with them, they will be understand and be able to know. We should always be looking for opportunities to preach the gospel. But we should always be living and practicing everything we are to teach. Sometimes it doesn't take a baptism to get an entire family pumped to share the gospel with their friends. Sometimes it's having a friend ask about our beliefs, or giving a book of Mormon to a loved one or seeing that friend come to church, or seeing the gratefulness in their eyes after a service project. I can't really explain it too well, the experiences that I have seen. But I can say how rewarding it has been for me to see the light and excitement more in the Member's eyes when they go with us to the lessons and see their friends accept the gospel and missionaries. 

Anyway, that's my long shpill for the week. Haha, sorry that it such missionary talk most of the time and not some cool stories. But some of the more sincere things are the ones that need attention. Thank you all for your love and support, letters, email, packages, and prayers. I'm so grateful for all of your examples for me and for those that surround you. Take care and have a great week!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho