"Gracias a Dios"

Hello!

It sounds like you all had a busy few weeks with weddings, girls camp, 4th of July, etc. I know it will only get busier until school starts. Life never stops moving forward. I have noticed that a lot in the letters. One my friends sent me a letter a few weeks ago saying things were the same amongst my friends back home. In the next letter she informed me of something completely different and exciting going on in her life. I am really happy for her but it just reminds me how quickly life can change. All we have to do is blink! haha.

 

Well this week as been yet another week of knocking. I am getting used to it. Somedays I like knocking and some days it is so hot out all I want to do is be inside someone's house! I have been studying a lot on prayer this week. My district leader tells me I am training this week but won't give me a subject. He says he will give me one the day of but I wanted to have something to work towards just in case I can tie it in. I realized how much we pray EVERYDAY. I have been working SO hard....well I could be working hard...but I have definitely been trying to make my prayers meaningful. I was reading in Preach My Gospel and wrote down all the things we should be praying for. Then I studied the scriptures and found all the things that they say we should be praying for. It ended up being a page front and back. BUT those were only the topics. For example as a missionary one of the things says we should be praying for our investigators. Do you know how many investigators we have?! I usually say things liks "Bless please our investigators with....." but is says to pray for them individually. I am not complaining just noticing how important it is to really work on my prayers. Prayer is something I have struggled with. I always roll out of bed and forget or crawl into bed and forget...okay not always but for a LONG time I have wanted to be better at praying. Now...I am still so far from perfect...and being on a mission has helped... but now I am barely starting to see the difference. The other day we were praying as a companionship before we went to bed. I opened my eyes...okay I know, I know. I peaked haha....only for a second but I saw my companion in her prayer form. I am not saying it was bad but I just noticed that I had been in the same position before. After I saw her, I looked at myself, wondering what I looked like if someone saw me. I realized for myself my body language was not that of praying. I immediately corrected my posture. Since then I have tried so hard to not look like prayer is a chore. I was reading in the Bible dictionary and it talks about different forms of how people used to pray. It is interesting. I know I have SO far to go. I really hope it doesn't sound like I am perfect at this because I am not. I have just learned from this experience.

 

In this whole experience this is what I have learned, still learning. I have learned that I was in a complete rut. I didn't know I was but looking back on a day or two ago I can see something that I wanted to improve and never did. I think it took me studying the princple in order to see how deep my rut was. That is one way to dig yourself out of the rut. How else do you do it? I have several more things I would love to improve but just don't know how. I think it goes back to my talent email. On the mission there is all sorts of missionaries buying instruments to learn how to better play the piano, guitar, etc. Okay well not a whole lot, but a few, and maybe they are not buying them but finding them in members garage's haha I exaggerate. I need to work on that. haha Anyway I just hope that at the end of my mission I am better prepared to face the world. I used to think I knew what life was about but I realize I didn't. One thing you hear from hispanics is "gracias a dios" directly translating to "thank god' but they don't mean in the way it sounds. If you ask them how they are they will respond in that way. They really recoginze how much Heavenly Father has given them. It is amazing to think about how these people I teach live in these tiny apartments and yet work for FAMOUS people. I have a lot to learn I know about being more thankful for things Heavenly Father as given me. I am grateful to be surrounded by them!

 

I better go! have a great week!

Love you!

-Hermana Fish