Ogres Have Layers, The Gospel Has Layers

Hola everyone! 

I hope your week has been great! 

This week was a bit of a rough week in terms of finding new people - we had lots of lessons cancel which is not my favorite  

And we grinded everyday to find new people and just found a lot of people who were happy to chat, but not interested in meeting with us again. But this week has already started off really awesome, and I'm sure this week is going to be full of the Spirit as we keep working hard! And every day has blessings, so here are some highlights from the week: 

️ Joy in sharing - there was one day this week where I felt extra tired and down, but then we went out and flowed (shared scriptures with people) at the grocery store parking lot. We talked to so many people about the gospel, and while we didn't find anybody to continue teaching, getting to share why I love the scriptures and the gospel cheered me right up! And the rest of the day I felt excited to share and work hard!  

️ Exchanges - once every 6 weeks, we get to spend the day with another sister missionary, so I went up to Tucson with Hermann Boyer! Let me tell you it is SO busy up there.The Lord is hastening his work in Tucson for sure. We visited, taught, and called so many people! It was super awesome to see the work moving so quickly up there! 

️ 2 months!! That's right, yesterday marked 2 months on my mission!! The days are slow but the months are fast! To celebrate, Hermana Black and I ate ice cream and played chess and I WON for the first time ever!! 

️ Border Shopping - for Pday today, we went out to breakfast with the district at a cute little diner and then went to some little stores right down by the border! which was crazy because we could look and see mexico just a couple miles away  but we just looked at a bunch of random stuff at all these little stores, and it was super fun! 

️ Esperanza - yesterday we had set new goals for the week and we were feeling a bit discouraged because we hadn't met very many of our goals for last week. But we decided to go visit some people who we had met that week and knock the doors around them! one of the doors we almost didn't knock, but we decided to  anyways, and a cute old lady named Esperanza answered! She loves talking about Jesus and invited us to come back later this week!! So because of her, we already passed our goal from last week and we're doing better already. It was a great start to an awesome week and she gave us the hope that we needed!! 

Spanish word of the week - ¡Guau! 

This is just the Spanish pronunciation of "wow", but we say it all the time and for some reason its hilarious every time 

Bonus word: cebolla 

This is the word for onion! To explain my email title, this was just something one of the elders said during our district scripture study yesterday, and for some reason it was hilarious too  I think I'm deprived from humor as a missionary.

Spiritual thought: 

I put this in my Facebook story yesterday, but I was studying hope this week and this quote from President Uchtdorf stood out to me so much - "Hope is not knowledge, but rather the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us. It is confidence that if we live according to God’s laws and the words of His prophets now, we will receive desired blessings in the future. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance." 

As we put our faith in God and trust that He has big plans for us, we can have the patient perseverance that he's talking about. And while it might not always be manifest right away, I know that God knows what He's doing and His work is perfect. While I'm trying to find people to teach, He is teaching me lessons and preparing people who are ready for us to teach.  so if you're feeling like its hard to see God's hand right now, have the hope and confidence to continue on! We're in this together! 

This week was a hard one but also spiritually strengthening! If you have a favorite General Conference talk for motivation, send it my way! I hope you all have an amazing week! Jesus loves you!! 

, 

Hermana Morales

This is the U.S. Mexico border! So close, but worlds away.