Fishing without nets

Shoot. A thousand things have happened this week that I don`t even know where to begin.

Firstly, I learned that whenever you are fasting in the mission EVERYONE offers treats. Everyone. Flan, chocolate cake, fried chicken, ice cream, and much, much more. But days when we aer starving and have no food in the cupboards we are served a tiny plate of rice for lunch. But maybe it`s the Lord`s way of blessing me to not gain one thousand extra pounds.

On Tuesday we visited a woman who the missionaries were teaching months ago. Her name is Miriam. Her husband was murdered a year ago and they still don`t know for sure who did it. She is convinced that it was her hubby`s best friend. Through her tears she shared with us all of her aches and worries and frustration about the situation. My heart broke into a thousand pieces as she told us how her life has fallen apart since that dreadful even over a year ago. I had this crazy realization that even though I didn`t know exactly how she felt, the Savior does. He suffered for Miriam so that He could know how to hold her hand through her pain and take her to higher ground. 

That, along with a thousand other experiences of the week that would take too long to explain, led me to think a lot about how life is so much easier when we had everything over to Christ. Life is too hard and too painful sometimes to try to carry the load on our own. As we learn to give Him everything - the good, the bad, and the painful - He will heal our broken hearts and make us into the absolute best version of ourselves. I learned a lot this week about how God knows His children personally. It`s a phrase we through around a lot lately. "God knows and loves you." But I think sometimes we don`t take the time to understand what this really means.

When the Savior went to call his apostles he told them, "Come, follow me." The New Testament only gives a simple account of the story - The Savior invited a bunch of fisherman to leave their boats to become fishers of men, so they did. They dropped everything they were doing to follow Jesus. They didn`t drag their nets behind them, trying to keep up with the Savior as He weaved through the crowded streets of Jerusalem. They just let them go. They left their boats and trusted in this man who invited them to be fishers of men. They followed him without all the baggage of their lives.

But I wonder how they felt. I don`t think it was an easy choice for them to leave behind their lives to follow Christ. Fishing wsa all they`d ever known. It was how they earned their daily bread. Probably most of their friends were other fisherman. They were familiar with the tides and best fishing spots. And then the Savior waltzed in and asked them to leave it all behind. "Come, follow me."

It wasn`t easy, but they did it. And they became some of the most revered men in history. They trusted the Lord enough to leave their old lives behind and hope that He would help them find something better.

And so we are invited to do the same. We`re invited to drop everything to follow the Savior. It`s too hard to keep up with Him when we`re dragging around big, heavy nets.

This doesn`t mean we have to quit our jobs or drop out of school and live like monks or something. It means that we should leave behind those things that hold us back to follow Him. Maybe it means giving up a scholarship to serve a mission. Or maybe a job offer that sems amazing but would require us to spend extensive time away from our families. Or maybe it`s a habit like drinking every once in a while. Or perhaps it`s just little things like laziness and not wanting to read the scriptures or go to church because we`re having a bad hair day. Whatever our "net" is, the Lord invites us to drop it, exercise a little faith, and follow Him. And by doing so we`ll be free and happy beyond description. 

So. That`s just what has been floating around in my head all week long. 

The conference we were supposed to have with Elder Scott didn`t turn out exactly as I imagined, but was still great. Instead of a visit from Elder Scott, Elder Gonzales from the 70 came and spoke to our mission and the Ecuador Guayaquil North mission. There were over 400 missionaries there. Crazy. It was sort of a blur of black and white and the occasional wacky tie. I bought a new shirt for the occasion because I was tired of looking like a frumpinator. 40 bucks later and a heck of a lot of buyer`s remorse, I have a new green shirt to add to my missionary attire collection. Who spends 40 bucks on a shirt that will probably get stained in 5 minutes? Me, apparently. Whoops.

On Saturday we had a baptism! Angela Roblero got baptized after a good 6 weeks of teaching her and her family. Her mom isn`t quite ready to make the plunge, but we`re working on it. 

The baptism was the most disorganized, stressful experience of the mission thus far. My comp and I had planned out everything to the tee a few days in advance, but the day off everything fell apart. They are remodeling our chapel and shut off the water, so we couldn`t fill the font. So we called the zone leaders and worked it out to combine our baptism with a few others in the stake at the stake center that night.

We ran around all day informing everyone of the change in plans and getting everything taken care of to have the baptism that night. We picked up Angela and 2 of her sisters for the baptism and arrived early at the stake center so she could change and get all ready to go. We were the first to arrive and the doors were locked so we had to wait outside for a while until the other elders came to open up. At about 7pm they finally showed and informed us that there wasn`t water in the stake center either. So we had jam a thousand people into a few taxis to go over to another chapel and have the baptism. Somehow everything worked out, but my stress level was practically through the roof and that is why I look like a frizzball in all the pictures. It was definitely...unforgettable. 

Other tidbits of the week: there was some evangelical convention near our apartment and all night long we could hear this Christian rock group playing some concert. It would have been cool but they were terrible musicians. 

I was starving last night and couldn`t buy anything because it was Sunday. We ran out of matches so I couldn`t cook anything, so I resorted to eating uncooked oatmeal in milk. Something must be wrong with me because it was actually really good. 

Tiny things are always better. We were eating lunch with a member yesterday and she showed us her new little kittens, only a day old. They looked a little bit like little rats but were adorable nonetheless. Also. I am obsessed with little chicks that run around in the streets sometimes. I tried catching one this week but the mother hen nearly pecked my eyes out. I am not making that story up. Ask my companion.

Shout outs to...

Rachie! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I hope your day is full of sunshine and homemade ice cream. I can`t wait to have sleepovers with you again in a year so we can plan our outfits for the Nutcracker. Love you, girlie!

Elise Brownie Sonny. (Too many names to decide which to call you!) I hope your birthday was way legit and that all your dreams come true this year.


Have the best week of your lives. Love you all more than graham crackers and milk.

dearest hermana velasquez. this is why i will miss you.

this hermanita finished the mission yesterday and tomorrow will be hugging her cute family after a year and a half of hard work. i am going to miss her like crazy.

surprise! we had a baptism! i bet you all forgot i was actually serving a mission and finding people to be baptized! 

Angela Roblero (age 10 in that angel dress) got baptized on May 28th!

Pictured: Me, Rosi (age 5), Angela, Sandro (our ward mission leader), Yuli, and Hermana Lara

It was the craziest baptism of my mission thus far. yikes.

i bought this shirt for 40 dollars. why? i have no idea. impulse buy, and i am still having buyers remores

we eat a lot of greasy food. aka french fries and fried chicken because it is what people give us.