Monday, May 8, 2017

I love to see the temple. I don't love four 4 hour guagua rides

This week consisted of a lot of work, but not a lot of what you'd normally call "Missionary Work". First off, on Tuesday morning, we got up at 3:30 in the morning to take a gua gua to the capital for the mission temple trip. We even ended up arriving late, because we're the missionaries who are in the absolute outskirts of everything. In fact, when they finish the temple in Port-au-prince Haiti, it'll be closer to us in Neyba than the temple in Santo Domingo. It was a really good experience though. I love the temple so much, and it's incredible to feel the peace of that holy place after all of the stresses of missionary work. 

After the temple on Tuesday, we came back and spent Wednesday and Thursday preparing for the trip to the temple with the branch. We had to buy the food, gather the money from everyone who said they would go, rent another gua gua, because the original driver cancelled on us last minute, make sure the rooms were reserved, and help people with family history so that they could take their family names. Needless to say, it was pretty stressful. It was a great feeling to be in the temple twice in one week though, and I'm positive that when I'm home, I will not take the temple for granted. We are very lucky to have so many temples so close to us. Where my companion lives, his ward has to save up to take an airplane every six months to the closest temple that's like 16 hours away driving. Then they stay for a week and fly home. Crazy! 

That's just about everything that happened this week though. Some days are hard, some days are incredible. That's life and the mission is no different. Recently, I've been trying to memorize The Living Christ document (In Spanish and English) and one line really sticks out to me. It says that "He “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it." Sometimes I feel like that. People sometimes say some very unkind things towards us, and sometimes I get kind of angry at the fact that I'm simply trying to serve these people, being away from my family, in a country and a culture that is unfamiliar, speaking a foreign language, and some people despise us for it. But then I think that that's what happened to Christ (Obviously on an entirely different level) It was not easy for him. His entire life was literally dedicated to helping, teaching, and serving, and he was despised for it. So, that just makes me think that the mission, and life as a member of this church is made to help us become more like Christ, and that thought makes me happy. 

Anyway, I love you all, and I hope you have a great week. We might be having a baptism on Saturday. We've been teaching this girl named for Selenni for a while, so we'll see! Also, I'm SO PUMPED to talk to you on Mother's day. See you then! Bye!
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Love, Elder Anderson

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