Hey Family! 

Man i cannot believe you guys have a senior, fifth grader and an 8th grader. Mom and Dad are getting old haha just kidding!

  I drink plenty of water. I drink 6 bottles a day and love it, and here it hasn’t been that hot only in the mornings then it rains and storms the rest of the day. In the summer it rains, go figure but i love it. The other day it rained so much while we were driving, it was a big storm and i couldn’t see two feet in front of me so we had to go to a taco bell and wait till it stopped so we could drive. scary.

 I am eating great and the members are really good about feeding us. For lunches I usually have some days a tuna sandwich with fruit and a veggie, nuts and cheese, or i will be have a quesadilla with beans fruits and veggies. Hahah. I am not that creative but trying to stay healthy because Cuban food is so greasy and really heavy blah no Bueno.

 This week was such a blur! The days go by slow but the weeks goes by so fast. It has been crazy here with the World cup going on. We have member dinner appointments every night and they always have the game on so we have watched quite a few. My companion likes soccer and has me getting into it. One night at a members house we were watching soccer and eating hamburgers and hot dogs. We got really into the game. It was quite a party. Latin people love soccer.

The highlight of this week was the temple! The temple is so big and so beautiful!! A lot of the paintings in the temple are original and were painted just for this temple so it was so cool to see all different points of view from the painters. Being able to go through the temple with my zone was so amazing and so powerful! it brought new excitement and energy into our work. The celestial room was beautiful! Our president said that the carpet in there was handmade. The workers would come every day and sew it little by little.

Temple Trip to new Fort Lauderdale Temple

I learned so much this temple trip. I learned a lot about Eve and her role and her wisdom behind the choice to eat the fruit. How she longed to be a mother and fulfill her purpose. It really inspired me how much she loved Heavenly Father and how she wanted to obey all his commandments. She knew what she had to do. I also learned what the difference is between a transgression and a sin and how what Adam and Eve did was a transgression because there was no other way. It’s just amazing how much the spirit can teach you when you are open and ready to learn. This temple trip was also the last time we got to see our mission president and his wife. They leave this week and the new president comes in this Friday.  It is sad but we are so excited for what’s to come and the fresh ideas this president will have. I know that with this new president we will have great success as well.

This week was challenging with investigators. Some have dropped us and others we have had to drop them. It has been frustrating but this week we did have an investigator come to church which was a great miracle!   Her name is Daisy and she is 17. We have been teaching her mom and she never sat in on our lessons until like a week ago she got really interested and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon immediately. She was so excited for church on Sunday! When we arrived to see if they could go she was already! Her mom couldn’t go but her parents were really supportive and she had such a good experience with the ward and the Young Women. I and she became fast friends. She is so awesome and I know next week she will get baptized for sure. I hope we find more people like her this week!

Daisy

 Investigators have been a challenge and so has the language. It has been becoming difficult lately. For example we call our mission leader every night and usually my companion talks to him because he talks like hard core Cuban. But the other day she said it was my turn and he refused to talk to me because my Spanish wasn’t good enough. That killed me. I was frustrated and hate grew inside me. But then i remembered what it said in my blessing before I left. It said the language wouldn’t be a barrier for me and i decided to humble myself and use this experience to motivate me to do better and study even harder then i was. I have been improving and my vocab has been expanding. I know that with the Lord’s help and faith in that blessing that i will be fluent in no time and soon i will be able to talk to him and show him how amazing i am.

    A quote I liked this week was “the more clearly we understand our divine destiny the more immune we become to Satan”. It’s so true as we realize who we are and where we came from and what our purpose is here Satan cannot win! We cannot fall and will always progress and always do what is right.  

  Also this week i have been thinking a lot about pioneers and how you are going on trek soon and I found this poem that I really liked, it’s called Faith Enough.

Faith enough …

To form molten stones of glass

Seeking the Creator’s touch

Faith enough …

In the midst of the tempest to say,

“Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea”

Faith enough …

To serve earthly royalty with hidden, burning testimony,

To recognize one sent from God

Faith enough …

To let go of the boat

And step out onto the billowing wave

Faith enough …

To follow God’s newly called Moses

In wagon and handcart, across the unknown plains

Though my story is still being written,

In reading theirs I find I too have

… Faith enough

Also this week at a member’s house, she gave us to drink blended cantaloupe.... yup just blended melon and milk. Eben would have loved it but it was so hard for me to choke down. I wanted to puke it was so gross. I think i would have liked to have warm jello like grandpa had haha. Oo different. I miss you guys so much and love you all!! Keep me updated on everything and all the summer fun!! :) Oh and my sunglasses work great! :) I also love that quote and yeah my companion is soo excited for the new branch in Cuba she started crying, it’s so amazing!! :))) 

 Have a good week!! :)

 Love Briaunna :)