IT was a SUPER COOL ONCE-IN-A-MISSION EXPERIENCE....

Hellooooo Familia,

So im still in Naranjal!! My pleas paid off :) BUT my companion DID have cambios last week, and guess who my new one is??? HNA NAZER!!! por fin!!! haha We are beyond incredibly stoked. 

So this week has been fun, but also wayyyyyyyyy overwhelming. The Lucero family fell on us. I honestly don't even really know why. They don't have like a big challenge or problem impeding them from being baptized. They have accepted all of the commandments and teachings into their lives. They just say that they don't have the desire in their hearts to do it right now. It's kinda like they're looking for excuses as well, because sometimes they ask us random irrelevant questions; its weird. But they still all came to church on Sunday. We were hoping President would talk to them about it, but he was busy so he just helped give Evelyn a blessing because she's been really sick and then had to go. But he told us to keep with them so that they can do it this week. I have faith that is possible, I just don't know what else to tell them or what else to do as I feel like we have pulled every card we know. So ya, that was really sad for me. They were going to be my first complete family. Andrea and Daniel, a married couple, with Evelyn and Andy, their 2 children that are old enough to be baptized. (4 yr old Dustin isn't quite there yet. haha) But anyways I've been doing my best not to get too discouraged.

Something really cool this week is that on Friday we went to the temple with the branch!!!! We missionaries and about 20 or so of the members loaded onto a bus at 6 am and headed on up to Guayaquil. We were just in the baptistry obviously since they are all recent converts, but we still got to put on a white jumper and help out with the name cards and towels and what not. It was fun. The Torres family came too and their kids did baptisms as well. We ate in the cafeteria there afterwards, took tons of pictures, and then headed back to Naranjal. It was a super cool once-in-a-mission experience, that i feel so fortunate and thankful to have had. It was way cool to see all these people who have just joined the church within the past few months to be inside the house of the Lord, participating in temple work. Talk about awesome :)

So Sunday was the craziest day of my life. So you know how I'm Young Women's President? Well Hna Nazer is Primary President, 2 huge responsibilities. And then on top of that we have to take care of our investigators and converts and the members, etc. I tried introducing the Personal Progress program to the girls this week and it's just hard to get them to understand.....They don't really listen too well because it's loud in the room. It's just one big room with a class in each corner. So they don't focus too well and therefore don't comprehend anything. But oh well. My goal is to help them complete their value experiences of faith, and start the mutual program. We shall see how it goes :)

Think that's all the news I got this week. Loved the parable of the skunk. Can't believe seminary is ending and soon after that the school year. And this week I hit my year mark! My how time flies. My skin has gotten a lot better this week than in the weeks previous so thanks for all of your prayers! :) 

Being in this tiny branch here where the church is just starting makes me feel very inadequate a lot of the time, but it also gives me a stronger motivation to do my part and hasten the work. I love the people of Naranjal so much and only desire their salvation! But the kicker is that sometimes they seem to not want it...but the only thing we can do is keep on trying.  Elder Tad R Callister said in his famous talk on becoming a consecrated missionary that these missionaries are willing to pay the price of repeated rejection for the hope of a single conversion. Whatever the world throws at them, they throw back a smile, because they know they have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Love that so much. Every time I'm frustrated, I try and throw a smile at the world instead. It's pretty affective. Well, next week should be pretty crazy as well so I'll be sure to give you all a full update this coming Monday. love you all!!

xoxo Hermana Harper

The Lucero Family