Semana 81 - Endure to the End

Dear mother,

I thought i would start off this letter on a good note:  I got my bike back saturday! We took it up to Rome on tuesday to get it fixed and we finally got it back!  E. Newman's blisters were screaming with joy!  Working yesterday was great! No one opened their doors to us...but we got to more doors in less time!

Lets see...this past week we saw some record high heat for the summer. Everyday was at least 104 degrees. Last night we were talking with Kevin and how it felt kinda chilly around 8 pm. He started laughing and said, "you know it's hot when you think running around in 95 feels cold." The heat really isn't TERRIBLE but it definately isn't comfortable. Another down side is my body's tendency to sweat profusely at ANY sign of above warm weather. I carry a towel around cuz I feel like there's a constant waterfall cascading from my forhead while we're proselyting (which seems to repel any human form of life). Gross, i know. It hit about 108 saturday and people sitting on their porches kept asking us if we were crazy...or on drugs...cuz no one in their right minds would be walking around in this heat.

Last monday the Trammells the senior couple took us around for pday. We took a break from the heat and went up to a place called Cave Spring. It's a fresh water spring--and a cave! Who knew?

Anyways, we climbed around in there and then later fed some ducks. I think I'm getting old because I LIKE FEEDING DUCKS!

Work wise, it was slow this week, to say the least. Apart from walking, it was just hard to find people at home. We struggled to teach this week. There were a few people home scattered throughout the week: Adelia (our investigator who actually goes to another church) we saw a few times. She even made us stay and eat dinner one time.

Fun family. Then there were some less actives we saw.

Saturday we had this branch bbq and I actually suggested this idea a while back because they wanted to do something to help include the spanish people. We were to do a bbq and have sports going on (soccer, of course) and we advertised this thing for 3 weeks! Everyone was invited: actives, LAs, investigators, missionaries, etc. We had a lot of hispanics say they would come. Saturday came and...0 of them showed up! Yeah, that was pretty -- REALLY -- disheartening. Really the whole point of the activity was for the hispanics and no one came. It was a good bbq though.

Church on sunday was sad, too. Attendance was poor.  Attendance of the spanish was almost nonexistant. There was one member, Maribel, who is as legit as they come. She is there faithfully every single week. The only other ones were Bro and Sis Bernal, who aren't even from this branch. They live in Acworth (about a 1 hour drive away) and were called here to help by the stake. They shared a very sad testimony about how they pray for Cedartown. They pray for the spanish members to be open and to return to church, for the investigators to be open, and for the missionaries that they can always have support despite rejection or failures. 

The Work here is hard for everyone. It is taking a toll on us spanish missionaries and i can feel it. Since I started my mission, and since i've gotten here to C-town, it's been a uphill struggle, even after my "hump day" hahaha. Hasn't gotten any easier. 

After feeling overwhelmed a few times this week I finally sat down, prayed forever, and read my scriptures, searching for some guidance. I read in 3 Ne. 15:9 which says,

"Behold, I am the ^alaw, and the ^blight. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall ^clive; for unto him that ^dendureth to the end will I give eternal life."

I talked about eternal perspective a while ago and this just kicked me in the butt again. Obviously I'm still working at gaining my own "eternal perspective." Like it says in the scripture, we are to look towards Christ and endure to the end. Not look downward ("nothing is turning out right" or "this is too hard" blah blah blah) nor inward ("I can't do this" or "I don't want to do this anymore"), but upward and outward! 

I know there are examples of "looking towards Christ" all around us (like Uncle Tini and Aunty Momi. Please tell them I am so grateful for them!). If we look to those examples, and try to be those examples, they will lift us up. I can endure. I'm asked to endure...with faith obviously :)

We meet Pres. Snow this wednesday and I'll be in Rome for the 4th of July. Yay! For the package, I keep forgetting things I need haha. Oh well. I guess nothing! We're doing great here and I love you all so much!

Love you mom!

--E. Heimuli