Oh, my dear family,
It was so great to SEE you all and talk to you last night! Everyone looks great and seems happy, so I'm grateful for that. It's funny--when we got done talking, I was chatting with the Robisons and Hna. Aguero about how I expected calling home to make me trunky, but it actually made me realize that everything's still in place and there are great things to look forward to when we're back all together, but this is the only time I'll ever have as a missionary in Panama. So, far from making me trunky, it actually made me a tad nostalgic for the mission. 3 months really is nothing at all and I'm going to miss being here. Nothing has ever been so crazy, so difficult or so thoroughly entertaining as the mission. Most of all, I'm just very grateful for the opportunity I've had to grow in my testimony of the Savior. I know I told Mom, Dad, Angie and Caden about this last night, but for those of you who didn't hear, this is an experience we had this weekend (taken from my letter to the president this week):
Want some good news? Turns out we really are doing some good in Santiago after all. This weekend we went to go help out a couple in the ward that´s been having some marital problems. Everyone in the ward kept telling us, ¨"you need to go visit them! You need to visit them!" which we always do, of course, but everyone seems to have this idea that missionaries have the power to fix everything. I honestly didn't have a clue what we were going to tell this young couple (not being married myself and therefore not an authority on the subject) and when we got there they just started yelling and fighting right in front of us, going back and forth about all of the wrong things that the other had done. I finally had to stand up and tell them that we had to leave because there was nothing we could do to help them if they just wanted to sit there and fight. We were embarrassed to see them act like this since both of them knew better. I asked them to think about what Christ would think if he were here listening to them treat each other this way and that if they truly believed in the gospel, they would forgive each other and fix the things that they were doing wrong individually. There was a long moment of silence. At least the fighting stopped. The next day at church they were both quiet and left right after sacrament meeting. The miracle is that when we went to visit them at night time, they were both smiling and acting very pleasant with each other. They told us that we and many of the ward members had helped them to change their attitudes and they'd decided to forgive each other. Then the wife said something I won't forget very soon: "When Hna. Brewster stood up and reprimanded us, I felt like Jesus Christ himself was in the room and I felt so ashamed."
We always tell people we're "representatives of Jesus Christ" but sometimes I don't think we fully understand the magnitude of that statement. We actually DO have the authority to act in His name and say what He would say. It's a humbling thought and definitely makes me grateful to have this opportunity to be a missionary and be that much closer to the Savior.
It's hard but I love it.
Sometimes, if not a majority of the time, it's difficult to feel like we´re really making any difference here in the mission but it's experiences like this that reinforce my faith in what we're doing here. I may not be the best missionary, but I know I'm doing the best I can.
I love you all very much and am grateful for each one of you. Have a fantastic week!
love,
Hna. Brewster
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