Tender Mercies

     One of my companions in the MTC is a very avid list maker. In every journal/notebook she had she had a running list in each end. I'm not to that point, but I am learning that putting your life in terms of lists can sometimes be helpful--to do lists, here's what I am going to do with my day lists, lists of blessings--you get the idea. Sorry for two weeks of lists in a row, but it's the easiest way to format and organize everything that I want to share...

This week: Tender Mercies/Things I'm Grateful For

--Mondays. It's our chance to de-stress and relax a little.

--My companion loves ice cream too.

--We have a nifty little booklet that is written specifically to help missionaries adapt to living like missionaries. It has fantastic suggestions and is very helpful. I feel like it will come in handy for much more than just the mission.

--We have really sweet investigators and members who are always looking out for us.

--Sister Training Leaders. They really can work miracles.

--Our lesson with Cristobal, Eblin, and Jonathan. Cristobal and Eblin are recent converts, Jonathan isn't a member. They are all pretty cool and make it on my list of favorite people here. We read a scripture about how to gain a testimony, and by the end we were all crying. It touched every one of us.

--A testimony of the Book of Mormon.

--Priesthood Power is real.

--We had a chance to serve una hermana that we've been teaching. We helped her make and fry over 100 little corn tortillas. Besides learning how to make corn tortillas, I learned that really everyone has talents and everyone has a place. I couldn't tell when the tortillas were sufficiently fried, but my companion could. She was having trouble forming the tortillas, but that I could do. Long story short, we make a good team. :)

--We got to run through the rain (actually we kind of skipped) during the Honduras vs. France match of the World Cup.

--The miracle of the loaves and fishes is just as real today as it was 2,000 years ago.  It's just that we are always hearing miracles of how the Lord always provides. We ran into the problem that we ran out of money to buy more food Saturday to cover Saturday and Sunday. My companion was rather worried, but I prayed and we were blessed with ideas of how to use the food we did have and people showed up and gave us food. For example, one investigator gave us 16 guineo (green bananas) that we fried with the oil that we had. It wasn't a direct multiplying of the food that we had in the pot, but we were blessed with more than enough food.

--With all of the rain this week it cooled off enough last night that I got to use my sheet. Still not cold enough for a blanket, but I was very content.

--Being blessed with the words to say.

--The opportunity to serve in here with Hermana Morales.

     It's been kind of a long week, and this isn't even the half of it. It's really been a rough roller coaster kind of week. My companion goes from being so stressed out that she's made up her mind to call president to arrange her flight, to a ''I think I can stay one more day or until cambios, July 9.'' Friday was to the point that she had her bags packed before I even knew what was going on and the Sister Training Leaders rescued us. Right now I think she is doing much better with the news that she received from her family, but we'll see. But I think I will leave it here.

Hasta la proxima!
Hna. Thacker