Hey everyone!
This week was a MAJOR rolleroaster week. We had so many great things happen last week, and so many horrible things happen this week! It was very interesting to me how it all happened. I just know, its always darkest before the dawn. Last sunday we had 3 different families come to church, a total of 13, a record for me in the mission, this week we had a grand total of 0! One of the really sad things for us this week, was after church my companion and I decided to go visit our two investigators that were going to get baptised this coming weekend. Well we happened to find them both in the same place, one block away from the chapel, in a party, very very drunk. So we have our work cut out for us now to get them prepared better. They had both completely left alcohol, one of them is 3 or 4 months without drinking, and the other about 1 month. And they both fell, in the same party. It made me feel so sad. After that we went to lunch, it was a good lunch, I was feeling better, then on our way to another investigators house, like a ton of bricks it hit me, RUN TO A BATHROOM! Luckily we were close to the chapel. Last week I had taken some pills for the parasites I got, I was feeling better thursday through sunday, but they were only under remission. So I was dealing with stomach pains and other unwanted side effects all afternoon yesterday. I'm feeling a lot better today, no worries. And so with all of this going on and some other things, I got to thinking Why me? Why now? and I remembered, before church (and all of the bad fortune) started as I was sitting down reading my scriptures I felt impressed to read from Doctrine and Covenants section 121. And upon remembering that, I decided, all is well, I'm not THAT bad off.
7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.
It was a good lesson learned. Before leaving the house sunday morning I prayed for the ability to learn patience and charity. I guess I didn't take into account the part about HOW I wanted to learn it. But I learned my lesson. I know that the Lord surely answers our prayers. There is no doubt in my mind about that. Amongst all of those problems, we were able to have a family home evening with Family Rosero (converts that I interviewed for baptism 7 months ago) and Familia Aizaga (an investigator family that we found knocking doors a month ago). It was a great FHE. The family is so excited to get baptised. They have the baptismal goal July 24th. I will let you know on their progress and everything.
I hope that everyone back home is doing great. I love you all so much. I have such mixed feeling about everything right now. I just now feel like I'm getting into the groove of things, but now its so close for me to go home. I am so very excited to come home and meet all the new family! The only house that I know is my own! Everyone has gotten married and moved away. But at the same time I want to stay here. I love it here so much. I now understand all those times when Jared would tell me with tears in his eyes, "I am so jealous of you, I would give anything to be back in the mission."
Don't anybody worry about me. I will be just fine here, parasites are curable. Thank you all so much for the letters and pictures always! I love you all.
Elder Matthew David Morris