Eight Month Mark!

I´ve reached my eight month mark. It feels so weird to think that I´m almost half-way through my mission. It´s interesting to think about how far I´ve come and how far I still have to go in becoming the missionary I want to be. The last two weeks have been a bit stressful, but so good. I´m learning so much about what the true purpose of missionary work is and what I´m capable of doing and what I can achieve with God´s help.

I´m learning how easy it is to get caught up in the numbers, especially as senior companion, and not focus so much on the "why" of what we do every day. The key indicators help us to achieve our goals and fulfill our purpose, but aren´t in themselves the goal or the purpose. Our purpose is to invite others (everyone in this mission) to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel. Nobody can truly come unto Christ without receiving His Gospel which includes: faith, repentance, baptism by someone having the correct authority, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We can end the week having met each of the key indicators. We can be extremely busy every minute of every day. But, if we don´t understand our purpose clearly, we won´t ever see the fruits of our labors.

I´ve thought about how I would like to imagine myself at the end of my mission and what kind of missionary I want to be. I´ve also been thinking a lot about what I have to do now in order to become it. I want to be a power-house missionary full of love and void of fear. I´m not quite there yet, but I still have ten months to work on it. 

Hermana Olson and I get along really great. We work well together and I´m learning a lot from her. (We´ll take some photos this week and I´ll email them on Monday.) She has such a great desire to share the Gospel and always has a smile on her face. I don´t know if there´s a way to un-motivate her. She reminds me every day through her actions why this work is so important. I love her a lot. We have some really great investigators, too. I wish I had time to tell you all about them. I´ll work on saving some more time for next week.

I love you all!

Erin