If You Want to Make a Difference in the World, You Must Be Different from the World - Sis Dalton

Well, good afternoon folks! It's a balmy 55ish degrees outside and the sun is shining. Yes, the sun is shining. It's weird having it be January and there's no inversion going on. I'm not complaining at all. I've only been having a little bit of sinus problems this winter which is great. Though I have been waking up with a headache every day for a while now and my throat often hurts too. BUT there's no inversion so I am happy. =)

This week has been intense. (I think I may just say that every week, but just believe me and know that it's really true.) People are now starting to come back from Mexico and other various places around. We saw Olivia for the first time in almost two week. She went to Tijuana. Her sister lives there and Olivia always takes clothes and other things down because apparently when you're in the not tourist part it's really really poor. Even more feo (ugly) than it is around here. At least according to Olivia. =) We took our ward mission leader over with us and he just busted out in asking her where she is spiritually if she's reading what her doubts are etc. It was intense man. =) Eventually he finally admitted to him what it is that's bothering her. It came back to the polygamy thing that I thought we had resolved a while ago. She starts going off on all these "facts" she's found on the internet about Joseph Smith. She's just naming them all off. Everything. And I mean, it's not like I've never heard it before, but it really got to me. That this lady who has so much faith would be led astray by such a silly thing. She just kept saying, "No sabia esto? (You didn't know this?" "You haven't looked into this before?" with this smile/look on her face like she was trying to cross us in our words to catch us in something.

And my heart broke.

Finally we just told her that these things didn't matter. That God would tell her if Joseph Smith was really this man who had 33 wives and some of them were "hidden" and others were younger than 14 or if he was good and that he really was called of God. We told her to come to church and God would let her know if it was where He wanted her to be. And then she didn't come. When we went over to find out why afterward, her husband told us she was at her Catholic church.

 And my heart broke again.

She had the truth. She knew...

 But no effort is wasted, as Pres Greene up in Logan has said. No effort is wasted. The hard part is keeping going after something like that. After finding and working with her since I got her and then having to let her alone for a while. How do you go to the next lesson smiling? That's where faith comes in I think.

A couple of days ago, we, my companions and I were all talking about crying. I'm not sure why or how we got on this subject but we were. Hna G says that she's never cried while on her mission. And I just wonder how that can be. How can you not start to care about these people so much that when they fall or something bad happens to them you don't cry for them. But you know, I'm just turning into a bawl baby here on the mission. =) No big deal. I have decided I will be like Pres Eyring one day. I will be able to cry in front of millions of people during conference and do it in a dignified manner. It's gonna be legit. =)

And that whole email seems super depressing. The week was good. Don't you worry. We had interviews last Friday and I really admire Pres Taylor. A lot a lot. He's very in tune with the Spirit. He said some things to me that he never ever could have known about me unless the Spirit told him. At one point he got this concentrated look on his face then he just busts out in this fact about me, one that I rarely tell people. He listened to the Spirit. That's the only way he could have known. It happened multiple times that day. Yep. He's pretty cool. And it testified to me of God's love for me. Again. =) I've been getting that a lot lately. I know He is in the little details of my life and that He knows how to help me perfectly.
Love you all lots and lots.

Have a good week.
Much love
Hna Scott