Kolbe's Mission: 5 months!!!

Hey there friends and family! I hope everything is going well for everyone back home. Things are going great here in good ole Villa Mexico, speaking of which I should be leaving next week! It is crazy that 5 months have already passed. I have been tested and tried so much and have gone through so many dificulties in my mission. I have had some of the hardest times of my life here and I have also had some of the best. As I sit here reflecting on these 5 months I see how present the Lord´s hand has been in my life. I have received many blessings and I have have grown so much closer to our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. I have developed a deep appreciation for the atonement. I listened to a talk the other day that I would like to invite you all to listen to by Elder Bednar called "The enabling power of the atonement". Yes, this mission is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and yes I still struggle, but through the atonement I have the opportunity to receive strength everyday. The same applies to everyone in any stage of life.

This week was really awesome. We had our ward conference and it is a huge thing here in Bolivia. We had an activity every night and did a lot of fun stuff. Also we were able to have another baptism and it was awesome! Here are the usual highlights.

Spiritual experience: At our baptism, the mom of the girl who got baptized bore her testimony and it was super powerful. She talked about how greatful she was that the Lord sent his angels (talking about us) to them and how we changed their lives. I remember the first time I met with them. All of them are converts of about a year but they have been inactive since. The dad hadn´t been to church in 6 months and hadn´t received the priesthood. We worked hard with him and with the whole family and they are all back at church, the mom has a calling and the dad received the priesthood and was able to baptize his daughter. He was so nervous but he did awesome. It was a super awesome night for me.

Funny experience: One of our assistants to the president is from Paraguay and is a super awesome guy. He is trying to learn English right now and is actually doing really well with it. He is probably the happiest person you will ever meet and he is super funny. This pday we went to a place called Villa Tunari that was super cool. All of us gringos were sitting in the back of the bus and he got on and saw us all and said "ooh charming group!" We all laughed and the other assistant told us that was their word of the week.

Scripture of the week: 2 Nefi 9:18

Catedral de Santa Teresa!