What a Week!

Well, the beginning of this week = days of miracles! Then the week turned into = OPPOSITION. Wow! This week has definitely been full of that and it is kind of amazing how the work turns upside down but that reminds us that really we are not in control and this work is not ours! There is a greater plan to everything.

First things first. Turns out I have a urinary infection. Yup. It´s been pretty dang uncomfortable and I´m taking antibiotics (Bactrim) but it's only for 5 days--today is day 3 and the symptoms continue. My body has been so much weaker because of it all and I am so so so much more tired and weak and especially dizzy everyday. It's hard because like Logan said last week--it's really hard when you can't work as well in the mission because you feel badly--this is why I´m here--to work! I haven´t stayed home yet--there was one point I thought I was going to pass out and have to come home during the day but we went to our next lesson and things improved. I am going to be smart but am also pushing myself and I got a blessing from David Salazar during lunch yesterday so that will help. Oh Joseph--the opposition comes in all forms! And when our bodies are weaker, animo is weaker, and feelings are closer to home and family and friends. So know that I´ve missed you all like crazy!! So much. And especially wished I had Dad here to explain to me this illness and what the effects are, etc etc. There aren´t many explanations in the mission for anything haha that's been a struggle for me and my questioning-curious mind :)

Tuesday we had an awesome meeting with our district and zone and were just pumped because we had been seeing small miracles everyday! The attendance at church last week, when we went to the Familia Lucas Hopper´s house for lunch, the environment was a difference between night and day! They thanked us for the time we took to remind them of things they had forgotten. They told us they were praying together, had forgiven each other, and agreed to start anew. Miracle! AND then the Sister hesitantly asked if perhaps they could accompany us sometime to a lesson. AND that she had a reference. It´s amazing what helping the members in their spirituality and remind them of things forgotten does for missionary work!

Opposition--they didn't come to church on Sunday and the elderly mom of the sister told us that things had kind of worsened again with a huge fight. We couldn´t see her reference either this week. We´ll keep praying and we see them tomorrow so we will see!

Also Tuesday, we went to teach Lucy and something had kind of changed. I think she is so fed up of her home environment. Well, halfway through the lesson, the dad came out of his room saying they had been telling lies about the family and from that point on, we were caught in the middle of a HUGE fight and story telling and contention for 2 hours. 2 hours! We tried cutting it off earlier, inputting testimonies, stopping them to make them realize that each of us has our own faults and we can´t only point fingers, etc. We need to be willing to change if we want results. None of anything we said helped. My mind was literally about to explode and at one point Hna Angulo stood up and rebuked the dad in the name of Jesus Christ. Guys--this experience was crazy. The dad is impossible and only cares about money--just super hard hearted and the whole thing was just horrible. I feel so so bad for those poor girls and Jennifer (the recent convert) left halfway through to her room.

We literally were drained in every single form after that experience and had to walk to the church, sit down, pray personally and then pray fervently as a companionship for strength and to clear our minds so we could work. That was a miracle--we were able to immediately go out and work. I can't even describe how horrible and tired we felt before and then we could just leave the church and begin again.  I feel this was one instance in a fulfillment of the blessing President Holland gave me that I would see the restoring of bodies through the Priesthood (or our callings).

We had a few great lessons with Rosa Luna and her son Walter and spouse Gloria. Walter = gold! He is awesome and has been the one to follow through and really want to know. His wife has had miraculous experiences in other churches apparently and struggles with faith--she likes to see and then believe. But Walter is awesome.

We got news one night at 10:30 that we had to be in Guayaquil the following night to spend the night and then on Thursday wake up early to do something for ID´s and then we had a capacitacion with Pres Amaya with all the trainers and all the new elders and sisters. It was crazy trying to get everything taken care of before we left! We barely slept because of being riled up and worries about leaving our sector, etc! Bad timing with baptisms and lessons, etc haha.

The trips to Guayaquil and back were long and painful--especially on the way home and I´m 99 percent sure it was on that trip that triggered my infection. However, the meeting with Pres Amaya and all of the new missionaries with their trainers was so awesome. It was a neat opportunity to be able to talk with our President and his wife more closely and it was cool because there, Hna Angulo and I realized how much more united we were than other companionships, we love to laugh, and although we have problems, are united and enjoy each others company. We also realized that we have things to work on but that we were doing a much better job than we might have given ourselves credit for.

While we were in Guayaquil, we called Lucy and she told us she didn´t go to her interview, she had work just this week all day every day and she couldn´t be baptized on Saturday or go to church. That was really hard to deal with, she is struggling we can tell and now needs to start over with church attendance, and we need to figure out what more to do. There are some things she needs to realize and we will just keep trying to find her and teach and love. We haven´t been able to find her in her house since we´ve been back from Guayaquil.

Friday, Laura got baptized. It was great--she still doesn´t seem super happy and misses her boyfriend a ton but we love her and now she needs friends in teh church. This is another one of our problems here--the converts and investigators rely wholly on us, the missionaries and our visits, etc. But we can´t visit everyone all the time and do everything when we have a whole sector to worry about. It is now them that need to bring that light into their lives and the ward that needs to fellowship and uphold. But the people here get offended when we stop visiting every week and the ward struggles to fellowship.

Opposition--she didn´t get confirmed yesterday because she and her son were super super sick. We brought David Salazar over to give her a blessing and are hoping for Sunday!

Umm remember how I talked about the worst lunch of my life 2 weeks ago?? Ya that was a complete joke compared to the lunch this Friday. I started laughing to myself with my head down at my luck. Hna Angulo was sick to her stomach that day so didn't eat lunch--I was completely solo in this whole process. I got served soup and it had a huge chunk of cow foot in it--the bone, the gelatin like substance around the bone, THEN the super thick layer of skin AND the hairs all over the skin. So I had hairs in my soup too and tried to figure out how to eat that foot. I swallowed down part of the interior--ugh haha seeing my struggle my comp told me to just leave it because even here no one eats stuff like this! It was so gross and then the course was a huge portion of rice of course with the worst hot dogs in some sauce I have ever tasted in my life. Haha it was TERRIBLE and I was laughing so much afterwards at the faces I could imagine of some of my friends or family facing that lunch. Wow it was bad haha

Opposition starts--my infection took way and then when we went out to proselyte, Nora told us she wasn´t going to change or be baptized but we could come back. Gisela told us the same thing the night before! She said there was no way she would be baptized--she is tired, it´s easier to go to the church close to her with her kids because they need to anyway for First Communion, etc and that she loves us to come but wont be baptized. Now that Gisela is better with her mom, etc. I think she lost some of the motivation or necessity to show faith and go to church, etc. We are meeting with her today and actually this week is focused on letting people know clearly our purpose, why we are here, what is at stake in their lives, and having them truly understand and feel the necessity to change and actually act. If nothing progresses, we are completely going to start anew and find others because all of our investigators struggle and aren´t acting or are like Gisela and Nora, etc. It's way frustrating to have no one really after so much seemingly success! Yet we have specific plans to clean out our area, begin anew, or help our investigators progress if they really are willing to.

So Manuel has been on vacation all week and this next week too dang kid! Haha but we have been able to teach his cousin Rebeca, and then afterwards, Rebeca´s mom came in and we started another lesson with her! Turns out she was baptized when she was younger but never really read the BOM and has a lot of questions, etc to resolve. THEN yesterday we went to try and find Manuel again and his older brother Isidro came down and laughingly joked with us about Manuel and told us their family´s plans of vacation, etc. We had always noticed light in his eyes and his maturity but this was the first time we actually really were able to speak with him and it was so so awesome. When he was 12, he lived with his uncle who is Mormon. He went to church every week, listened to the missionaries and was close to baptism when he moved back here to Manta to live at home. He lost contact with the church and kind of forgot--he has many questions and some doubts but also lots of light and desire and we´re going to start teaching him too! What started with Manuel, turned into Rebeca, her mom, Isidro, and Manuel. And the whole family is super supportive because of their uncle and grandma who are members. I seriously LOVE that family and know we are there for a reason! They make me smile and laugh so much and are crazy and so united as a family I love it :)  That was really the saving grace of all the opposition we have faced for sure.

I had a rough day in handling some things in my comp yesterday but my inward resolve helped, a note from a sister in the ward helped, the blessing from David Salazar helped, and the lesson with Isidro.

The mission truly is up and down like a roller coaster in every way--it's never really just in the middle but I know I´m going through all of these struggles for a reason. It's hard because I feel that my gift and love for teaching is lost in the Spanish language. I don´t have the same abilities to teach that I do in English and thats hard to deal with but I am learning and trying to grow!

I was listening to Kenneth Cope today and it was so great to relax my mind but this song hit me like never before Évery Season: I will offer thanks for what has been and what´s to come. And everything that´s new has bravely surfaced, teaching us to breathe. And what was frozen through is newly purposed, turning all things green. And so it is with You and how You make me new with every season´s change. And so it will be, as You are re-creating me: summer, autumn, winter...Spring.

--I really am grateful for all I have been blessed with and am grateful for the hope I have in the good things to come. I know that I am being taught how to breathe and different things will help me resurface and do so everyday. I know that Heavenly Father gives us every experience for a reason. He really is re-creating me--not my personality or person because I am definitely still me! But creating me through these experiences into the person I need to become and when things are in winter and look bleak, spring always blooms. That really hit me today.

Well I love you all so so much and miss you like crazy--let me know when letters and the recorder get there because its been like 3 weeks. Haha

-Hna Bryan

Mom and Dad: how I LOVED hearing about all of your experiences!!!  And Grandma´s experience! It was so cool to hear about Robert Hyer´s trainee, the specifics in your prayers Mom, the members of the brigada and light of Christ, the NOE plan--thank you, and the story of Elder Falabella--how incredible!  Crazy about our Stake Pres--they will be great--I had no idea it was changing!  Thank you also for including the counsel of Elder Falabella, Dad and the specifics.  I love details from you all!  I literally was DYING laughing about the details from Dad of Fi´mile, double A, but especially the porkacheese girl--I was laughing out loud for a long long time and could completely hear Dad commenting and everyone busting up laughing and Dad and Dallin just having a hayday.  Hahaha thank you I need details like that as well as the super uplifting spiritual.  Mom, everything you wrote me today was incredible and I needed it so much!  It is like you guys know exactly what we need to hear :)  I really feel so so blessed to have such supportive parents.  I love you!!

Dallin: I´m so proud of you and your hard work in Panama!  I want to hear from you, you stinker!  I love you and miss you like crazy--let´s go on a family mission--we would beast it up!  I miss you a lot--good luck in school!!  It started right?  Love you!

Logan: I love your emails and although this one was short, love how our experiences relate though they seem so different.  Being sick is horrible and working through the sickness is worse sometimes--stupid urinary infection but I´m so so sorry you were so sick!!  With a fever and in bed!  At least we're in it together, right? :)  I love you, pray for you every single day and you inspire me to keep going.

Odie & Papa: thank you SO much for your weekly emails--they brighten my day and I love the talks and counsels you have included in your emails.  They really have helped in the situations we have had in our area.  I have loved hearing about Panama and seeing a few pics my mom sent.  What a neat work, huh?  We are so blessed.  Thank you for your loving counsel today--it was 100 percent exactly what I had been feeling and needed.  I sent you a letter a few weeks ago but I love you all so so much and can´t wait to be reunited!