So this week has had a lot of ups and downs.....

Lets start with the bad news. One of our investigators who was really really progressing dropped us.:( It was Anita. Shes the one who read a really huge chunk of the book of mormon and loved it!! We were tracting one day and we got a text from her that pretty much just said that she was going to return the Book of Mormon to us and that it wasn't for her. I was devastated. That was definitely one of the harder night for me on my mission. She said we could teach her one last time but when we went to her house her mind was already made up. She had talked to her husband and were pretty sure that he convinced her that it wasn't good. What really got her was the idea of a modern day prophet. The saddest thing was when we asked her how she felt when she was reading the book of mormon she said nothing, even though we know thats not true.  But we ended on good terms and she says we can come by whenever we want and she thanked us for the messages we had taught her. One day she will be prepared to accept it!

But the good happy amazing news is Franklin!! So heres a story, one day we got out of a dinner and had missed a call from a man named Hector, we called back and learned that him and his friend Franklin wanted to come to English Class.We met Franklin and he is super super cool! He came to a fireside with us and even came to the service project we had with the branch this week! Ahh!! We have taught him multiple times and he is really progressing! He loves the book of mormon and every time we ask him what he is learning in his reading he goes off for like ten minutes about all the great stuff he is learning. Something that we learned about him is that when he was a kid in Guatemala his mom passed away from cancer and the missionaries started visiting them and doing a lot of service for them and they were going to church with them a lot but lost contact somehow. It's awesome to see little seeds that have been planted throughout his life. He came to church this Sunday and loved it! Absolutely loved it! He met everyone and their dog. All the members loved him and really are taking him under his wing. When he introduced himself he talked about how much he loved it at the church and how he wants to keep coming every week! Its kinda cool because right before we met him tons of bad stuff seemed to be happening to him. He felt super lonely because none of his family lives here, he lost his job, etc, etc. But he says every since he started coming to church and the activities things have been looking up for him. And there are tons of members that are trying to find him a job and one of the members texted us a couple hours ago and says he thinks he found him one. We are so excited for Franklin!!

This week has been great but definitely hard. After Anita dropped us I was kinda just confused, like why is this so hard if all we are trying to do is good. But if it was all easy we wouldn't learn much. I've definitely seen how those hard times are when you learn the most, and really have to rely on God's strength not your own. I love this scripture that I read that goes along with that Helaman 4:13"and because of their great wickendness and their boastings in their own strenght, they were left in their own strength; therefore they did not prosper." I love that because it is so true, if we rely on our own strength we won't go anywehere but if we rely on His strength we will go exactly where we need to go.

I love this gospel, I love missionary work, and I love the Lord.

con amor,

Hermana Stewart