Tuesday, June 16, 2015

If You're Hoping I'll Return.......

My beautiful beloved family whom I love dearly!!!!

I love you so much!! I hope you had a great week and are enjoying summer vacation! 

I am in PISCO!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOO! I am very excited to be able to serve here and my companion Hermana Zambrano from Columbia is awesome! I know it is going to be 6 weeks of miracles and hard work.

On that note, it was really, really, really extremely hard to leave Nasca and Lisbeth and Enrique and Hermana Méndez. It was truly an honor to serve in the Vista Alegre Branch and to be able to teach and to know all of the people in Nasca. I learned there that there are many of the noble and great ones everywhere in the world, Shiblons who quietly serve and live and love without recognition and without fanfare, in little dirt homes and casa capillas. I learned that everything comes in the Lord's due time. I learned that there are people in this world who are being prepared to hear the gospel, and that doctrine understood changes lives. I know that Lisbeth and Enrique were prepared to receive this gospel and that they will be strong members in that branch, and that their family can be eternal thanks to the atonement of Jesus Christ and the restoration of the gospel. 

We also had the opportunity to take a few converts to the temple this last weekend and it was amazing to feel of the spirit of the temple and to once again feel of the excitement that comes when the converts can do their family history. Here in Pisco I am still in family history and it is an amazing blessing.  It has been a big part of my mission and has changed my whole life. 

I have been thinking a lot about love the last couple of days. Love is a weird thing. I never ever knew I could love so many people in so little time. My heart literally hurts when I think about San Juan, and Ayacucho, and Ica, and Nasca, and my companions, and my family and how in so little time so many people and places have filled my heart so much. I will never, ever be the same. The places I have walked and felt the Spirit- on dusty roads and in broken homes, in little chapels and dirt floor stores, walking alongside companions and learning to just open my heart and feel the Spirit and the love that Christ and Heavenly Father have for all these people I love soooo much. I am so incredibly grateful for this feeling. It is tender. I am so blessed! 

I know without a doubt in my mind that this church is true. I know that Christ died for us, and that by having faith, repenting, making and keeping covenants, living worthy of the Spirit and enduring to the end,  we can enjoy the power that comes from His atoning sacrifice.

The church is true, and I am so grateful to be a missionary!!

I love you dearly!! 

Keep praying for Lisbeth and Enrique this week!!! And that we can find families in Pisco!!!

Hermana Lauren Bailey

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