Dearest familia,

Hola! Como estan? I hope everything is still good. Did you all have a great week. I hope so. 🙂

Mom: I got your package Saturday. Thank you so much! 🙂 🙂

I am glad that you have decided that losing your job was a good thing. Sometimes it’s really hard to look at a bad/difficult situation, and see the good in it. But everything that God gives us is for our good and for our growth. I was reading the other day in an Ensign, and it was talking about what it meant to be damned. It doesn’t mean that you are going to “burn” or whatever. It just means that you aren’t progrssing. You are stuck. I’m glad that our Heavenly Father gives us opportunities to grow and learn so that we won’t be “damned”. I was like that before the mission, but now I see even more that I really did need a big change in my life.

That’s so cool that you went for a Sunday drive. That is one of my favorite things to do. I miss being able to just drive wherever I want. We have a limit on the amount of miles we can you use, as you may know, so I don’t just get to drive wherever I want, whenever I want. It’s kind of tough. But anyway, it’s kind of ironic you were remembering when I had perthes. Just the other day I was telling my companion about that whole thing, and about how hard it was. Some days I miss being little like that, but even then life was hard, just in a different way. There’s always something happening that helps you to learn and grow.

So this week was really long for me. There wasn’t really anything that happened in particular, except that our baptismal date with one of our investigators fell through. Her mom told her she shouldn’t get baptized because she swears. The mom does not get it at all. It’s very frustrating. And she’s a a member! We have been working with this family for a very long time, and we know that the dad, and the daughter that we had a baptismal date with, are so so so close, but Satan is working really really hard on them. He knows what will happen when they join the church, and he really doesn’t want it to happen. It is always a rollercoaster ride with this family. I remember when I came out on the mission, and in the back of my mind I was like, “Yay, now I get a break from drama and heartbreak.” Boy, was I wrong. I have had my heart broken more times by this family than I ever did in all my time before the mission, and I’ve had to deal with more drama, that isn’t even mine, than I ever did before. Dad, I definitely know what you mean about the drama. It is so not worth it, and I’m pretty sure that’s why I avoided it before. 🙁 The mission is so hard. But I still love it. I’m thankful everyday for the opportunity I have to share this wonderful gospel with other people. 🙂

Dad: That is awesome you hiked the mountain. I think I want to do that when I get home. I still have never done it in my life. But that’s really cool. How’s the weather there in Utah? Is it still warm or is is starting to cool off? It is getting a little cooler here. It reminds me of summer days in Utah. It makes me a little sad, but I still love it. It is way better than 100 degrees or more, plus humidity. 🙂

Emily: I am really going to write you a letter today, and you are really going to write me a real letter back…right?! 😉 That’s what I thought. 🙂 🙂 Anyway…”my one regret in life is that I will never be able to have a pet dog.” 😀

Anyway, I gotta go now. I love you all lots. Sorry that this letter is so depressing/sad, but I really am doing good. Just some hard stuff to deal with. 🙂

Con mucho amor,
Kelsey