You need to be strong

Good morning family! How are all of you? I hope that this has been a great week for you and that you are enjoying the lovely summer weather. It´s actually been relatively nice here, we´ve had some sunny days and I´ve been walking around with a red face just like always. It´s been pretty great!

Last week, I didn´t really know how to write a letter because I was really, really bummed. I didn´t even know how to pretend that I wasn´t sad, so I just decided to skip the whole public letter things. It´s hard for me to admit that I am struggling, I like talking to God about it because I know He doesn´t judge me. But sometimes He´s the only one who knows because I really don´t like other people to know that I struggle.

Why is that? I still don´t really know. I think it´s mostly pride. I sometimes think that as missionaries, we have this expectation to be happy all the time, and that we shouldn´t complain because we´re doing the Lord´s work! We really SHOULD be happy, because we´re doing the happiest thing in the world. Seriously, it´s a message of happiness. But, unfortunately, we´re not prefect. And sometimes we get sad too. And I got sad last week.

But then something truly incredible happened. We had transfers again, and my new companion came. She is also from Bolivia, and she came from her other area really sad and really discouraged. She talked about how sad she was to leave all of the members, and how she knew she was going to be okay but that she just needed a little bit of time to get used to the change. She has 5 months in the mission, and this is the first time she´s had to leave an area. I felt bad, she was crying and the only thing I could do was just listen to her. She talked one night about how her dad told her that if she left on the mission, he wouldn´t support her or talk to her or anything, and that´s really what happened. He didn´t give her anything for her mission, he didn´t go to say goodbye when she left, and he doesn´t write her now that she´s here. It is so sad, and it breaks my heart. Right before my other companion left, she told me something really specific and profound : "You need to be strong Hermana Scott." It sounds a little dramatic, a little bit like a cheesy movie scene, but that´s one of the last things she told me. And that´s really just what I had to do. I just kind of had to suck up all of the poopy things, and get over myself. I feel like these are words I´ve said before in other emails I´ve written you guys, but hey, it´s all about learning and growing up. 

I have had one of the best weeks of my mission, I have been so happy and excited every day, and I know that it´s because I´m learning how to forget about myself. I´m learning how to love the people around me with a real, Christ-like love. I know that I have a lot of things to learn, a lot of things to work on, but I thank God for this time He´s giving me to serve His children and work out my kinks in the process.

I hope you understand what I´m trying to say...I´m forgetting more and more English every day.

LIFE IS GOOD! And I am happy! And I love the mission.

One time a friend said this, and I feel like it´s perfectly true -

"Every day I think about you less, but every day I love you more."

Time is flying! I hope you have a great week, the next time I write you I´ll be completing 11 months in the mish! What the weird?! I LOVE YOU!

All of ,my love,

Hermana Michelle Scott