6.3 Aresleepa

I woke up at 630 as the obedient missionary I am, started to pray and rolled over back asleep till 930 because my nose is full of arequipa frigid air and my throat has caught a frog. 

Sometimes I feel like the main character of a church movie and other days I feel like the authors got bored writing my script and they kinda got bored of me so they just put me on replay all week and went out to get fries. 

That's kinda how this week was. I feel like we have just been trying and failing and trying and failing and trying and failing. And trying. Which I KNOW is part of the mission, and more than that part of LIFE in general but it doesn't make it easier haha. And to make things better I've had a sandbag brain type of headache the last few days but what can you do? 

I was thinking about how cool missionary work is, how thousands of teenagers drop everything and put a piece of paper with their name on it in the mail and say "OK I'm ready to think about others for the next 18 or 24 months of my life! Send me wherever!" And I feel so lucky to be a part of it. In Jacob it talks about the parable of the vineyard, how the lord of the vineyard sends his servants to go collect fruit, and then the very last time he says "I know there's not a lot of you, but we need to go pick the fruit and we gotta go get a lot. I'm going to go with you, let's get to work"

And it's like that! Always! He's just here with us. We were knocking doors for what seemed like the millionth hour yesterday and a less active member let us in to teach a mini lesson. She had a frame with a picture of Jesus in it, and it said "I miss you." 

And I thought about it. 

How much I miss Jesus. 

In a way that I don't see Him sometimes when I should. 

Miss His hand in my life, His words in the scriptures His love in the people around me.

And I don't want to miss Him anymore.

I think a big part of me when I left for my mission was scared to miss out, I was so so so all over the place in high school because FOMO was so real but what if I was so busy fomoing that I was really Missing Outing on Him? 

So here are some things I know I will miss:

We had an insane lesson last Saturday that was so heated and not in a warm fuzzy I feel the spirit way. It's this lawyer who straight up told us he doesn't want to get baptized (like ok that's fine but then why are you meeting with missionaries...)  and anyways we ended the message with him all fired up cuz "It's not possible for any prophets to see God it says in the Bible no one can see God and live". Fast forward one week and after praying and studying I  totally legally blonded that man out of his mind and I felt so good after. Like MAN I can do this I can be a missionary like God wants me to be.

And of course right after that lesson the 3 others we had planned fell through. Así es. But he came to church on Sunday and brought his 20 year old !  

The mom of the kids who are getting baptized in 2 weeks was finally home when we went to visit and our primary president testified so powerfully about the importance of supporting your family and we set a Date to walk around the temple together! 

And then on Friday night they told us they're moving out of our area. The next day. Ouch. 

We bought the best kind of bread (the kind Maria, my pensionistas Sister in tacna, always brought for me) and had avocado toast this week. 

Got yelled at by drunk people

Heard a mariachi man playing guitar and saw a giant bonfire for día de peru

Called someone who wanted to meet with missionaries, she said she'd find us in the catholic church to set up a lesson

Climbed a rickety staircase to meet with Ingrid and her husband who haven't been active for 20 years. 3 of her 4 kids are all from different dads, and they've been through the wringer. Had a really strong spirit in that house testify of the importance of the gospel in families. 

Taught a girl who communicated only by pinching her boyfriend, and was too shy to tell us when her birthday is (she's like 24)

Knocked calle amazonas and found a dog who can't bark 

Learned really cool things in study

Laughed until I cried at zone conference with LJ about dumb mtc memories 

Ran in the morning with hna de Hoyos and breathing the air was so cold the inside of my nose hurt. 

Bought queso helado (like this ice cream cream cheese horchata yumness) after district counsel. 

Hna de Hoyos and I can't stop laughing in the street before we knock doors cuz we rob everyone's flowers out of their bushes in the cement to press them 

Baxter followed us literally for 2 hours including into the church for a lesson. 

Played the piano at zone conference (and as always, my mom was right when at age 7 she told me piano would come in handy on my mission) and when we sang called to serve everyone screamed VAAAAMOOOSSS. I love missionaries. 

Someone texted us this week and said "i need to beef up my faith i guess" like literally said that. In english. New catchphrase I gotta beef mine up too.

I feel like im becoming a diff version of myself, and I like her a lot better.

I miss my family, I miss the lake, I miss my friends in Tacna and my old comps, but I don't miss Jesus, cuz he's been here this whole week in the vineyard of Peru with me. 

Love you all! Go give someone a hug and tell Toby happy birthday on august 2. 

Xoxo hermana emma barket (cue the flynn rider saying "they just can't get my nose right" but name instead of nose)