This week was a pretty good week--but not--at the same time. As a whole the district that I am in charge of worked a lot harder than they had previously, and they really picked up the teaching and lessons. However, when Sunday came around we were the only people to have anybody in the church with a baptismal date.  I wasn't  upset about this because I knew that the other areas had worked really, really hard and were working 100%. They were all really sad and just down on themselves that night, so I just explained to them to pick themselves up. I told them that as a missionary we pass through things like this in the mission. And the cool thing about this is that if they kept up working like this then they are destined to have one of the best transfers of their entire mission. I also explained that good things come to people that wait. And its not just the people that wait without doing anything, but its the people that work through this time of trial. And I said that God doesn't just give us these things to give them to us, but He gives them to us to grow--and also because He has prepared great blessings for the people that persevere and finish the things all the way through. 

I have seen this happen a lot on the mission. For example, one time in the ward Aeropuerto, we were having a bunch of success and then one or two weeks everything just crashed and burned and we had straight '0's. We started searching for the answers to the problems that we had. The thing was we were having exact obedience-- we were teaching like 6-7 lessons every day, and we were contacting for at least 2 hours every day. So the question was hard to solve and the only thing we could think of is that we will just keep working like this--but even harder and with more energy. Well time went by and the area picked up really quickly. By the end of the transfer we had 7 baptisms, another 7 with baptismal dates, and another 4-6 in the church working on getting married to get baptized. So what I learned is that it just takes patience and diligence. With these things comes great blessings and a great life.

Another thing that I learned is that we don't know when our day will come, so we just gotta be prepared. In these past 11 months I have seen and been through a lot of things, and the cool thing about it all is that I was at peace with it all. I know with a certainty in my heart that no matter what happens, if we live by our faith, all will be alright. I also know that if we keep strong to the faith we will return home to our Heavenly Father and He will tell us 'Well done my good and faithful servant', and we will live with Him for eternity. This has helped me a ton on the mission and I know it to be true. It has helped me calm some nerves and has helped me forget myself and go to work. I have a great mentality, well I think, its that I couldn't care less what happens to me as long as I'm serving the Lord and helping better the lives of his sons and daughter her on this earth--here in Veracruz. 

Oh yeah, in other news--I had transfers this week to the middle of the mountains with one of the elders in the same generation as me. We are in charge of reviving two wards right now and I am going to be enjoying this time that I have here. There is not a lot of heat here which is a #blessing and it is a beautiful climate and I'm with a great companion. We's about to have a great, great, great transfer. 

Love you all!

Know the Church is true; go be awesome-Anne Bagley