Over half-way

I would say the biggest thing that happened last week was the insane torrential downpour of water that occurred last Monday. It was like the sky had a broken water pipe or something. Also, I´m pretty convinced that one of 
God´s favorite words is "irony". I can recount many times in life where I´ve just been slapped in the face by God with irony. For example, last Monday. 

I ended my emailing time last week with an email to my step-dad, telling him how much I loved being on my mission, even being soaking wet working out in the rain. Literally a few minutes of getting ready to leave the rain started to get about 50 times stronger.  Within about 3-5 minutes of biking (I checked my watch - not more than 5 mins.) we were so incredibly soaked all the way through; so wet that my boots were getting filled with water while bicycling that I had to occasionally lift my leg up to let the water out. We still had about 20 minutes until we reached home. 

But a realization that I came to as we were biking home and occasionally screaming in the rain (because why not?) was that I wasn´t paying attention to the time it took to get home or the distance. I wasn´t thinking over and over again how much I wished I wasn´t wet and focusing on my end goal. I was simply praying the whole way home; telling Heavenly Father that if he needed us to come back out in the rain and work for the rest of the hours of the day that I would do it and that I wounldn´t complain about it. 

I wouldn't count the hours until I was able to be done with it, dreaming away the time that I had to work. I 

wouldn't care about the destination but would simply enjoy the crazy journey that is this life. And as I was telling this to sis. Hansen, she said she had the same realization that we both wouldn´t care about the outside influences but would focus and enjoy what we had to experience now. 

Eventually my mission will come to an end. I will have to go home and start a new chapter of fun and silly adventures. But I´ve learned not be concentrated on the end of what´s happening now, regardless of it being easy or difficult. I will enjoy every chapter of my life, looking for the significant that is hidden between the lines. I love going through hard things - rather I love looking back and seeing what I´ve become after experiencing them. We have a lot of fun telling the story of coming home and have to squeeze as much water out of our boots and clothes before we stepped inside. 

And despite the rain and being soaking wet from head to toe (I can now say that I´ve never been more soaked on my mission) or the fact that we look like complete nerds when we wear our helmets and people, when they see us, immediately start pointing and laugh at us uncontrollably; I love it. I love enjoying the small moments and difficult things in order to grow. 

One last thing before I end, I just want to say that it was really really hard to buy a helmet. And not just because most biking stores didn´t have it (they looked at us and laughed when we asked for one). It was one part of the obedience thing that I had trouble with. But after talking with another missionary, we decided to put a sticker in the inside of the helmet that says, "Trial of my faith - Game on". 

I´m very appreciative of those trials of my faith, whether it´s going out in the rain or wearing helmets because it also helps me check where I am in my testimony and standing of faith. 

I love you guys! Have a beautiful week!