Time is a dear friend also...

So as I mentioned in my previous post, on June 24th I hit my year mark of being home from my mission. Can I just say that I LOVED my mission!! I did! It was fantastic. I learned so much and I can't imagine my life without my experiences there and the lessons that I learned.

One of the greatest lessons that I learned was that there is nothing as constant as change. :) I had the great opportunity to serve with A LOT of missionary companions! :) The MTC should've been a good indicator of how many companions I was going to have on my mission (I had 4 companions in the MTC…most missionaries usually have one, two at the most.) I'm just SO hard to get along with. ;)

I am so grateful for all of the lessons that I learned with each one.

1) Hermana Barnhurst (MTC):

She taught me about having charity. She is such a sweetheart and cares so much about people. I really appreciated her and what she taught me about seeing others as Christ would see them. Love this girl and she is just my little Starburst! :) More to come about her…she's great!

2) Hermana Wilder (MTC):

She taught me about teaching by the Spirit and following the Spirit in all that I do. She had such a passion for teaching and I just truly respect her. She cracked me up as well. Such an optimistic spirit and I just adored her to pieces.

3) Hermana Roberts

(MTC):

Holy Cow! This girl killed me! We had such a blast together. She just cracked me up all the time. We would eat a lot of bread (like good Dominican bread) together and always promise each other that we would cut down because we were starting to pack on the weight…haha…we never did though. The bread was just too dang good! On the serious side though, Hermana Roberts taught me SO much about faith and trusting in the Lord. I was so grateful for her example to me.

See that loaf of bread above…that's what I'm talking about…SWEET bread! SO good…oh good Dominican food…I miss it.

4) Hermana Altan (MTC):

She is probably one of the sweetest people that I know. She taught me about quiet humility and respect for everyone. She was such a great companion and I learned so much from her. She was convicted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I just adore her for it. She was an anchor to all those around her. What a great person. Love that girl!

5) Hermana Santos (Trainer-1st transfer:Aguas Buenas):

She taught people by the Spirit and she just was rockin' awesome. She taught me the importance of obedience and taking time to serve others. She also taught me how to plan with a purpose. I was SO grateful that she taught me those things. She had a rock solid testimony and she was hilarious! Very passionate about missionary work! :)

6) Hermana Fuentes (2nd companion-2nd transfer:Aguas Buenas):

She was such a good teacher. She taught me about finding balance in the mission life and how to serve others with love and compassion. She was such a good example to me about the importance of order, organization and cleanliness in all that we do. She is just such a sweetheart and good friend.

7) Hermana Lespin (3rd companion-3rd transfer:Aguas Buenas):

She is a rockstar! Just so full of the Spirit and knew how to help the people that we were teaching! We had a lot of fun together and became such good friends. It was fun to teach with her and we just had so many great experiences together. We taught a lot of interesting people together, especially one man who looked like Santa Claus. He was great…

8) Hermana Archila (4th companion-4th transfer:Aguas Buenas):

LOVED this girl! She is so smart and just SO hardworking. We were able to see a lot of miracles together. She taught me a lot about humility, forgiveness, charity, patience, virtue and strength. She was always full of great ideas and of ways that we could improve our teaching and serving those around us. I learned SO much from her. She is AMAZING! :)

9) Hermana Lucas (5th companion-5th transfer: St. Thomas)

I ADORE THIS GIRL!!! We had a BLAST together. It was such a great experience to work with one another. We shared so many amazing experiences together serving people on the island of St. Thomas. She is such an amazing teacher and friend to everyone that she meets. Her sense of humor kills me. She's married now and is pregnant…which is CRAZY to me…but she deserves every good thing that's possible. :)

10) Hermana Mijangos (6th companion-6th & 7th transfer: St. Thomas)

She is AMAZING! Not only is she a master chef…BUT just a master teacher and loved to serve everyone that we met. I cherish the time that we spent together as companions. She taught me a lot about teaching, learning and growing from my mistakes. She was always so encouraging and strived for her best effort to serve. She helped so many people in ways that I don't think she realized. She's fantastic!

11) Hermana Calderon (7th companion-8th & 9th transfer: San Lorenzo y Gurabo)

LOVED this girl! She is just such a powerful teacher and good friend. I loved to watch her teach because she had such conviction, power and love when she taught others. She was also a kick in the pants, very fun and funny. I loved all of our in-depth conversations that we had and how we were able to see many miracles together as well.

12) Hermana Castillo (8th companion-10th transfer: San Lorenzo y Gurabo)

This girl is SO crazy fun!! She is so energetic, passionate, talkative, happy and caring to other people! She taught me a lot about enthusiasm, energy, goodness and charity. She was always so much fun to talk to and I just learned something new from her each day. I am grateful for her example in humility, patience and diligence. She is fantastic!

13) Hermana Barnhurst (9th companion-11th and last transfer: Barbados) Yep we got the opportunity to serve twice together!

It was fun to serve with her a little bit longer than I did in the MTC. She taught me about having a lot of love for other people. Honestly, she is such a sweetheart and is always looking for opportunities to show her love to others and serve them. She is a champ, through and through and I was SO glad that I had an opportunity to serve with her twice.

14) Hermana Guzman (10th companion-11th and last transfer: Barbados)

I LOVE this girl. We were in the MTC together and we just bonded from the first day. We wrote each other a lot on the mission and were each other's confidants and friends throughout the whole mission. She taught me a lot about humility, patience, faith and putting complete trust in the Lord. She is a ROCKSTAR because she taught me about the simple things in life: like serving and loving other people.

Honestly the BEST part of my mission was developing relationships with people. Most importantly, I am so grateful for the relationship that I developed with my Father in Heaven, the Savior and the Holy Ghost. I am grateful for the things that They taught me and for Their patience, love, understanding and that the fact that They never give up on me. I am SO grateful for the wonderful people that I taught and served. I adore them. I love and miss the people of the Caribbean. They are a loving people who serve constantly. I am grateful for my companions and a Mission President and his wife who taught me SO much. I just adore them.

Every important mission in our lives involves developing quality and loving relationships with people. I am so grateful for the amazing people in my life and especially for the relationships and lessons I learned on my mission.

It kills me that it's been a year…but I've learned that time is a dear friend also.

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

EM