March 26

Well, for some reason today I've been pretty homesick (well, family sick). No joke-- I seriously prayed at the temple that I would see Mom. I knew it wasn't very likely on a Thursday, but I thought if I prayed hard enough... Well, apparently my will didn't match God's will, and it's probably good He has a will of his own. I think a big part of it is that Sister Storer got to talk to her mom on the phone a couple days ago because of a personal issue. So, you know, it got me thinking, and when I think it's not always tan bueno.
Here's a funny story: the other day I wanted cheesecake SO badly. I seriously hoped and had a prayer in my heart that I could somehow get some (no, I didn't actually pray; but, you know, God knows the desires of our hearts.) At dinner that night-- cheesecake for dessert!!
So, I've been thinking about stuff I've learned that I can tell you. You know, they say that you learn things on your mission you thought you understood before. I TOTALLY get it! I really feel like my understanding of Heavenly Father, Christ, and the Holy Ghost has grown since I got here-- even a lot in the last few days. Last night I had a very long talk with God about my current struggles, and I can tell you that He DOES hear and, more importantly, LISTENS to prayers. Another thing-- I've always wondered how the Atonement helps us overcome trials and pain; I always knew it did, I just didn't get how and I guess therefore I didn't fully understand how to use it for things like that. Overcoming sin made a lot more sense to me. Well, sometime in the last week, one of my teachers said something that really hit me: because Christ has been through it, He knows exactly what needs to be done to overcome it. If we pray to know how to overcome something, He knows what to do. And of course, the mercy and understanding are always a huge blessing.
Well, Tuesday night my left wrist was really bugging me-- I'm pretty sure it was out of place because it hurt SO much to try to move it. It was late so the health clinic was closed. I asked if the front office (I guess that was the night Sis. S. talked to her mom) knew anyone there that could put it back in place for me. (I was really wishing Mike could have been there...) They said I could go to Urgent Care or they could bring someone in on-call. Of course I didn't like that idea so I got some ice and decided I'd sleep with a brace on and deal with it in the morning. My branch president and one of his counselors were there still, so they gave me a blessing. My wrist started to feel really warm even though I had ice on it, and it hasn't bugged me since. Cool, eh?
Anyway, other than that, not much new. The older district of Romanians will be leaving Monday, so that's a little sad. They've been awesome. We are getting closer to our newer Romanian district, and that's been fun. We won't have to see them leave- we'll leave them. :) We got another district yesterday, but I haven't met them yet. I think it's 8 English speaking elders. As of Monday our branch will only have 16 missionaries in it....