God is Great, [Change] is Good, and People are Crazy

If you understand where that title comes from, please don't judge me. I promise I only listen to mission-appropriate music. It just occured to me for some reason. 

The Lord knows us better than we know ourselves. This change to Cauquenes was exactly what I needed to get re-excited about being a missionary! I was always excited in my first area, but sometimes it was hard to kick habits I had formed as a newbie. It was hard sometimes to remember that "oh, yeah, I can talk to this person, I don't have to wait for my companion to do it" or little things like that. That's why I'm incredibly excited to be here in Cauquenes, even though our house is a little bit more sketchy than the last one (see photo below of where we wash the dishes). 

My new companion is Hermana Marroquin. She's from El Salvador and I call her my "compañera chicitita," because she's tiny! But she has a big heart and is a great missionary despite having less time in the mission than me. I'm really excited to work with her!

One thing I've noticed about the mission is that a lot of people initially are impatient with us, but as we continue talking to them happily and excitedly and as we are interested in them as a person, they start to open up. They always open the door like "Yeah? What do you want? Talk to me fast I'm busy right now." And then after talking to us for about 5 minutes they've told us their life story and say they hope the Lord blesses us and we can find people that want to listen (that's if they don't let us in their house). Turning the other cheek really does work. But usually it doesn't go any farther than just a conversation. If a person is not willing to soften their heart, we can't force them to accept anything. That's not how the Gospel works. Like the woman we talked to last night that had lots of questions . . . we thought she was interested but she actually just wanted to argue. After answering all of her questions and doing our best not to argue, she said that she would be praying a lot for us. She also said afterwards that it's great what we're doing, we just need to erase any idea of Joseph Smith from our minds because it's not Biblical. 

Her words didn't make me angry, just a little bit sad. I know we can't argue with people because it gets nowhere. Sometimes I just really want to ask people, "Have you actually read the Bible? Because if you did you would realize that everything we're saying is true." BUT don't worry I never say that. We have to love everyone if we're going to be representatives of the Savior. I already love the people of Cauquenes and I'm so excited to be here in a little branch (first time in a branch not a ward WOOT!). 

Love you all, please pray that someday we can have a kitchen sink that is actually inside the house (joking but kind of serious). 

Hermana Glazier

The photo with my toothbrush: symbolism that I have already completed 6 months in the mission cause I had to start a new toothbrush (one for every 6 months).