Exchanges and endodontists and exhaustion

So I'm pretty sure endodontist is a word but Google doesn't think so. This might be the first time I've ever been smarter than the Internet (or I could be completely wrong). But as the title alludes to, we had a really busy week that left me completely exhausted by yesterday! Hopefully P-day recharges those batteries! We'll actually have to go pretty quickly because we're going disc golfing with one of the families the elders are working with.

Sis. Lemmo and I got to go on exchanges though! It was a party! We just had a blast being back together as companions and reminiscing about the good old days in Choctaw. We had 2 doctor's appointments during exchanges, one for her and one for me. It makes no sense. My whole mission I've had perfect health and now all of the sudden my body wants to fall apart! I think there's a good reason we're not expected do to this forever. The stress would kill you. But it was just great to be with her again. 

We also took a road trip to Ada to exchange with the sisters there. If you haven't heard of it that's ok. There aren't even any freeways that go to Ada. You have to take dark and sketchy backroads to get there and you pass at least 1 prison on the way. It was a fun trip, though, and I love road trips like that :).

Our last exchange was a mini-mission with Emmerling, one of our recent converts that's 20 and wants to serve a mission. We had a pretty good day with her and it was kind of a welcome break to the daily routine. We had to have the zone leaders drop off an extra mattress for her to sleep on, and when we got there our apartment looked like this:

Very funny elders.

In case you can't tell from the tone of the email, it's just been a struggle kind of week. In the past I've tried to be upbeat and pretend like nothing's wrong, but I've had enough experience with weeks like this that I know that it will end and often a lot sooner that I expect. There are very real and difficult challenges that come with living life here on earth and I think that we can acknowledge these trials with faith and hope, understanding that it won't last forever and that ultimately we will be better because of it. Yesterday I was studying about patience, and I came across this scripture in Romans 5:3-5:

We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

There are a lot of things that you can get from that scripture, but one thing that I noticed is that tribulation leads to patience, patience leads to experience, and experience leads to hope. However, this is not unconditional. We have to rely on the Spirit in order to complete this positive cycle. Otherwise, our tribulations lead to anger, our anger causes us to harden our hearts, and the hardening of our hearts leads to despair. We can choose the positive spiral or the negative one. One leads to hope, and the other despair. So throughout the trials that I'm passing through right now I'm praying my guts out and relying on the Spirit to experience the positive cycle. 

Don't worry about me though. I'll be my chipper self next week, or maybe just after we play disc golf :).

I love all y'all! And I hope you have a wonderful and happy week.

Love,

Hermana Holloway