Serving in San Antonio Texas: Hardships... Week 8 in Texas May 13, 2019

Hello family and friends!! Everything here in Texas is going alright! Not as well as everything was last week, but I will explain more of that later. I am doing okay, super emotionally drained so if anybody has any encouraging words, I sure would appreciate them and love them more than anything at this time. I will get better, it's just so recent so it will take time for us to kind of get over it!
Another thing I would like everybody who reads these to do is to send me what love language you all think I would be! The sisters in our apartment were talking one night about love languages, and nobody could pick which one I was because they said I was all of them, so if you all could send me what love language you think I am, and a little explanation why, I would love that and it would help us come to a conclusion!
We saw a lot of miracles this past week! We went on exchanges again like always, and I was in charge of leading out our area again! We had a good day, nothing went wrong this time haha and we had dinner with a guy named Efren who has been giving us SO MANY gifts, which isn't really allowed on a mission, but at the restaurant they were taking pictures and selling them and he bought some for us!! I attached the picture as well haha. I was quite nervous because we had a visit with one of our investigators in our spanish branch that night, and my companion didn't speak spanish sooo.... But it was so amazing!! I was able to teach the whole lesson, and we had a member with us as well but I didn't have to use her very much for spanish or anything! She would occasionally translate for my companion, but wow can I just say that the Gift of Tongues is so real! I walked out of that lesson so thankful and surprised by how much I knew that I didn't think I knew!
I also got quite sick this last week with one of the stomach viruses that have been going around, so one morning during the personal time that we have before we start our studies, I went back to bed and while I was sleeping, my cute trainer embroidered a little thing for me of the title of my favorite song! It made me so happy, and she is seriously just the best!! She also scratches my back when I am reporting all of our lessons at night, so I'd say its a fair trade haha. I am so blessed!
We had a few of our investigators be able to make it to church yesterday! We had one from our english ward named Will, he is so awesome! We also had a great miracle and a man named Javi walked into church! He has already been reading the book of mormon from one of his coworkers, so we are very excited for that! We had two people in our spanish branch also come to church, who we just started teaching and we met them because they have been coming to our english class! We also had some hard times dropping a couple of our people we thought were really solid, like Caitlin and Josh. Caitlin isn't interested anymore and Josh is going through some stuff with his family, so that was hard..
Mothers Day was really so good because I got to talk to my family, but it was actually the hardest day I have had yet on my mission.. This part is going to be very long, so I don't blame if nobody reads it all haha. I'm pretty much just going to walk you all through the ROLLERCOASTER day we had yesterday, full of high highs and the lowest of lows! We began the day with waffles, celebrating Happy "Future" Mothers Day for us sisters in the apartment! Then we went to our english ward at 9 am, where we had Will come to church and Javi walk into church. We had to leave our english ward after sacrament because Abimael's baptism interview was scheduled for 10:30 am. We got there and he told us he wouldn't be able to come until 11:30, which was super stressful because he was getting interviewed by our mission president so it was kind of embarrassing but we also felt bad because he had to change his whole schedule.. But the cool thing about that part is that from 10:30 to 11:30 we were able to have companionship study with our mission president! That doesn't happen very often, so it was a very cool experience! Then Abimael showed up, and did his interview while we went to sacrament which was at 12, and we had our two spanish people come to church! After sacrament, our mission presidents wife was waiting for the interview to conclude, so we got to sit with her and wait as well, and that was really cool because we got to talk to her in an environment that she could just talk like a normal person and not be super formal haha but she is such an amazing woman! We asked her some advice for being a mother and missionary stuff, and she was just awesome! We get new mission president the end of June, so we brought that up but it wasn't very smart because she started crying, and you could tell she has loved her time serving here. The interview then concluded, and this is where our whole world turned around. Our mission president told us he can't sign the baptism form because he needs to get approval from the first presidency for him to be baptized. We don't know the full extent of it, and we don't want people jumping to conclusions but he has been falsely accused of stuff, but it still has to be approved. After our mission president left, Abimael began to tell us how offended he felt and how he doesn't feel it's right for a man to tell him he can't be baptized or not, because he truly wants to change his life. He then also told us he was done coming to church, he doesn't want to be baptized and he didn't want religion in his life anymore. It was truly the most heartbreaking thing I have experienced on my mission. Sister Schallenberg and I both started to cry in that moment, and we really just expressed to him how that's not how we want him to feel, and it is just the process of the church. More than anything, we asked and pretty much begged him not to forget how he has felt while taking the lessons, and reading the book of mormon. He was very disappointed, and it was so hard. We then left and had to go tell all of the members that we had asked to do stuff for his baptism, that it would no longer be happening this Saturday, and maybe not at all.. We were literally tore apart. We didn't really know what to do so we walked into the bathroom and just hugged each other because we literally couldn't do anything else. Then after a little bit we left and drove home, and got ready to call our families. That was something that was definitely needed after that long day. We later received a couple texts from Abimael saying that he was sorry he made us cry, and that he will still be coming to church and reading the book of mormon, he was just angry and offended. We realized that Heavenly Father allowed us to cry in that moment to show Abi how much we cared, and how much we are in this with him. The rest of yesterday was quite a blur, but that whole incident has just taken everything out of us to be completely honest. We haven't heard back from our mission president yet, and we will continue waiting, but almost positively, the baptism won't be happening this weekend. We will still continue meeting with him and the most important thing is him, and I know that, it's just a little devastating to think our goal for May 18th won't be happening and he won't end up being our miracle baptism as well. I am still doing well though, and will still continue working as hard as I can. I know that was kind of sad and depressing, but I just want you all to know that i am doing okay and I know this is something we can all get through, together. Other than that, it was a great Mothers Day and I really hope all of you had a wonderful Mothers Day as well!
I just want to tell a few people Happy Birthday this week!! To my amazing uncle Bick Lesser, and my awesome aunt Kaylee Bowcutt! Also to one of the kindest men I know, Drue Kunz, and last but not least one of my favorite little girls, Emmee Bair! I love you all and hope you have the best birthday!
Thanks again to everybody who reads these, you are all amazing! I love you all and look forward to seeing what everybody says!!
Have a wonderful week!
Hermana Griffin