Optimism

Hey everyone!
Well, changes came and changes went. Every six weeks there is a chance that an elder will get kicked out of his sector and put into a new one. For instance, this morning when I woke up, I didn't realize that I would be sleeping in a different house that night. Four and a half months I was in Los Canteros, a very nice quiet sector. I am now writing from a sector called El Torcornal, a sector very far south of the mission. Its almost at the end. My new companion is a 6 foot 5 story giant called Elder Chapman. He seems really cool and I have a feeling that we are going to get along really well. I am excited for this new change but nervous at the same time. I was so comfortable in my old sector; why'd they have to take me out of it? I guess that's the way it is sometimes in the mission and in life. We don't choose the cards we are dealt with, we just choose how to play em. I want to be able to take the best out of every experience this change and see the good in everything. Although I have long been known as a cynic and pessimist in a former life, I realized that those thoughts only offer comfort when we fall; it never encourages us to get back up again and keep running. Pessimism and doubt are one of the most powerful tools that Satan has, and he is using it now more than ever.
I hope that one day the world will be able to see that there is beauty everywhere, even among the suffering and the pain. To say that god cannot dwell in the poor and the oppressed and help them lift up their hearts is to limit His power. I know that He can do anything. But just because he doesn't, doesn't mean he cant. There is a purpose to everything we do, I feel. Although this new sector might be strange and scary, and I may feel uncomfortable at first with the members or the people we are teaching, I have decided to simply put myself at the mercy of the lord, and let him take care of the rest.
Thanks for all that you guys do for me, I love you and Ill see you all in 10 months!
From the missionary whose clothes are slowly deteriorating into a scrap of rags,
Elder Westover