First Full Month

Hello everyone! How are you all doing?! Thank you so much for those of you that have written me or emailed me. I absolutely LOVE hearing all about what's going on. I can't believe I've already been out on my mission for an entire month! Things have been pretty good...I'm getting the hang of things. Every day is so totally, and completely different. I love it! We've spent a lot more time in our area this week which has been good, but a TON of our time has been spent with less actives. We actually didn't end up having any lessons with investigators this whole week :/ This next week we're going to do a lot more finding and probably do some tracting. We both felt like it was a successful week because we were where the Lord needed us! 
Something really cool that happened was on Monday..we had set up a time to see Sister Otero (the lady I felt strongly that we had needed to see, and then she called us right back) and bring her cookies since she's recovering from surgery, but instead we met her mom Sister Rowley who is living in the same house as the Otero family. She is also very inactive, and has been struggling with the word of wisdom and has really been wanting to come back to church. We were meant to go see her and it was such an amazing testimony to me to know that the Lord really does direct us exactly where we need to go as long as we put forth the effort and put our trust in Him. Let's see...Tuesday we served at the Tabernacle which is in Council Bluffs. It's a nice little visitor's center that talks about the Mormon Batallion and when Brigham Young was sustained. We only serve there once every few weeks with another senior couple. Then we went out to dinner at Puerto Vallarta and ate some delicious mexican food :) Wednesday we had district meeting (my first one) and then went out to lunch with all the other sisters in our district and then spent the rest of the day in our area. Did some service for a lady in our ward, and met with a bunch of other people. It's been kind of frustrating because all the people we've been meeting with know Sister Mahlstede really well and just love her, and I feel like a lot of people look at me like I'm just this little girl who doesn't know what the heck I'm doing or saying especially since I've only been out 2 weeks. It's very discouraging. I've been trying really hard to show people what Sister Ferrara is all about, but it's hard sometimes...I've always been a really friendly, kind person...but never been a huge social butterfly. I've always had many acquaintances, but never been very good at opening up to people and making long lasting friends so this has been really good for me. I've really had to get out of my comfort zone and meet lots and lots of new faces. Every single day at the trail center we meet new people and then are expected to have this spiritual experience with them as we take them on tour for 45-60 minutes. I feel like I've been holding back a lot and feeling like I have to put on this fake face since I have a missionary tag on so people look at me differently now. The key is to be myself! I'm still learning how to do that with strangers, but I know that's what's most important. Being myself and sharing my testimony and personal thoughts from inside of my heart. 
It's been getting a lot more busy here at the Trail Center now that it's summer and everyone's out of school...it's been crazy! But every day just gets better and better and I become more and more comfortable with it. Today was really neat...we got to clean the temple!!! It is such a beautiful, special temple that has SO much symbolism from the pioneers and everything. It was such a perfect way to start my week! 
I'm running out of time, so I should really wrap things up...I wish I had more time to tell you more details about my week and all, but that's about all I've got! I'm sorry! I love you so much and pray for all of you every night! Have a good week! :)