I can't
believe it. We are already to the last week of the transfer. Which means
next Sunday night will bring the stress of waiting to see whether or
not President will call and give us news that we have to pack our bags.
Should be interesting to see! We have 2 new Spanish sisters coming in
and there are only 6 of us here now so there is a chance that I'll have
to train again.
Last
Monday our Zone got together in the afternoon to play Ultimate Frisbee.
It was a lot of fun, but I don't know what we were thinking because it
was basically a million degrees outside! Luckily, we are on missions so
we are not trying to impress anyone with our looks, and also, Elders
sweat WAY more than Sisters so we're good. On our way out to have Noche
de Hogar with the Garcia family, we put our letters in the mailbox. On
the way home, I saw that it was open. Sister Chavarri got out to close
it, but it was empty and our letters were gone!!! So apparently someone
thought it would be a good idea to steal our letters. Rude. So Ben and
Becca...I sent you both letters this week. By any chance did you get
them? If not, sorry! We are going to start having the Sisters we live
with drop them in the locked metal mailboxes in one of their
neighborhoods so that should fix that problem.
Tuesday
night we had dinner with a really nice lady from our ward. She served a
mission in Mexico and told us all about that. Then she took us to get
some froyo so now she is basically my favorite person ever. That's
right...all it takes is some frozen yogurt to win my loyalty hahaha. We
stopped by Teresa's house to make an appointment with her husband. Then
we drove to the temple to go on exchanges with the Spanish Sister
Training Leaders. It only took 5 minutes to get there. Isn't that
great?! They only live 5 minutes from the Gilbert Temple. Future Temple
Workers for sure :)
So
Tuesday night to Wednesday night I went on exchanges with Sister Lemon
in her area and then Sister Anderson (my trainer) went with Sister
Chavarri to our area. Exchanges were fun. It was my first time on them.
Leaving the area and sleeping and prosyletying somewhere else was weird,
but a good experience. Sister Lemon and I got to teach a lesson
together Wednesday night and it went well! She told me that I was a good
teacher and that I impressed her, so I guess that's good. She goes home
in December so she's almost done with her mission.
Then
Thursday night came around and I was on Cloud Nine! Let me backtrack
for a minute. Wednesday night, Sisters Chavarri and Anderson had the
lesson with Francisco and it went well, but he told them that he didn't
want to be baptized until he knew for sure that his family was going to
stick with their committtment...meaning he wanted to wait 6 months to 1
year to be baptized. No bueno. Thursday night we had another lesson with
him. We started teaching the Restoration and things were going really
well. It was probably the best that Sister Chavarri and I have taught
together yet! We were sharing time, explaining things clearly, asking
questions, addressing concerns and the Spirit!!! Oh the Spirit was so
strong :) We got to a sort of pause in the lesson and I bore my
testimony. Then Sister Chavarri extend baptism and the date of October
12th. He sat there for a while with his hands over his face just
thinking. You could tell that he was feeling the Spirit and we just knew
that he wanted to say yes. We talked some more things out and extended
baptism several more times, and then with the date of the 19th instead
and HE SAID YES!!!! He is going to get baptized. And not in 6 months to a
year, but in one month! That's the power of the Spirit for you :) We
were practically in Heaven the rest of the night.
Friday
night was Adriana Carrillo's birthday party and we went over to there
house. She had made these apples that in principle are like caramel
apples, but they are definitely NOT dipped in caramel. They are dipped
in this spicy candy stuff...they were interesting and definitely not
what I'm used to. But the tamales they gave us were delicious! Teresa
and everyone got there later and we were talking with them. Teresa told
me that I have pretty eyes. I told them they are like my mom's :) The
family also told me I have to marry a Mexican so....yeah hahaha we'll
see about that.
Saturday
we biked to China and back! We stopped by a former's house. Someone we
had never met. Her daughter is currently taking the lessons from two of
the English Sisters. She let us in and gave us water and made us these
delicious quesadillas. She talked for us a while and told us to come
back anytime we need water or food and not to hesitate to come. We'll
definitely come back, but not just for food! We are going to bring her
the Gospel. She's been studying with the Jehovah Witnesses for a while,
but I think that might change pretty soon :) She was also taking care of
her husband's 100-year-old grandpa and he fell down in the bathroom, so
Sister Chavarri got to put her EMT skills to use and lift him up all by
herself. He was still pretty strong and mentally there and everything.
If I live to be 100, I hope I can be that strong!
Sunday
came and church was good. A member of the bishopric was supposed to
teach Primary, but he didn't know that so the presdent asked us to do
it! So that was fun! I now appreciate what you do a little more Mom!
It's crazy though, because one of the talks that it mentioned in the
lesson plan just happened to be one that we read in our Companionship
study this week. Talk about perfect! In other news, last night there was
a stabbing that took place...well, pretty close to where I'm typing
this right now. But don't worry! We are fine! I don't know if they've
caught him or not yet, but we are safe. We were a little freaked out and
locked both the screen door and the front door. We certainly weren't
taking any chances.
I
suppose the nice thing about no one sending me e-mails is that I don't
have anything to read and so therefore I have a lot more time to write.
So I hope you enjoy this letter! That being said, I would much rather
have e-mails from you to read :)
I love you and hope everything is well. I will let you know next Monday if I'm staying in this area or not.
Con mi amor,
Hermana Baria
