Dear Mom,
This week has been a great one!
I’m happy to hear that the Seahawks won. Go team!!! The family we ate with had
a bunch of the families in our ward over and it was a ton of fun! They were
cheering for the Broncos but I told them I was for the Seahawks. Then they told
me the score and I was pretty sure we were going to win. That wasn’t even
half-time though so it’s good to hear that they pulled it out. Other than the
Game Day excitement it was a pretty great dinner. It was delicious and it was
after a day of fasting so I pretty much stuffed my face. Whoops!! Then we had
Tres Leches and homemade cheesecake for dessert. Heaven :) I love the members in our
ward. They are soooo hilarious and great to be around.
I’m glad to hear that you are
carrying on the tradition of celebrating Chinese New Year. The other night I
was coming out of the bathroom and Sister Bukoskie jumped out of our room
trying to scare me and yelled “HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!” She has this calendar
that tells her pretty much all of the holidays, even really obscure ones. I
told her how we sometimes celebrate Chinese New Year :)
Sounds like you had a great
Stake Conference. The training we had in Ward Council was basically around
creating a game plan and doing those 3 things that you mentioned. He based it
off of S. Gifford Nielson’s talk from this past conference. Love it! I’m glad
you know the names of the missionaries in our ward. In every church building we
go into I look at the missionary plaques to see if there will be someone in the
Tacoma mission and this time I found one! He had a really complicated, long,
weird last name though so I don’t really remember. It’s not Hatch or Schuler
though. Let me know if you ever get an Elder from Queen Creek whose ward meets
in the building on Chandler Heights and Ellsworth!
This past week we got to go to
help in some of the Seminary classes. It was a lot of fun! We got like 20
minutes each class and we split off with the girls in the class and they just
asked whatever questions that they had about missionary work and how to prepare
and how we decided to go and how much time we have to get ready in the morning,
etc. :)
It was great!
So temple shifts are great, but
they are long and we go without eating for 6-7 hours. Thursday morning before
our afternoon/evening shift, I was telling Hna. Bukoskie how great it would be
if one of the ushers brought us food. Then at the temple, the Usher that was in
the tent with us asked how we do meals during our shifts. We told him that we
normally just don’t eat until after. He said they were going to fix that and he
went and bought all 9 of us delicious sandwiches from Kneaders!!!! So kind!! Heavenly
Father listens and answers! :)
Friday morning we got to go to
the temple open house with some members we met during one of our shifts and
their Hispanic neighbors that they had invited. Their neighbors didn’t seem
interested in learning more, but they enjoyed the tour. It’s a good think we
were there too because they didn’t really speak English and the members don’t
speak Spanish. I love being bi-lingual. It’s so great!!
That same afternoon we went to
lunch as a Zone after weekly planning. I forgot my wallet in the car so I was
just going to pay Sister Bukoskie back, but then this less active member came
up and bought all of our food!!! So awesome! His son just left on a mission
about 2 weeks ago to Santiago Chile so a shout-out to him and his awesome dad!
This seriously is the greatest mission in the world. There are a lot of close
seconds though ;)
Saturday night we went on
exchanges for our temple shift and I went and Sister Bukoskie stayed in our
area so that we would be able to do both. I met one group of girls in their 20s
who talked to be for a while, left and then came back. One of them asked me if I’ve seen Mormonism
really change people. She said that she doesn’t think that she could ever
convert because she hasn’t seen that in people. She knows a lot of Mormons who
are married with kids and seem to have this perfect life when really they are
super depressed. I told her that unfortunately, that happens from time to time.
But I told her that it’s change me and that it’s changed my companion and that
it can do the same for everyone if they take the time to really know that it is
true for themselves. If you don’t do that, if you don’t really become converted
to the gospel, then of course you are going to be unhappy! But when you gain
your own personal testimony, that’s when true happiness comes.
That same shift this white lady
came up to me with her Spanish friend and we started talking and it turns out
that the lady lives right by us and has learned from missionaries before and
has come to church, etc. She said that the Elders have tried to stop by, but
she doesn’t really like hombres so she asked if we could! She wrote down her
name, address, and phone number on one of the comment cards and then gave it to
me!!! Temple miracles are real :)
Then yesterday was Fast Sunday
and we fasted as a mission to be able to find people to teach that are prepared
to accept the gospel. That night we went and tried Mirsa and she was home and
she let us in and we got to know her and her 15-year-old daughter and shared a
message with them and set up a return appointment!!! 2 new investigators!!!
Fasting works!!! AND Mirsa committed to working towards the baptismal date of
March 15th. I love this :)
Now for the big transfer news!!
So, President called me last night around 8:30 and I had to turn it off speaker
because it was STL/transfer stuff that he didn’t want Hna. Bukoskie to know about
until Wednesday. He gave me some pretty shocking news! He is putting me back
with Hna. Chavarri!!!! And he is putting Hna. Lattin and Hna. Bukoskie
together. Insane. It’s been killing me to try and keep it in and pretend like I
don’t actually know what is going on, but I think I’m doing a pretty good job
so far. We’ll all still be in the ward though and we don’t know who will have
which area. He wants me to think about that and figure it out. Yay…tough choice
:/ So I don’t know my address quite yet, but whichever one you send things to,
I will get it pretty quickly.
Things are going great here! I’m
excited for this next transfer. I can’t believe that it’s February already.
Time just doesn’t make sense. Where does it go?! I love you very much and hope
all is well with you and that you have a great week.
Con amor,
Hermana
Baria
