Your story about getting covered with mosquito bites sounds very familiar! I have sooo many right now and they itch like crazy. It’s the worse. But oh well. :) I also think I got a spider bite on my leg…it got to about the size of one of those silver dollar/half-dollar (whatever quantity they are)…but it’s almost gone now. :) There were not this many mosquitos last year…I think there must be more because this summer has been more stormy and humid than last summer. Last summer was a whole lot warmer and drier. I like the sound of you taking some relaxing time and writing me a letter. What a great idea!!!
This week has been a really good one! Tuesday morning
I asked some of the Elders in our zone to give me a blessing. Elder Cook gave
it and the Zone Leaders helped too. Elder Cook reminds me sooo much of Ben…it’s
crazy sometimes. He even sounded like him during the blessing…it was
comforting. The blessing was good…not exactly what I had been expecting, but
still good. I am so grateful for the Priesthood and for worthy Priesthood
holders. What a blessing it is that we have the power of God given to us for
the purpose of blessing the lives of others. It’s amazing!
That afternoon we had a lesson with Edith and taught
5 out of the 15 principles/mandamientos that we had left before her baptism.
She is so awesome. In that closing prayer, she prayed for the prophet and for
the leaders of the church. J The rest of the day was pretty uneventful…until around 10:25 at night.
Sister Nattress called and asked if we could go to the hospital to be with
Sister Woolstenhulme because she was in the emergency room with Sister Mireles.
So we changed back into our pros clothes and drove over to the hospital. It was
so weird to be out that late!!! Haven’t done it in a long time. We got there a
little after 10:30 (we don’t live very far from the hospital) and were waiting
with them in the waiting room until around 3:00 and then in her emergency room
until around 5:20 when we headed home after we found out that she didn’t have
to have surgery. She had been having a lot of abdominal pain so we thought she
might have to have her appendix taken out, but it was fine. There were a few
other tests they wanted to do so they admitted her to a hospital room not long
after that. We got home around 5:20 and slept until 11:00. Then we got ready
and headed to our lesson with Edith. We taught 5 more of the principles…so
10/15. We taught tithing and she interrupted us right at the start and told us
that she already pays tithing at church. What?!?!?! That’s just how awesome she
is. J We brought Sister Woolstenhulme dinner to
the hospital (we got her a gluten-free pizza J) and then went to a lesson and then came
back and I stayed with Sister Mireles for a few hours so that Sister
Woolstenhulme could get out and work too. We played MANY rounds of UNO. :) Good times.
Thursday was good. I had MLC all day so Sister
Linford and Sister Bukoskie (because Sister Chavarri was at MLC too) went and
taught Edith the last 5…15/15. Then we drove to the hospital again and picked
up Sister Woolstenhulme to take her to dinner with us. Sister Mireles was
released at the same time (turns out she just had some sort of virus) and went
home with one of the senior couples. After dinner and dropping Sister
Woolstenhulme off with one of the members, we headed to Edith’s house for her
baptismal interview. It was really cool because we got to be in the same room
and hear the whole thing. It was the best thing in the world to hear her say
that she knows this is Christ’s restored church and that Joseph Smith was a
prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. It made my heart so happy!!! The
Elders left and she had us come up to her room where she had two brand-new
shirts for each of us. She is just the sweetest. :) And they are cute too! She’s 72, but she’s got good taste.
Friday was good! We had weekly planning and then had
lunch with a cute older couple in our ward that got baptized a little over a
year ago. It was delicious and they were so sweet. We had dinner with the
Knudsons and our investigator Alexis…who also brought her mom Silvia (who
speaks a little bit of English, but we talked with her in Spanish J) and then they both came with Lenox to Edith’s
baptism!!! We invited them and they were like…sure! Love it when that happens.
When we got to the church I realized that we hadn’t worked things out between
the bishops to have Edith’s grandson baptize her. A couple phone calls,
complaints, tension, and 30-minutes later, we got everything figured out and
the baptism started. It was beautiful. She had to be dunked 3 times, but it
worked out! There was tres leches cake and a bunch of little treats afterwards.
Concha and Naty and Rossy and Kimmie and a bunch of the other Garcia family
came. And then a whole bunch of the missionaries because she wanted all of them
there and quite a few of us have taught her. It was 8:50 and we hurried to
leave, but when we got to the car we realized that the Elders had left with our
keys! So we called them to have them bring them back. We were effective and
nightly planned as we waited and made it home just before 9:30 so we didn’t
have to call the Assistants. Everything worked out. It always does. It was such
a good night and I was…and still am…so happy!
Then yesterday she was confirmed and she said that
she felt something really strong when it happened and that she was still
feeling it!! So cool. Thank you Holy Ghost! The Bishop had a meeting with all
the missionaries in his office after church and it was so good! Gotta get
things moving at a faster rate. Let’s do this. :) I have for sure 4 more weeks…and then
probably 6 more weeks after that so I have to do ALL that I can! Last night we
also went to this Book of Mormon seminary program that just started and brought
Edith with us. It was good…but a little too much info all at once. Then we got
a referral and so we went and contacted it and she was way nice and we set up
an appointment for Wednesday!! God is so good. Always providing as we work hard.
Things are
going well and I am happy. I can’t believe that it is already August and I don’t
really like how fast the time is going by….and how often it seems to be that
people ask me when I am going home or how much time I have left or how long I’ve
been out…just let me serve in oblivious peace people!! :) I
hope all is well with you and that you have a wonderful week.
Con amor,
Hermana Baria
