Hola everyone!
Happy
2 months to me!! It is all going by so fast and I can't believe I only have 16
months left!! I don't have much to say today...I totally jinxed myself last
week and now it won't stop raining! It will be so sunny and hot and humid in
the morning and then all of the sudden it will start pouring! Last week, we
played beach volleyball in a storm so that was really fun and I was soaked
within 5 seconds of being outside. But what I have learned since being here in
Texas is that it really is true, "everything is bigger in Texas!" The
bugs are huge, the frogs are huge, the turtles, the people's pride (; haha but
I love it anyways (: The other night we had a pretty big cockroach in our
bathroom so we all got in the bathtub to try to catch it. I'll send some
pictures, but we wanted to tape it down to get a picture haha.
Well
things are still going really good! We had kind of a rough beginning of the
week. We have been teaching an 11 year old girl who was supposed to be baptized
yesterday, but on Wednesday, after we spent 3 hours trying to teach her the
rest of the commandments and talking to her grandma about repentance, she
called us and told us that her mom told her she wasn't allowed to. It was
really sad because she had just told us an hour before that she had talked to
her mom and everything was worked out. But it's okay, hard things are going to
come and we just decided to keep visiting her and showing her love, because one
day she can join the church. Just lots of little things like people not keeping
their commitments or not coming to church make their baptismal dates be pushed
back, but we just keep praying to continue to see miracles happen and hope
their hearts will be softened.
There
is one family that we are teaching, there are 15 people all together who live
in a trailer park and we have been teaching all of them. They love coming to
church and are really progressing so we might have 15 baptisms coming up pretty
soon! (: They are amazing people and it's been so amazing to see them change
and see the light in their eyes. We went over there last night and they were
having a birthday party for one of the daughters and just invited us to join
them! We ate sooo much meat and cake I thought I was going to be sick! But as
we were talking to them, one of them said her husband had said he wanted to be
baptized, and if he did then they all would so I'll keep you updated (:
OH!
And the other day, the housing coordinator for the mission came over and he
asked me where I was from. Usually when people ask what part of California I
never say Simi Valley because they never know where that is, but I told him
Simi and he asked if I knew Scott. So I said my dad's name is Scott and he
knows you all!! His name is Elder Nilsen and he is the dad of Tanner and Ryan.
He lived in Simi for about 30 years and was in SS3. He knows the Murphy's, the
Pinkston's, and all about our family so we talked for awhile! It was great. He
told me dad had something to do with his re-activation in the church, too (:
But other than that, I'm just teaching and doing lots of service!
It
is going by really fast and I really hope I stay in this area for another
transfer, if not forever! Hope you are all doing well! I still miss you and
pray for you all every day! This morning I re-read the conference talk by Elder
Holland "Lord, I Believe" and I loved what he said: "Be true to
the faith you DO have. Never apologize for only believing. Christ himself said,
'Be not afraid, only believe'." Just remember that sometimes, our faith
falls short, but we need to focus on the faith we do have rather than wish we
had more. Just believing is enough, and our faith can grow stronger later.
Love
you so much and hope you have an amazing week! And help out the missionaries! I
never knew how important help and references from the members were until I came
here, but we can't do it without you!
Con amor,
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