Oct 14
Thank you so much for sending Martin the issue of the Ensign. He's going to love it. Dad mentioned something about getting him a subscription, but he's going to be getting transferred prisons soon and we dont' know where, so don't worry about that. But thank you so much! Yeah, we've been super busy this week. Elder Washburn has stepped off his pedestal a little, but he's still hard to live with. He's gotten in the habit lately of making up ridiculously specific scenarios to tell you so that he's never wrong. He just talks and talks adn says so much stuff that you just give up and he says "See, I told you so." So it's pretty tough, but its definitely a nice time to work on building my patience, right? haha Luckily Elder Nelson hasnt' gone too crazy with stress yet, but there's still time. He almost had a stroke the other day. We have a mission conference in Richmond tomorrow and we needed to find a ride down there and a ride back up, and he was FREAKING out about it going psycho! But everything is alright now and it's all taken care of. But there's a 70 coming to the conference, I dont' remember who, but we might have to do some one-on-one 5 minute role plays about the Restoration or the Plan of Salvation! How scary is that? I dont' know how to do those in English anymore? But it should be a fun time! Except for the fact that we have to be at the chapel at 7 am! We're donig this special choir thing, so we have to be there extra early! Oh well.
So we now have 6 elders in an apartment meant for 4. It's not working out too well, especially since our hot water has been out for the last week! I'm really sick of taking cold showers. And I mean COLD! Like, Lake Tahoe type stuff. The guy who owns the apartment is a member and he's tried abotu 4 times this week to fix it, but no luck so far. He's getting super frustrated and we're just getting sick of showering :)
But one of the elders in the apartment is Elder Jacob Justice. Not kidding. Superhero?? But he's the nephew of the Martin's from Washoe Valley Ward. Weird coincidence right? haha just thought that was kind of wacky!
So Santiago, the awesome investigator that we found that came to 2 conference sessions, we committed him to baptism. We were talking and we asked "se preperarA para ser bautizado?" which means will you prepare yourself to be baptized? and he just replies "Si, estA bien." And his biggest concern was that there wouldn't be a chapel down in Chiappas, Mexico when he goes back in 2 years. How cool? His biggest concern is that he'll go inactive. I love that man! He's so awesome. So yeah, his baptism date is Oct. 31st. We're still working with Ana because she hasn't been able to come to church and we're starting to worry that she'll just lose the desire. And she's been getting a lot harder to get ahold of lately, so we think she's already starting to lose steam! It's tough, but we're really really trying! But Rosi is doing awesome. She's just all sorts of sweet. We're going to set her sometime this next week I think. And then on Monday we found this lady Marizela and we came back on Tuesday to teach the Restoration and relate it to families. So we're doing that adn we invite her to church adn she says "Maybe, I dont' know." So we talk a little more and teach more of the lesson and near the end she asks what time cbhurch is at and we tell her and she just says "Voy a ir" which means "I'm going to go. It was super sweet. So we have another appointment with her on Friday. But we think she's got some pretty good potential.
So yeah, we've been super busy and getting busier. We're doing a lot of finding because we've been dropping a lot of useless investigators. I know that sounds harsh, but yeah, they're useless right now. So we need to find more to fill our teaching pool. So we do a LOT of finding now. But it's ok. We're outside walking around and it's nice.
Last night Juan Manuel and his wife invited us over for their nephews 9th birthday and made molay again. That is such a heavy meal. I wasn't feeling good at all all night. And as if stuffing us with tons of food isn't bad enough, then they fed all of us a massive piece of chocolate cake and a massive piece of flan. It was ridiculous. So all my attempts at losing weight and keeping healthy, right out the window. haha
But the reason we don't have many member dinner appointments is that Pres. Millburn banned the use of pass-around sheets for us to use because he said people feel obligated to feed us then. Which I personally feel they should, but I'm not the president. So then nobody offers to feed us and we end up going through our MSF funds way fast because we have to buy a ton more food. So yeah, that's the problem. We're supposed to have a member dinner everynight, but that doesn't happen if they dont' offer. So there you have it. Feed the missionaries! It means a ton to them, you have no idea!!!!
Oct 21
Ok, so yeah, I bought a winter coat at JCPenney. It's a big heavy duty wool pea-coat and it was only 70$, so I figured I'd jump on it because it has been getting REALLY cold here already. On Sunday, the high was 43*. Yeah, really cold.
So, this week was really not a great week. We started off in Richmond with Mission Conference(well, half of the mission) and Elder Kenneth B. Johnson of the 70 came. He was so amazing! It was absolutely incredible. But the entire thing made me think of how much stuff I could be doing better. So taht's what we've been trying to do lately. But it was amazing what he said- "I do what I do because I know the source of my calling." How cool is that? It really made me think about my calling and what I need to be doing to improve it. Unfortunately, that also made Elder Nelson go into overdrive mode on the "Let's be a perfect companionship" thing. So that's been kind of frustrating. And then on Monday Santiago, the guy that we thought was super awesome, dropped us. So no more baptism for him. Oh well. I was really upset and bummed out about that. But whatever. The Lord has a plan for him, and it doesn't involve me right now, so I've begun to focus on other things. Yesterday the Zone Leaders came up from Richmond for exchanges. I was with Elder Bishop and Elder Washburn. We were in this trailer park to knock some doors, and we look up from the car and there's just this kid with his pants pulled down pooping on a tree. In plain view. Not trying to hide at all. It was freaking hilarious! The kid's mom comes running over all embarrassed and this black lady next to us just had this shocked look on her face. hahahaha, oh man I was dying! Yeah, it was great. But then everything else fell through yesterday except Maricela, she's still sweet. She didnt' make it to church, but we're working hard on her. We know she's got some super potential. We just gotta do it right. And then we didn't have anything to do last night and we were right next to the apartment, so we get back to the apartment at 8:50. If you dont' have an appointment, you have to be back to the apartment at 9 pm sharp. So we get back and Elder Nelson is with the other zone leader and he has the keys to the apartment and the english elders aren't home yet, so we hang out outside for a bit. Edler Washburn starts freaking out at about 9:15 saying "Elders!!! We can't just sit here. We need to to get an appointment or something! We cant jsut sit in front of the house! This isn't what they had in mind when they said be back at the apartment at 9!" and he's freaking out and Elder Bishop and I tell him we can't go out to just talk to people so we can be out later and so he gets all mad and says he's going to go talk to the hispanics across the street (who by the way get violent when they're drunk, which is always) and so he just starts walking. And Elder Bishop and I can't see him and we have no idea where he is and so we start to walk over there and he is in the middle of the street and says "you could just bring the car you know." So Elder Bishop says "You could not just walk away from your companions and be disobedient!!!". Elder Washburn didn't like that one bit. So it was definitely an interesting night.
But yeah, that's really all that happened this week. We've got the Harrisonburg elders coming down on Friday for a district meeting and exchanges, and then on Nov. 3 and 4 we have zone conference and zone p-day which should be sweet.
Can you believe I hit 4 months out in 3 days? That's crazy! This past month went by SOOO fast. I can't believe it's almost november already! Thats' ridiculous. But yeah, that's my crazy schpiel for the week! haha
Oh, I also met the wife of the branch president up in Harrisonburg. Apparently Robbie Lund married one of her companions from her mission. Small world huh? I'm getting all sorts of connections here!
Ok, well I hope that's everything. Like always, I forget something everytime, but if I do, I'll let you know. OH, thermal garments! I just need those sometime, not any hurry right now. But just something to think about. But yeah, THAT should be it now. Haha. I love you all. Miss you. Have a good week.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Heading to Virginia
Leaving for the field... Man I look good at 4 in the morning!
Elder Nelson and some guy in a red shirt
Elder Gleave
Our newest investigator. (Mom wants it!!)
Pictures
My offical name tag for the next 2 years!
Not me anymore!!
Workin' the call center. Or, "Welcome to McDonalds. May I take your order please?"
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Week 15 (and still counting)
Wow, that week just flew by! Here's this week's letter from our wonderful son/missionary
Hey hey hey everyone. Another p-day already! This one is crazy. Our world got rocked yesterday! Transfers! We were all freaking out cause none of us want to leave because we've just started getting the awesome investigators just pouring out at us. But we got the transfer sheet last night and Elder Gleave is headed up to Harrisonburg. He was kind of upset because he hasn't left this side of Virginia in 10 months adn they're only sending him to H-Burg to turn that area around because the 3 elders up there right now only did 2 investigator lessons last week. Only 2! What were they doing? So he's going up there to whip the area into shape adn get the ball rolling again. Poor guy. Elder Nelson is now district leader and is keeping me and elder Washburn is coming up from Richmond to be with us. Weird, I know. I'm still freaking out, but we'll see how everything works out. Elder Washburn is just really intense now since being with the Zone Leaders, so we're hoping he doesnt scare away our investigators. Elder Nelson, oh man, it'll be interesting. He takes everything wayyyyyy to hard. He over reacts and goes into crisis mode at the smallest thing, so we'll see how he handles 2 greenies AND being DL. But that's the biggest news of the week here! Oh, and yes, Elder Gleave did date Whitney at BYU. I got in the elevator at the library and said "Elder Gleave, did you ever date a girl at BYU named Whitney Young?" and his face just goes blank and he says "I don't want to talk about it." HAHAHAHAHAHA how funny is that? That's so wacky. Gahh so this past week has been intense. So many investigators, so little time! Conference was AWESOME though, right? Elder Hales' talk was INCREDIBLE! and Elder Holland, oh man! The english elders we live with had an investigator who has problems with the BoM at that session and Elder Holland just went off, and the guy got up and left shortly after. I dont' know if he was upset or overwhelmed or what, but that talk was amazing! Also, Pres. Eyring at Priesthood was freaking ridiculous! I loved it! Conference went by wayyyy too fast though. I wish there were more sessions! Haha, I bet you never thought you'd hear that coming from me did you? I was so excited to go to conference here, I was like a little school girl!
Thats' awezsome you got to see so many church sites! Jealous! Sounds like you are having(had?) a wonderful time up there! Lots of sites and fun! We had some fun yesterday. Elder Gleave and I met this one hispanic guy walking in this trailer park, he's wearing snakeskin boots and matching belt, pinstripe suit, shirt undone halfway, a black stetson adn some shades and he's got a plastic bag with what looks like a bottle of Rum, but definitely some type of alcohol. So Elder Gleave starts talking to him and he just says "Cowboys. Cowboys." SO we're like "You like cowboys? Like, the football team or the people on horses? to which he replies "horses. Horses. horses. horseeees. I live in Austin. TEXas. Austin. Yo soy vacation. De Austin." His name was Samuel and I don't think i've ever met anyone as trashed as he was! It was insane! But funny. So man, we've got Ana set for baptism but she still hasn't been able to come to church. We're getting ready to set Rosi, Melicia, Pancho, Erica adn Santiago. How nuts is that? we're going to be shooting for 6 investigators set for a baptismal date soon! That's insane! But keep on praying for it, we need the blessings to get these people some time off work! So my spanish this week has been nuts. I feel like I haven't progressed as much as I would like to, but I've been making more and more phone calls in spanish, but I still have to give the phone to Elder Gleave or Nelson a veces because I can't understand the hispanics over the phone. But I haven't said anything embarrassing like "Jesus Christ suffered for my fishes" in awhile. So taht's good. Oh man, what else is there to tell this week!? This week went by too fast that I feel like I already told you about everything in my LAST letter.
Soooo, wow, I don't know what else to write. Pretty much transfers was the only really exciting thing this week. It was crazy. Um, I guess that's all. I think.
I always think of something else to write after I get off e-mail but I can't think of anything right now. But can you believe that my first transfer out of the MTC is already over? That's insane. Everyone says the first one goes by so slow and then they speed up after that, but mine went by SOOO fast! It's crazy. Hopefully they don't slow down to a crawl! That would be terrible! But when the language becomes more natural, I have a feeling they'll start going pretty fast. Man that was a fast 6 weeks. OH also, Martin, the guy in the jail, is doing really really really awesome. He's reading the BoM everyday and praying and has really good questions to ask us everytime we stop by. I told him about conference and he said he would have liked to go, but since he's in jail, yeah, you can see how that wouldn't work. He's doing so good and he's SO awesome. We would set him for baptism right now, but he's not getting out for another 19 months, so it wouldn't work :( oh well maybe in 19 months right?
So ok, that's all for this week. I'll talk to you all next week, even though it'll seem like 2 or 3 days! Love you all.
Hey hey hey everyone. Another p-day already! This one is crazy. Our world got rocked yesterday! Transfers! We were all freaking out cause none of us want to leave because we've just started getting the awesome investigators just pouring out at us. But we got the transfer sheet last night and Elder Gleave is headed up to Harrisonburg. He was kind of upset because he hasn't left this side of Virginia in 10 months adn they're only sending him to H-Burg to turn that area around because the 3 elders up there right now only did 2 investigator lessons last week. Only 2! What were they doing? So he's going up there to whip the area into shape adn get the ball rolling again. Poor guy. Elder Nelson is now district leader and is keeping me and elder Washburn is coming up from Richmond to be with us. Weird, I know. I'm still freaking out, but we'll see how everything works out. Elder Washburn is just really intense now since being with the Zone Leaders, so we're hoping he doesnt scare away our investigators. Elder Nelson, oh man, it'll be interesting. He takes everything wayyyyyy to hard. He over reacts and goes into crisis mode at the smallest thing, so we'll see how he handles 2 greenies AND being DL. But that's the biggest news of the week here! Oh, and yes, Elder Gleave did date Whitney at BYU. I got in the elevator at the library and said "Elder Gleave, did you ever date a girl at BYU named Whitney Young?" and his face just goes blank and he says "I don't want to talk about it." HAHAHAHAHAHA how funny is that? That's so wacky. Gahh so this past week has been intense. So many investigators, so little time! Conference was AWESOME though, right? Elder Hales' talk was INCREDIBLE! and Elder Holland, oh man! The english elders we live with had an investigator who has problems with the BoM at that session and Elder Holland just went off, and the guy got up and left shortly after. I dont' know if he was upset or overwhelmed or what, but that talk was amazing! Also, Pres. Eyring at Priesthood was freaking ridiculous! I loved it! Conference went by wayyyy too fast though. I wish there were more sessions! Haha, I bet you never thought you'd hear that coming from me did you? I was so excited to go to conference here, I was like a little school girl!
Thats' awezsome you got to see so many church sites! Jealous! Sounds like you are having(had?) a wonderful time up there! Lots of sites and fun! We had some fun yesterday. Elder Gleave and I met this one hispanic guy walking in this trailer park, he's wearing snakeskin boots and matching belt, pinstripe suit, shirt undone halfway, a black stetson adn some shades and he's got a plastic bag with what looks like a bottle of Rum, but definitely some type of alcohol. So Elder Gleave starts talking to him and he just says "Cowboys. Cowboys." SO we're like "You like cowboys? Like, the football team or the people on horses? to which he replies "horses. Horses. horses. horseeees. I live in Austin. TEXas. Austin. Yo soy vacation. De Austin." His name was Samuel and I don't think i've ever met anyone as trashed as he was! It was insane! But funny. So man, we've got Ana set for baptism but she still hasn't been able to come to church. We're getting ready to set Rosi, Melicia, Pancho, Erica adn Santiago. How nuts is that? we're going to be shooting for 6 investigators set for a baptismal date soon! That's insane! But keep on praying for it, we need the blessings to get these people some time off work! So my spanish this week has been nuts. I feel like I haven't progressed as much as I would like to, but I've been making more and more phone calls in spanish, but I still have to give the phone to Elder Gleave or Nelson a veces because I can't understand the hispanics over the phone. But I haven't said anything embarrassing like "Jesus Christ suffered for my fishes" in awhile. So taht's good. Oh man, what else is there to tell this week!? This week went by too fast that I feel like I already told you about everything in my LAST letter.
Soooo, wow, I don't know what else to write. Pretty much transfers was the only really exciting thing this week. It was crazy. Um, I guess that's all. I think.
I always think of something else to write after I get off e-mail but I can't think of anything right now. But can you believe that my first transfer out of the MTC is already over? That's insane. Everyone says the first one goes by so slow and then they speed up after that, but mine went by SOOO fast! It's crazy. Hopefully they don't slow down to a crawl! That would be terrible! But when the language becomes more natural, I have a feeling they'll start going pretty fast. Man that was a fast 6 weeks. OH also, Martin, the guy in the jail, is doing really really really awesome. He's reading the BoM everyday and praying and has really good questions to ask us everytime we stop by. I told him about conference and he said he would have liked to go, but since he's in jail, yeah, you can see how that wouldn't work. He's doing so good and he's SO awesome. We would set him for baptism right now, but he's not getting out for another 19 months, so it wouldn't work :( oh well maybe in 19 months right?
So ok, that's all for this week. I'll talk to you all next week, even though it'll seem like 2 or 3 days! Love you all.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Letter from 09-30-09
Sorry, we're out of town, so I won't get the new pictures on until next week, but here is the latest update from Elder Campbell
Wow, ok, story time!!! So Friday we went to Waynesboro because the spanish elders hadn't been there in abotu a year. So wer're there doing some followups not having much success and Elder Gleave finds this former investigator in the area book, so we punch it into his GPS and it takes us about 38 minutes to get there because it's in the MIDDLE OF FREAKING NOWHERE and we thought we were lost. We pull up to this little tiny cottage house, and we're like "there's no way a hispanic lives here! But we knock and sure enough, this lady Erica opens the door. So we start talking and she looked really surprised this whole time. So we ask her what was wrong and she says "Well, the missionaries havent' been here in almost a year. I was ready to get baptized, but they stopped coming when I was going to tell them. And my life is really terrible right now, I'm thinking about going back to Mexico because my husband is never home and I stay here all day alone with my daughter and I don't have any friends. So I was talking wtih my husband last night. I told him how much I missed hearing from the missionaries. I missed their visits and their friendship and how I felt when they would come. And then you show up today." HOW AMAZING IS THAT??? Coolest story ever!!! She told us that she has already received an answer about the Book of Mormon, and when the answer came it was so strong and powerful she was scared and almost stopped reading! So we're trying to get rides to church for her, but she lives about an hour away from the chapel and her husband has the only car and she doesn't have any friends. So it's reallly tough! But the lord has been pouring out amazing investigators our way! That Rosalva lady I told you about!? She was talking wtih Elder Nelson on Monday and told him how she was ready to change religions and liked ours. So she's coming to conference this weekend! And she's cooking us rabbits on thursday! haha how sweet!? She's so awesome! And then there's Santiago. He's living with his friend Iglien. Elders Gleave and Nelson had taught Iglien before and given him a book of mormon, but we hadn't been able to follow up with him. So on Sunday night planning, I suggested we follow up with him. SO we stop by on Monday and Santiago opens the door. Elder nelson talks with him for a little bit and gives him a card and says "We'll pass by some day this week to see how you're doing" Santiago says ok and the door closes. About 20 seconds later, he comes running after us and says "When can you come by? Tomorrow? I really want to hear from you tomorrow!" so we came back yesterday. We're talking about all different kinds of stuff, and I asked him if he would have time to attend conference this weekend. When we tell him what it is, he says he'll definitely be there. Then he asked what we do regularly for church. When we told him it's at 12:30-3:30, which is when most hispanics come up with excuses, he goes "Oh great, that ends 30 minutes before I have to work! That means I can go to all of it every week!!" He committed himself to conference and regular ettendance! Who does that? It's crazy! He also told us he didn't know everything about our religion and so he couldn't be baptized. So we told him he didn't need to know everything right away. Then he told us he wanted us to start coming by 2-3 times a week! So we came back today and taught him the Restauracion. I did the first vision with him and it was absolutely incredible!!! The spirit was amazing and after we got done talking about it, he says "Well I guess I need to pray to god to know if all this is true. I'll do that tonight." At that point we're freaking out. Then we tell him about the Book of Mormon and what it is, and he says "That sounds nice. I'd like to know if that's true as well. I need to read that." So we gave him a LdM and He just says "Call me on sabado at 11 to remind me about conference." He just set up our verificacion time for us!!!! This guy is amazing! And he WANTED to give the opening prayer both times we've met together! What is going on in Virginia? We just started the 40 day fast 4 days ago and this is already happening! It's insane!!!!!!
Wow so this week has been crazy! Ana is progressing nicely, but her boss hasn't come to work since we committed her so she hasn't been able to come to church yet and you have to attend 4 times to be baptized. But she's coming to general conference this saturday, so there's 1! And dad, who says co-habitating? I almost squirted milk out my nose when I read that! haha we just call it juntar-ing(spanglish) and since we're pretty sure her and Felix have been juntar-ed for about 24 years, they're going to have to get married or one of them has to move! And Ana has told us before that she thinks they need to get married, so we'll see how that goes down! But we're trying to keep her excited and interersted and progressing, so pray for that please! I'm teaching my first solo lesson tonight! I'm going with Hermano Beni(I don't know his last name) and we're going to teach the Restauracion with the video, so hopefully I'll be able to pull that off. I'm not too worried though. THe people we're teaching feed us a TON every wednesday when we go over there. It's ridiculous. Last week they made us quesidillas and gave us flan and pan dulce and smoothies. It was insane! SO we'll see what I end up with tonight! And the Aguilar's haven't been feeding us AS much which is good. Juan got a job at a ranch, so that's good, and America shoudl be getting baptized in the next month. But we havne't been going ovre there as much because we have lots of investigators to worry about. Actually, we have just as many investigators because for every really solid investigator we found, we dropped a useless one. So far we've dropped Cecilia, Adolfo/Pablo, Tomas, Eloy and we're about to drop Medarlo/Kenia/ninya(there's no n-yay on this keyboard) and Maria. Its sad because elder nelson and I both got the same feeling at an appointment with Maria that she was going to be a great member, but we must have done something wrong teaching her, cause she hasn't progressed at ALL! But oh well, the Lord has a plan for her. So Monday night, Elder Fraga gave us this referral for these guys in this apartment complex we've tracted a ton. We go knock on the door of a building we didn't even know existed and these Costa Rican brothers answer to door, Johnny and Roy. They just invite us in and we sit down and they are the COOLEST! They are so awesome! I think they're my favorite people I've met so far! There's 12 other brothers of theirs living in the 2 floors above them and 2 more living with them. So there's 16 brothers, all from the same family! I don't know how that happened, but I dont' care because they are AWESOME! And they gave us about 4 referrals! so that was nice. but they are so sweet! I want to go to Costa Rica so bad now! If everyone is taht awesome! Ok, so I need to pick a soccer team so I have something to talk about with the hispanos. I picked the Pumas but I don't know anything about them. So could you look up the Pumas in the Liga Mexico and give me some stats of their better players please? Maybe some results of some games? I just need something to talk about with the hispanics cause I dont' have anything right now. So I'd really appreciate that! And then yeah, if you could send me my sweatshirt, some multivitamins, and now a stencil of the alphabet I would really appreciate it. Maybe get mallory to throw in some baked goods :) I want to start writing scriptures and hanging them up around the apartment, but I haven't been able to find a stencil anywhere! It's insane! But I'd appreciate that. And I'll see if Brinae can drop those sweats off before you send it off. Thats so funny mallory found the girls eating dog food. That doesnt' surprise me. I knew they were going to be trouble ;) I'm glad to hear they're doing well though. Hows juliann? I haven't heard from her in likea month and a half? I know she's busy, but I'd love to jsut hear a little from her every now and then. How's Remy doing? I bought a 365-day kitten calendar for next year, so I'm excited to start using that! My companions haven't stopped making fun of me, but whatever. They're just jealous. haha so wow I can't believe it's p-day again already. seems like I just wrote you like 2 days ago! It's insane! Its amazing how fast the weeks go when they're good weeks! And this was a reallllllly good week! Oh, did I tell you, I got my drivers license? I think that came in the mail after I wrote you last week. It's really ugly. They make you keep a 'neutral' face, so that means "Look really ugly for your picture!" adn they punched a hole in my Nevada drivers license :( sad day. But I'm officially licensed and legal in Virginia. I just need a car now! haha but yeah, that's all taken care of, so I don't have to worry about that.
Alright, well I think that's all this week. Thank you for your letters and support. Love you all. Miss you. But not enough to come home :) haha -Skyler
Wow, ok, story time!!! So Friday we went to Waynesboro because the spanish elders hadn't been there in abotu a year. So wer're there doing some followups not having much success and Elder Gleave finds this former investigator in the area book, so we punch it into his GPS and it takes us about 38 minutes to get there because it's in the MIDDLE OF FREAKING NOWHERE and we thought we were lost. We pull up to this little tiny cottage house, and we're like "there's no way a hispanic lives here! But we knock and sure enough, this lady Erica opens the door. So we start talking and she looked really surprised this whole time. So we ask her what was wrong and she says "Well, the missionaries havent' been here in almost a year. I was ready to get baptized, but they stopped coming when I was going to tell them. And my life is really terrible right now, I'm thinking about going back to Mexico because my husband is never home and I stay here all day alone with my daughter and I don't have any friends. So I was talking wtih my husband last night. I told him how much I missed hearing from the missionaries. I missed their visits and their friendship and how I felt when they would come. And then you show up today." HOW AMAZING IS THAT??? Coolest story ever!!! She told us that she has already received an answer about the Book of Mormon, and when the answer came it was so strong and powerful she was scared and almost stopped reading! So we're trying to get rides to church for her, but she lives about an hour away from the chapel and her husband has the only car and she doesn't have any friends. So it's reallly tough! But the lord has been pouring out amazing investigators our way! That Rosalva lady I told you about!? She was talking wtih Elder Nelson on Monday and told him how she was ready to change religions and liked ours. So she's coming to conference this weekend! And she's cooking us rabbits on thursday! haha how sweet!? She's so awesome! And then there's Santiago. He's living with his friend Iglien. Elders Gleave and Nelson had taught Iglien before and given him a book of mormon, but we hadn't been able to follow up with him. So on Sunday night planning, I suggested we follow up with him. SO we stop by on Monday and Santiago opens the door. Elder nelson talks with him for a little bit and gives him a card and says "We'll pass by some day this week to see how you're doing" Santiago says ok and the door closes. About 20 seconds later, he comes running after us and says "When can you come by? Tomorrow? I really want to hear from you tomorrow!" so we came back yesterday. We're talking about all different kinds of stuff, and I asked him if he would have time to attend conference this weekend. When we tell him what it is, he says he'll definitely be there. Then he asked what we do regularly for church. When we told him it's at 12:30-3:30, which is when most hispanics come up with excuses, he goes "Oh great, that ends 30 minutes before I have to work! That means I can go to all of it every week!!" He committed himself to conference and regular ettendance! Who does that? It's crazy! He also told us he didn't know everything about our religion and so he couldn't be baptized. So we told him he didn't need to know everything right away. Then he told us he wanted us to start coming by 2-3 times a week! So we came back today and taught him the Restauracion. I did the first vision with him and it was absolutely incredible!!! The spirit was amazing and after we got done talking about it, he says "Well I guess I need to pray to god to know if all this is true. I'll do that tonight." At that point we're freaking out. Then we tell him about the Book of Mormon and what it is, and he says "That sounds nice. I'd like to know if that's true as well. I need to read that." So we gave him a LdM and He just says "Call me on sabado at 11 to remind me about conference." He just set up our verificacion time for us!!!! This guy is amazing! And he WANTED to give the opening prayer both times we've met together! What is going on in Virginia? We just started the 40 day fast 4 days ago and this is already happening! It's insane!!!!!!
Wow so this week has been crazy! Ana is progressing nicely, but her boss hasn't come to work since we committed her so she hasn't been able to come to church yet and you have to attend 4 times to be baptized. But she's coming to general conference this saturday, so there's 1! And dad, who says co-habitating? I almost squirted milk out my nose when I read that! haha we just call it juntar-ing(spanglish) and since we're pretty sure her and Felix have been juntar-ed for about 24 years, they're going to have to get married or one of them has to move! And Ana has told us before that she thinks they need to get married, so we'll see how that goes down! But we're trying to keep her excited and interersted and progressing, so pray for that please! I'm teaching my first solo lesson tonight! I'm going with Hermano Beni(I don't know his last name) and we're going to teach the Restauracion with the video, so hopefully I'll be able to pull that off. I'm not too worried though. THe people we're teaching feed us a TON every wednesday when we go over there. It's ridiculous. Last week they made us quesidillas and gave us flan and pan dulce and smoothies. It was insane! SO we'll see what I end up with tonight! And the Aguilar's haven't been feeding us AS much which is good. Juan got a job at a ranch, so that's good, and America shoudl be getting baptized in the next month. But we havne't been going ovre there as much because we have lots of investigators to worry about. Actually, we have just as many investigators because for every really solid investigator we found, we dropped a useless one. So far we've dropped Cecilia, Adolfo/Pablo, Tomas, Eloy and we're about to drop Medarlo/Kenia/ninya(there's no n-yay on this keyboard) and Maria. Its sad because elder nelson and I both got the same feeling at an appointment with Maria that she was going to be a great member, but we must have done something wrong teaching her, cause she hasn't progressed at ALL! But oh well, the Lord has a plan for her. So Monday night, Elder Fraga gave us this referral for these guys in this apartment complex we've tracted a ton. We go knock on the door of a building we didn't even know existed and these Costa Rican brothers answer to door, Johnny and Roy. They just invite us in and we sit down and they are the COOLEST! They are so awesome! I think they're my favorite people I've met so far! There's 12 other brothers of theirs living in the 2 floors above them and 2 more living with them. So there's 16 brothers, all from the same family! I don't know how that happened, but I dont' care because they are AWESOME! And they gave us about 4 referrals! so that was nice. but they are so sweet! I want to go to Costa Rica so bad now! If everyone is taht awesome! Ok, so I need to pick a soccer team so I have something to talk about with the hispanos. I picked the Pumas but I don't know anything about them. So could you look up the Pumas in the Liga Mexico and give me some stats of their better players please? Maybe some results of some games? I just need something to talk about with the hispanics cause I dont' have anything right now. So I'd really appreciate that! And then yeah, if you could send me my sweatshirt, some multivitamins, and now a stencil of the alphabet I would really appreciate it. Maybe get mallory to throw in some baked goods :) I want to start writing scriptures and hanging them up around the apartment, but I haven't been able to find a stencil anywhere! It's insane! But I'd appreciate that. And I'll see if Brinae can drop those sweats off before you send it off. Thats so funny mallory found the girls eating dog food. That doesnt' surprise me. I knew they were going to be trouble ;) I'm glad to hear they're doing well though. Hows juliann? I haven't heard from her in likea month and a half? I know she's busy, but I'd love to jsut hear a little from her every now and then. How's Remy doing? I bought a 365-day kitten calendar for next year, so I'm excited to start using that! My companions haven't stopped making fun of me, but whatever. They're just jealous. haha so wow I can't believe it's p-day again already. seems like I just wrote you like 2 days ago! It's insane! Its amazing how fast the weeks go when they're good weeks! And this was a reallllllly good week! Oh, did I tell you, I got my drivers license? I think that came in the mail after I wrote you last week. It's really ugly. They make you keep a 'neutral' face, so that means "Look really ugly for your picture!" adn they punched a hole in my Nevada drivers license :( sad day. But I'm officially licensed and legal in Virginia. I just need a car now! haha but yeah, that's all taken care of, so I don't have to worry about that.
Alright, well I think that's all this week. Thank you for your letters and support. Love you all. Miss you. But not enough to come home :) haha -Skyler
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)