Week Forty-Four: Sister Training Leader

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana White

This week has been really crazy. I guess the biggest thing that has happened is that I am now working in a little town called Arvin and I am now a Sister Training Leader with. . . Hermana White. Surprise! It is super fun to be back with my trainer and the work is really going forward in this area. Life is good.

To start, I should probably give you all a little description of my new area. Arvin is a little town about 30 minutes south-east of Bakersfield. The entire town is a couple of roads roughly arranged in the shape of a rectangle surrounded by miles and miles of produce fields and entirely packed with Spanish speaking people. There are always a ton of people outside riding on bikes or walking through the parks in the town and there are tons of little alleys and hidden houses scattered throughout the town. It is super cute and really easy to fall in love with. We go to a little Spanish group for church that meets in a one room Veteran's Post. There are only around 40 people that come to church (so far!) and all of the members are super nice and loving. It is like a little family!

The little building where we meet for church.

It is interesting being back with Hermana White again. Everyday is an adventure when we are together and we always talk to the most interesting people. Last night, we started talking to a lady who was taking the seeds out of a lot of pomegranates. She wasn't super interested, but as we were walking away she called us back and gave us a couple of the pomegranates. We continued walking and we saw another lady. She asked us about the pomegranates that we had and we struck up a little conversation with her. It turns out that she is from Mexico and is temporarily in California working in the pomegranates. We kept talking to her and eventually were able to teach her the entire first lesson. In the end, she thanked us by giving us even more pomegranates! 

We are teaching a lot of really cool people right now. There are a couple of people who are preparing for baptism in the next couple of weeks. One of them is super cool. He encountered the church years ago while he was living in Mexico and Hermana White and Martineau just started teaching him right before I got transferred. He came to church the first week that he heard about the gospel and is really progressing!

My second day in the area, we got to go to the Mission Leadership Counsel with President and Sister Layton. I felt a little out of place, but everything ended up being really good in the end. It was a really spiritual experience and we were able to learn a lot about how the mission was doing and what we could do to help the people that we are working with. Hermana White and I are the only Sister Training Leaders for the hermanas, so we cover all of the Hermanas from Bakersfield to Palmdale. It is really interesting being able to serve all of them, but I am excited for the opportunity!

This week, we had a big party for all of the Spanish speaking people in Bakersfield -- The Fiesta Latina. It was super fun! There was food from all of the Spanish speaking countries in the Americas and there were a lot of traditional costumes and dances. One of the benefits of being a Spanish speaking missionary in the United States is that you get to experience a lot of different cultures from all around the world. It makes me want to be a world traveler. It was also super fun because we were able to see all of the members from all of the areas around Bakersfield, so I was able to talk to people that I haven't seen in a really long time.

At the Fiesta Latina

That is just about it for this week. It is hard to believe that all of that has happened since the last time that I wrote, but things are really going well. This next week is shaping up to be really good as well. Elder Bednar is going to be coming to visit our mission, so he is going to talk to all of the missionaries for three hours on Saturday. On Sunday, all of the missionaries in the East Bakersfield Zone are going to be blessed again because he is going to speak at our Stake Conference. I am super excited to be able to listen to the words of one of the apostles and I am looking forward to the advice that he will give us!

I hope that you all are having a good time at home and that you are having lots of good experiences. I am so happy to be out here as a missionary and to be serving the Lord. I love seeing the difference that the gospel makes in people's lives. I love you all. Have a good week!

Hermana Blau