Week Seventy-Six: Marriage Prep

Area: Delano Ward
Companions: Hermana Galvez and Hermana Ruiz

This week has been a doozy! It has been about a million degrees every day and I feel like we are about to melt into the pavement. I take comfort in the fact that when it is 112 degrees here in Bakersfield, it is 117 degrees in Las Vegas! :) We are drinking a lot of water and we are trying to stay in the shade during the day. Luckily, we have been able to be in a lot of lessons, so we are generally inside for those.

Biggest news of the week is that we were able to help the Victoriano and Luisa to get their marriage license. We got permission from President Layton to go down to Bakersfield with them and to help them through the application. It was so cute to be in the marriage license office and to see all of the people going through and so excited to be married. Victoriano and Luisa were super cute together and they are excited to be getting married! We went with Luisa during the week to help her get some wedding invitations made. She asked us for advise on her dress. The only problem is that she is SUPER short. I would say that she can't be taller that five feet, so any dress that she could buy would be way too  big. We were thinking about just looking in the First Communion dresses because they were closer to her size, but in the end, she decided to buy a dress and get all of the bottom part cut off. We are super excited for their wedding!

Aren't they cute?

This week, something truly tragic happened. I was getting in the car to back it up and Hermana Galvez and I saw a little kitten run underneath the car. I thought nothing more of it and got in to back up. As we were driving out, I felt a little bump. I thought that the front of the car had scraped up against the cement block. Hermana Galvez joked and said, "I think you ran over the cat Hermana Blau." I was sure that I hadn't. Then, right when Hermana Ruiz was getting into the car, Hermana Galvez said, "Hermana Blau, you really did run over the cat!!!!" It was lying on the ground, dying. There was nothing that we could do, so we just left. When we got to where we were going, I got out to check the wheel and found that the cat guts had gotten all over, so we had to go up to a lady that was watering her garden and ask her if we could borrow her hose. It was super sad! The worst part was that it was right outside of our parking spot and they didn't get around to picking it up for the next two days. Every time we came home or left, I had a reminder of the terrible deed.

We have also been teaching a couple of other people. One of them is the grandson of a less active that we have been helping to come back to church. He has returned to activity and he started taking his grand children to church with him. They are super cute and super excited to learn. They all came to church this week and had a wonderful time!

We also had Zone Conference this week. It was really nice. It was combined with all of the Zones here in Bakersfield, so we traveled down south and got to see everyone. We learned about faith and how we can overcome our struggles in the work. It gave me a renewed sense of purpose and helped me to know how I can help some of our investigators. 

On Saturday, there was a baptism here in the ward and we invited all of our investigators to come. Last minute, we decided to invite one of our investigators who likes us coming by but who has been really scared of coming to church. He was able to come and he really liked the service. After it was over, we were able to take him around the church building and show him all of the pictures. We ended up in the chapel and talked to him about the sacrament. He was able to feel the spirit and even asked us if we could meet in the church building for our regular appointments. He had a work commitment the next day, but he said that he would be there at church the next week.

Things have been going well for us here and I know that I am where I need to be. I am so happy to be a missionary and I am glad that I have the opportunity to serve. I am excited for what the last few weeks will bring and I am happy to work hard right until the end. I love being a missionary! I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau