Week Forty-Three: Happy Halloween!!

That is the reaction picture of me after the dog ate the Book of Mormon.
You can't really see the bites, but they are there!

Area: Buena Vista Spanish Ward

Companion: Hermana Zambrano

First of all, Happy Halloween! Today, we have somewhat of a free day because we have to be inside of our house at six o'clock. It isn't really that exciting because we have been given some talks that we have to study during the time that we are inside. Also, I will be packing because I am going to be transferred tomorrow! I still don't know where I am going to go or who I am going to be with, but I will be leaving good old Buena Vista tomorrow morning, heading for greener pastures. It makes me a little sad, because I really love the members and the area, but it will be good to keep doing the work.

Another exciting thing that happened this week was my birthday. I am officially no longer a teenager. It was a little strange celebrating my birthday on the mission because there wasn't a lot of time to think about it, but everyone made an effort to make me feel loved. The STLs called me and sang Happy Birthday and President and Sister Layton called to wish me a happy birthday as well. Even Sister Ball, one of the missionaries from the office, came over and brought me a cupcake.  Our investigator, Claudia, took us out to dinner. It was all super nice and sweet. I opened the package that I got from home and discovered all of the candy inside. It was a wonderful surprise. Now, the only worry that we have in our apartment is not to get diabetes from all of the sugar that we have inside.

One funny story from the week: We talked to a lady who was sitting in her garage while we were walking down the street. She said that we could come back and share a little bit more, so we planned to come back another day. Right before we left, I saw a couple of little dogs in her yard and made sure to ask her if she had any big dogs. She told us that she didn't, so we foolishly thought that we were safe. Flash forward to a couple of days ago. We went back for our return appointment and we noticed that the little dogs were a little vicious, especially one little white one that started biting at the chain link fence when we walked past. We waited a little bit and the dog started to calm down, so we thought that it would be safe to walk inside the gate. I walked in and told Hermana Zambrano to stay outside (I just read the scripture where the Savior said that the greatest love is that one lays down his life for his friends. I thought that would apply to companions as well). I made it all the way inside the gate and decided that it would be a good idea to try and pet the vicious dog to make sure that it knew that we weren't going to kill it. No sooner did I touch the head of the dog but it started making moves to bite me. I put the Book of Mormon I had in my hand close to the dog so it would bite the book instead of my hand. It latched on to the book, but I was able to escape through the gate and yank the book out of the dogs mouth. Now, I have a souvenir  Book of Mormon with teeth marks all the way through to Alma!

We had a pretty cool experience with one of our less active families this week. We started working in an area and I felt like we needed to be somewhere else. We decided to try and see a sister who we knew from our records but who we had never met before. We had previously tried knocking on her door, but no one ever answered. We got to the sister's house and she opened the door and invited us in. I guess that she had a really bad day at work and she prayed for comfort. Right after she prayed, we knocked on the door. It was a witness that the spirit really does guide the work.

Right now, we are working with a really cool family. We have taught them a couple of time and they really want to learn more. The other week, we invited them to come to church, but it was Stake Conference, so they got lost looking for the Stake Center and ended going home. This week, we invited them again to come to church. We confirmed 30 minutes before, but as the meeting was starting, they still weren't there. We called them again and it turned out that they were lost again. We were able to guide them over the phone and they made it just in time for church. Everyday is an adventure!

Well, it has been another week and another transfer. I am sad to leave this area because I really love the people here, but I am excited to see what comes ahead. I love this gospel and I love being a missionary. I hope that you all have a Happy Halloween!

Hermana Blau

Hermana Zambrano is all trained up!!!

Week Twenty-Two: Yo Estaba Muy Cerca a una Cerca

Area: Esperanza Ward
Companion: Hermana Van der Toolen

This week has been kind of slow, but we have really been seeing miracles! I think that I have learned more about how the Lord will always help us in this work this week than I have during any other week so far.

The most eventful thing that happened during the beginning of this week was that we finally won the victory over the miles! All of the walking and biking worked out and we were able to finish out the month of May with exactly 1100.4 miles. It was pretty impressive (if I do say so myself). The only problem is that the temperature has finally started to resemble what I imagined California summers would be like. During the days, it is 100 degrees or more with no clouds in the sky. When the wind blows, it feels like a blow-dryer! I can't remember if I shared this last week, but I have finally started to get sunburned. The difference here as opposed to Missouri is that my sunburns are turning into tans. It is the strangest thing.

One funny story. We were walking along the street the other day and I got really close to a fence. It turned out that the top of the fence was made of something sharp, so I cut my arm up. It wasn't super bad, but it started to bleed a little bit. Instead of taking one of Hermana Van der Toolen's band-aids, I decided that it would be a good talking point. We knocked on a door and I showed the lady my bleeding arm and asked if she would give me a band-aid. While she was helping me out, we were able to talk to her. She wasn't super interested, but I was able to tell her that I got cut because "yo estaba muy cerca a una cerca". [Translation: I was very close to a fence. (In Spanish the words for  "close" and "fence" are the same.)] That made me chuckle for the rest of the day.

Because it is so hot during the day, we have been trying to set up visits with less active members. It has actually been working out pretty well. We get to come in from the heat and the sun and we also get to teach people. There are a lot of people in the Esperanza ward who haven't been contacted for a long time, so it has been good to be able to see them. Hopefully, we will be able to start helping them to come back to church.

This week we had another lesson with Adriana. I don't know if you remember her, but she is the one that we almost dropped because we thought that she was Bible bashing us through text message. It turns out that she is super prepared. She loves learning about the Gospel and reading in the scriptures and she always keeps all of her commitments, which is a breath of fresh air. Her biggest problem at this moment is with coming to church. She works in a hotel as a maid and works pretty much all the time. We went over to teach her about the importance of the Sabbath day. When we asked her if she thought that her boss would give her Sundays off, she said that she didn't think so. Apparently, her boss is a bit of a jerk and doesn't like changing people's schedules. It is also hard because Adriana really needs to work to help to support her family. We shared 1 Nephi 3:7 with her and talked with her a little bit about faith and the importance of church. Afterwards, we asked her if she would be willing to go in and talk to her boss, and she said that she definitely would because going to church is so important and she wants to know the truth. It was super cool. She has so much faith. I think that my experience with Adriana has really gone to show me that God is always going to make sure that his prepared children receive the Gospel!

We received the biggest surprise of this week yesterday. There is a family that the Hermanas in this area have been teaching for a really long time named the Liconas. They have had all the lessons and have been coming to church regularly for a long time and all of them really want to be baptized. The only problem is that the parents aren't married. For a long time, they weren't able to get married because of a lack of money to buy the marriage license and some relationship problems. Recently, they haven't been able to get the license because they can never get time off of work to go to buy the license during the week. Yesterday, we texted the father to ask if we could come over on Sunday night to teach a lesson with them and he said that we should come over on Monday night because he got a day off of work. It turns out that they are going to go and get their marriage license today! After that, there is nothing stopping them from getting baptized. We have been fasting and praying for them to be able to get the license for a long time, and it looks like it is finally going to happen!

This week has been a little bit interesting, but I have definitely been able to see the hand of the Lord in this work. I am so glad that I am a missionary and am able to see all of the positive changes that the Gospel brings to people's lives. I love this church!

I love you all and I am hope that everything is going well at home. Keep cool and have fun at home!

Hermana Blau