Week Fifty-One: Baptisms and Temple

Lucas's Baptism

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was a doozy. Christmas was the best and we really did see a TON of miracles during the course of the week. The spirit of the Christmas really does exist!

We started out this week without a P day because we went to the temple on Tuesday. We spent that time trying to contact some referrals that we had been trying to see for a while. One of the referrals was for a couple of old ladies that a random man on the street told us to go and talk to. When we got to the door, we started talking to the lady and she wasn't super interested because she and her sister were about to have dinner. She was about to tell us to come back another time when her sister came up to the door and invited us in to eat. We weren't about to turn down a free meal, so we agreed. They actually ended up giving us some pretty yummy lentils and egg tacos and we were able to share about the Restoration afterwards. They invited us back last night. We went after our Christmas dinner with a member, but we discovered that they had prepared us an entire dinner for our visit. We tried to tell them that we just ate, but they told us to just eat one taco. That led to us each eating three tacos and some tamales. It was fun!

On Tuesday, we went down to the temple in Los Angeles. It was super fun going down there and seeing all of the hermanas from around the mission. I love the temple so much and it was a super spiritual experience. I am so grateful for all of the blessings in my life that come from the temples that we have!

At the Los Angeles Temple

It was a little swished in the back seat on our way to the temple.

Right after the temple trip, we went on exchanges with Hermana Zambrano and Hermana Badger. I was with Hermana Zambrano again! I always love going with her and getting to talk and work with her again. It is super fun seeing all of the ways that she has grown over the time that we haven't been together. She is super sweet. While we were out, we decided to go see one of our recent converts. When we went over to her house, she had some company over but she let us in. She invited her friend to listen to us, so we started sharing about the Restoration with her friend. It turns out that she already knew about all about it because our recent convert had already told her everything. She was already planning to come to church. It was super cool to see the member missionary work!

Friday was probably the biggest day of the week. In the beginning, we had a morningside with the Laytons. When we got there, we all had a big breakfast. Afterwards, we sat down and watched It's A Wonderful Life as a mission. It was so good. It was really strange watching a worldly movie for a little bit, but it is one of my favorite movies of all time, so it was a wonderful Christmas treat. Afterwards, we did a gift exchange. During the whole time, I felt so happy. It was nice to know that Christmas is a happy time, no matter where you are!

The hermanas at the morningside.

On Friday night, we had the baptisms of our investigators Jesse and Lucas. It was super cool. I was so happy that I was able to be a part of teaching them and helping them to progress to the point where they could enter into that covenant. We have been working with Jesse for a while to help him to overcome his doubts and his fears, so it was super special to see him get baptized. His mother is a member of the church, so he has heard about the gospel for a long time, but he was finally able to see all the ways that it could bless his family, so he decided to take the step of baptism. Lucas was super prepared right from the beginning and he has been super excited about baptism for a long time. Being able to teach him really let me see the way that the Lord has been preparing people. There were a ton of events that were leading him to the gospel before we ever talked to him. I felt really blessed to be able to teach them and to watch their baptisms and confirmations!

Jesse's baptism with Hermano Rodier, who performed the baptism.

Saturday was a super interesting day. We were walking around outside during the day because we didn't have a ton of appointments. It was cold and people were not acting super interested, so we were feeling a little discouraged. Our one hope was that we could convince someone to watch Joy to the World with us. It is about 45 minutes long, so we thought that we could combine a good teaching experience with an opportunity to get out of the cold. Before we left the car, we prayed that someone would let us watch the movie, but everyone we talked to was semi-rude to us. While we were talking to a group of men fixing their car, it started to hail. We thought that it was just the cherry on the ice cream to our day. Right after that, we saw a lady unloading groceries from her car. We offered to help her and she let us. After we brought in a couple of things, she asked us to share a scripture. We did and then offered to share the movie with her and her family. To our surprise, she said that we could. We were able to talk to the family until our next appointment and they were super nice. It was a Christmas miracle.

Exchanges with Hermana Zambrano

Christmas day was super nice. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and his sacrifice that he made for us. I am so happy that we can have happiness in this world through Christ and I am so grateful for this gospel in my life. I love you all and I hope that you have a happy last week of the year!

Hermana Blau

Christmas skyping with the family!

Week Fifty: Christmas Tamales

Me supporting Dad's Mizzou graduation

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was crazy and a lot happened. It is still getting a little colder every day, but I am sure it is nowhere close to what you are experiencing in other parts of the world. Things are really going well down here and we have been seeing lots of miracles!

Goodbye Hermana White

I guess that the biggest difference of this week is that Hermana White left for home and that I am now companions with Hermana Luquette. It was super strange saying goodbye to Hermana White. She and I had some really good times together and it is really strange to think that she isn't in the mission anymore, but I am sure that she is going to be doing good things. The night that she left, I spent a couple of hours working with some English sisters whose companions also were leaving. It was super strange being in English work for just a little bit, but it was fun! The next day, got together with Hermana Luquette. She is the nicest person that I have ever met and she really loves being a missionary. She was recently baptized, so she brings a really special spirit to the work and she has a really sweet testimony of the gospel. I really love working with her!

Hello Hermana Luquette!

This week, I realized just how close we are to Christmas. I don't think that I really noticed that the holidays were upon us until planning day. Christmas is next week! I am so excited. We have been trying to focus our contacts on the Christmas spirit. We have started opening all of our door contacts with caroling. The first time that we did that, the door we knocked on opened and the lady inside started telling us that she wasn't interested and that we should go away. When we started singing, she listened to us and was super nice to us. We were able to share a little bit with her. I think that the spirit really speaks to people through song.

We have been able to teach a lot of really interesting people this week. One of the coolest new people that we found belonged to a less active/part member family. We recently found the husband who is a member and we thought that the wife was also a member. We went over one day and found that she wasn't. We started talking to her and she was super receptive. She told us that she felt the spirit when we were talking and that she wanted to find a new church that would make her feel the peace of God. We were able to teach her about the Restoration and she was super excited. She told us that she would be reading the Book of Mormon right after we left her house.

We have been teaching a lot of lessons this week. One of our investigators, Julio, is just a little strange. He has been coming to church and progressing pretty well, but is an odd old man. We were in a lesson with him the other day and we asked him to say the prayer. He stood up and moved over to the wall of his house. Then he scratched his back against the wall for a straight minute while he was keeping straight eye contact with us. After that, he said a really beautiful prayer. In another lesson that we had with him, he gave us hot chocolate and told us to put baby formula in it. I don't know if he knew what it was, so that is the story of how I drank baby formula for the first time in 19 years. He is a card.

This week, we had our ward Christmas party. It was super fun. We ate a ton of tamales and drank atole. It is really interesting being able to see the holidays from the perspective of a different culture. I am so exited for Christmas!!

On Sunday, we were going around doing visits to get our investigators to come to church. While we were walking down the street, we started talking to a man. I guess we talked to him a couple of weeks ago, but he told us that he would be coming to church. We didn't really believe him, but we invited him anyway. When we got to church, he was sitting there and talking to all of the members. He said that he really liked it and that he wants to come back next week. The people here in Arvin are super cool!

That is just about it for this week. I am super excited for Christmas (I don't know if you all could tell) and I am sure that the Holidays will be a great time for everyone. I hope that you all have a very merry Christmas and that you remember the reason for the season!

Hermana Blau