Week Sixty-Three: Where I Need to Be

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week has been good. We have been able to work a lot with our investigators and we have been able to see a lot of miracles in the work. Exchanges have started up again this week and it has been great to be able to learn from the other Hermanas in the mission. Things have been going great!

Starting with something a little mundane: Last Monday, we discovered a hidden treasure of the East Bakersfield Zone -- Mercado Latino. We heard a couple of months ago that there was a place here in the city that you could buy a ton of Mexican things. We had been asking and asking people all around if they knew where the Mercado Latino was and they said that they didn't. Finally, the other week, one of our investigators was able to tell us where it was (and also told us that he could take us there for dinner at a future point!). Last Monday, we were finally able to go. It was magical. One of my dreams when I heard that I was coming to this mission was to get a poncho and it was finally realized!

On Wednesday, we had a combined Zone Conference with the South Bakersfield Zone. It was really spiritual and I was able to find new direction for our area. It was also really fun to be able to see all of the other Hermanas on this side of the mission. I love all of the people that I am serving around right now! We learned about spiritual power and how we can be better channels of the spirit in the work. I am so excited that we are able to share the gospel with everyone and to help them to change their lives.

Speaking of helping people to change their lives, we have still been teaching Refugio and he is so excited to be learning about the gospel and coming to church. Every time we go over to talk to him, he is always so excited about reading in the Book of Mormon and all of the things that he is learning. He passed his baptismal interview and he should have his baptism on Friday, with all luck. It has been a pleasure to be able to help him through the learning process. Whenever we go over, he always tells us about all of his friends that he knows and how much he wants to share about the Book of Mormon with them. He has already given us the names of a couple of friends that he has and he wants us to teach all of his family that is in town. He is the cutest man! He is going to be a great member of the Arvin group!

This week, we started exchanges! Due to the Zone Conference on in the middle of the week, we were only able to have exchanges with one set of hermanas. On Friday, we started our exchanges with the hermanas from Lancaster, Hermana Martineau and Hermana Perdomo. I was with Hermana Martineau. It was a fun time and we were both able to learn a lot from each other. She is a wonderful missionary and we went out and worked hard! It is finally starting to get a little hotter outside and we spent a little bit of time walking in the morning, so I am starting to get a little bit of a tan and my freckles are getting a little darker. The winter has made me such a baby. It was only 85 degrees outside and I was starting to sweat. I thought I would leave the mission before the summer came back, but I think that I am still going to experience the most of it!

We went over to see out investigator, Luis, on Tuesday night. When we went over for the lesson, we were talking to him a little bit about his life and everything that was going on. He recently started working as a bee keeper and has been pretty excited about that job. As we were talking, he told us that he was going to be leaving in the morning for two months to go work on a bee farm in Missouri. We were so sad that he was going to be away for such a long time, but we left him with a pretty good lesson and we told him to text us when he got to where he was going so we could send missionaries by his house. I was secretly hoping that he was going to move to Waynesville and go to church with my family. We didn't hear from him for a couple of days and we thought that he was avoiding us when we got a text from him on Friday during exchanges. He told us that they hadn't actually sent him out of town and that he was still at his house. It was a pleasant surprise!

That is pretty much it for the week! I love being a missionary and being able to share the gospel with the world. I know that I am where I need to be and I am doing what I need to be doing. Teaching the people is so rewarding. I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Nine: We Can Do All Things Through Jesus Christ

At the Indian Outpost

Area: Littlerock Spanish Branch

Companion: Hermana White

What a week. I can't believe that I have already hit my two month mark. Time really does fly by in a molasses kind of way. Every day seems really long, but I get to the end of the week and can't believe that so much time has passed.

This week, the weather has been really strange. It started out being really hot and miserable. Luckily, the people that we meet when we knock doors will give us water even if they do not want to listen to our message. That keeps us from dying in the streets. Right now, on the other hand, it is constantly drizzling and kind of cold. I have to remind myself to be grateful for the rain in this desert.

This week has been really interesting, as far as what we have been doing. Last P-day, after we were done emailing, we went to an Indian Trading Post on the outskirts of Littlerock. They had all sorts of trinkets and strange things. I eventually settled on a clay ocarina shaped like a face and a machine woven Indian pattern blanket. There are actually a whole lot of strange stores like that in Littlerock, so I don't doubt that I will be able to pick up a lot of strange souvenirs.

The work here is really going and we are finding like crazy. One day, we were able to find 11 people! Hermana White has no fear of going into parties and sharing the message of the Restoration to everybody. The day that we found 11 people, we went up to a gazebo outside of a house and there were five teenagers sitting and playing the guitar. It turned out that they all spoke Spanish and wanted to learn more, so we picked them all up as investigators. It ended up being a good thing, but while we were there, it was a little awkward.

We always end up going to people's houses while they are throwing parties. One night this week, we went to an investigators house for an appointment. He didn't answer the door, but one of his party guests did. While we were teaching about the Restoration, the music was super loud and it sounded like a crazy party was going on. At one point while we were teaching, the biggest, most muscular man I have ever seen in my life came out, pointed at us, and said in a deep and scary voice, "You're Mormons?". I thought that he was going to kill us or kick us out of the door, but he just said, "I'm Catholic, but I respect what you are doing" and then he left.

We had a Zone Training Meeting this week and we learned about asking inspired questions. That day, we decided to start asking more inspired questions during out street contacts and door approaches. As soon as we started doing that, I could feel the spirit so strongly while we talked to everyone. The first lady that we talked to told us about how her husband was really sick and needed a transplant. We were able to tell her about how we can all find comfort through Jesus Christ and she started to cry. The spirit was really strong!

Yesterday, we talked to a couple of Seventh-Day Adventists. It was actually really interesting. I love learning about what other people believe and being able to share with them our beliefs as well. Anyway, one of the people that we talked to was in college and we talked for a while about religion. In the end, we asked her to read a chapter from the Book of Mormon and she told us that she would as long as we would read a couple of pages from her Bible study guide.Then she told us to come back in and hour and a half. When we got to the car, we had a crisis of conscience because it says in the missionary rule book that we are not allowed to read books that are not approved, so we had to go back and tell her that we couldn't read her book. She told us that she wouldn't read the Book of Mormon. In the end, we convinced her to keep the copy of the Book of Mormon and she let us keep the copy of the Bible Study Guide. #MissionProblems

I am so happy to hear about everything that is going on at home and about all of the things that you are doing. I love to hear from you and to know what is going on in real life. Spanish is coming along, but I know that we can do all things through Jesus Christ.

Hermana Blau

Hermana White and me with a picture that one of our members painted. He is a crazy painter, and there are tons
of paintings all over his house. So jealous!