February 16, 2015 Letter

I am doing super great! The investigator pool is coming along quite nicely. We had quite a few new investigators come out of the woodwork this week. We feel like we´ve been working super hard to see results and we´re super excited about the prospects that we have.

 I´ll tell you a little bit about a few of them. So there´s a boy here named D. from Peru. He´s 16 and just a wonderful member of the church, one of my favorite members in B8. His older brother is serving a mission in LA and I just wrote him an email, actually, telling him what I´m about to tell you- we´re baptizing his mom!! Her name is D. and she´s absolutely wonderful. She´s been taught for a LONG time by the hermanas that were here before, but then she went on vactaion for 3 months to Peru, and she got back right when I got here. She´s so ready to be baptized and she´s just wonderful. I´m so grateful to be able to be here for that. It will be happening on the 14th of March and I´m really excited for that. She´s like my little mom here- she takes really good care of us and it means the world.

We also have fechas with a woman named D. and her 10 year old son, E. We found them on the street the other day and after she failed us a few times, we were finally able to see her and she´s wonderful. Her son keeps telling us that he´s always wanted to be baptized again- cutest thing ever. He reminds me a lot of Jake! He also loves me a lot, for whatever reason. Probably because I brought him his favorite candy to the lesson the other day. He´s so cute and I´m excited to see them progress more.

Yesterday we taught a Nigerian lady named F. for the first time. OH MY GOSH PROPS TO ME FOR MAKING IT THROUGH THAT LESSON WITHOUT LAUGHING OUT LOUD. It was the FUNNIEST thing I have ever experienced, ever. It was in English but I still couldn´t really understand much of what she said- it honestly probably would have been easier in Spanish. She started telling us about this dream that she had one time- "There was this woman! And she was as BIG as the sky!! And her ------ were as big as this TABLE!! And I said, Look. I don´t believe in this woman, I believe in GOD!! I believe in JESUS CHRIST!! You don´t know my heart, only JESUS CHRIST knows my heart!! And I belong at the church of MOUNTAIN OF FIRE AND MIRACLES!! (her church´s name) (emphasis added where she put it)." I was dying. Holy crap. But we´re going back next week, so all is well.

We also had a lesson with this guy named E. He was a really quick contact on the street, but he invited us over and we showed up on time at the right piso (both miracles, with our track record of both timing and directions), and he was there with his wife- HIS LEGALLY MARRIED WIFE-, their baby, his brother in law, sister in law and their baby and they ALL LISTENED and they are all interested!! It was SUCH a miracle. So amazing. We were so happy, just over the moon happy. He prayed to end and thanked God for sending us and putting us in his path and asked that it wouldn´t be our last time coming. Super amazing.

 I also went on intercambios back to my old area this week, which was a little weird, but it helped me realize how much I have grown, even in just one month here. I´m so happy here in B8. There´s struggles, always, but I just feel good here. Really enjoying and loving this time in the mission and in my life.

Training is coming well! Two more weeks and we´re done with it, which is something that I think Hermana Judd is excited for. Being trained is hard. But she´s amazing and I´m so grateful to be her companion. Funny exchanges that we had this week: her scaring me so bad that I fell over on the floor in the bathroom, fixing our shower drain in the morning with duct tape, contacting the same guy twice within 5 minutes (that one was my bad and also probably the most embarrassed I´ve been on the mission), Hermana Judd saying that we share a Gospel of peace and love within 2 seconds of knowing somebody (also hilarious), her punching me on the street and somebody yelling at us, in English, "That´s against the Mormon religion!!", trying to start normal conversations and just failing-miserably, awkwardly failing- teaching a lesson to a lady in French from Sengal who is an African dancer and drummer while her friend walked around in a bra, smoking, trying to hide behind a tree this morning and trade basketball shorts because mine were too short and my garments were showing while we were playing soccer, and her interrupting a couple that was passionately making out by saying "Hola!!"- that one was probably the worst. Spanish spider is what we call that... I´ll just let you imagine what that means. But yeah, we have a great companionship and everybody knows it. President, the APs, other companionships- they´ve all commented and just told us how perfect we are to be together. I think they are happy that we´re together but also a bit scared because we´re slowly becoming the same person. She´s currently reading over my shoulder and dying at this email. So I guess you could say life is pretty good.

 Know that I know the Gospel is true. I know it is. I know that my testimony has grown SO much, even in the past month, and it keeps growing and growing. I love teaching the Gospel, I really do. I love sharing it and doing what I´m doing. It´s the greatest blessing of my entire life and I´m so grateful to be here. I love you all!!