Kitties!

In exactly a week, we finally get to go to the temple again! Finally! I am so stoked. :) Then we get to go to Deseret Book and buy new scriptures since ours were stolen by the scripture bandit!

Last Monday we had FHE with the Vizcaino family and brought Maria and her grandson with us. This is the family with the son that looks like Trey. He calls me his big sister, because I always talk about how he looks like Trey. His name is Samaki. Trey, you should write him a note the next time you write to me. He gave the lesson during FHE about Himnos. Then Sister Gubeli and I sang a hymn. We ate a ton of delicious food including fried chiles! We went to the church and played a little bball that day as well.

On Tuesday we decided to start visiting EVERYONE who was in the ward directory that lives in our area. We got a ton of new investigators by doing this. On the way to one of the homes, I felt like we should stop at one of them. We couldn't tell if they spoke Spanish, but on one of their steps, there was the name "George." So in honor of my dad, we stopped!  One of the doors was open, but the metal door was shut. We could hear someone in there.  We knocked and no one showed, then the door started shutting. We thought that they just weren't interested.  As we were walking away, the door opened. Gloria opened the door. She was making tortillas and had stuff all over her hands. She was so friendly and sweet! She told us she would teach us how to make tortillas. We were planning on going to see her again last night, but our member missionary canceled on us, so our plans had to totally change. If you can help it, don't cancel on missionaries who don't have cars because their plans don't work anymore!

Anyway, we stopped by another home close to where Ana lives. All of this is happening in the area we like to call, over the bridge. So we pull up and a white guy is outside smoking and talking on the phone.  He immediately goes inside and gets his wife, Margarita. I assumed she was the less active on the directory but she wasn't. The less active is her 30 year old daughter, but they have the same name. Margarita let us teach and we set a return appointment.   This is the cat house below.  She doesn't own a single one, but they flock to them because of the food they have. There were little kitties. I was dying! Of course it made my day and also made it super easy to talk to her. Sometimes you need something like that to get people to open up. We easily talked about her cats for five minutes!  Some of them are wild and won't let you get close, but I was fast enough to catch one of the kittens.

 Junior and me. He is hilarious. His grandma is a member and comes with her to church, but he  hardly speaks any Spanish. Anyway, he has got to be one of the funniest, hyperactive little guys out there. His prayers are hilarious but so personal.

We then went over to Ana's house. Her sister Isabel was there and we helped her clean up. The house was kind of a mess.  I don't blame her, they have a lot of little kids running around. I love that she LET us help her. Most people just say, “no I am fine.” Anyway, then we taught just her. It was a really sweet lesson about listening to our children and making sure they know we are there to listen to them and teach them. She is a great mom. She tells us that she is eating all she can so she can have another baby. With her other babies, when she was going into labor, the people at the hospital thought she was coming in for an abortion, because her tummy was so little. She is a tiny lady, but soooo cute! :) She is probably 26 or 27. She ALWAYS feeds us dessert. During her prayer she said something very sweet. She said, "te damos gracias por las familias de las hermanas...por prestandolas a nosotras." Which translated means, “Thank you for the families of the sisters for loaning them to us.” I thought it was so sweet.

Before I forget, Ana is so cute and wants to take us out on next Pday and buy us food. They also say they want to be missionaries so badly. They love how we dress and look and the Spirit we bring.

 

 

We had dinner with recent convert (Ana) and her sister (Isabel). Isabel taught us how she makes her enchiladas. They are killer! I will teach any who would like to know how!

Every time we go over the bridge, I call it the roller coaster. I have to think of fun things to do as we are riding, because I hate riding a bike in a skirt.  :)  Turning the really hard bridge into something fun is better than hating your life. This week we had Little Cesar's three times. I am so sick of it I could die! The members are so sweet to feed us though. It is funny though, we have never had that at dinner and in the same week we ate it three times. I think everyone is so much busier now that school has started. It is hard to get members to come out with us.

We had an appointment with a couple we had met the week previous and it went SOOO well. Funny story, we had actually met Gloria before when we knocked doors but didn't think she was interested. Then on exchanges, we decided to stop by the apartment again because we know the little boys who live there. They are always outside playing with some member's kids and Alfredo. We decided to go see them. Then we set the return appointment with the dad. When we finally came back for the return appointment, I recognized Gloria and felt so bad that we didn't realize it was the same house. We played it off well though. She brought us huge cups of juice and we taught them the Restoration. He made a comment about how he has talked to a ton of different religious people but that we were different. Every time with the other people, he would get to a point where he didn't feel good or right about what they were saying. He said he felt good with us the whole time.

 

 

This is Yesena's baby Jayleen. She is a less active and we are teaching her nine year old son, Alfredo. That baby is adorable, and she has so much hair! 

Gloria understands everything perfectly. I have never had so many detailed questions thrown at me before about the Restoration. They really want to know it all. It had gone super well and we were praying we would be able to come back again another time that week. Then they asked us if we could come back tomorrow! We said, “ Of course!” We were trying not to sound too excited, but we were stoked. We didn't have copies of the Book of Mormon with us so we downloaded it on his phone. Then the next day we went by and explained the Book of Mormon. He kept saying how it "tiene sentido" makes sense. He had always wondered about the Native Americans and everything. 

We went back and saw Margarita on Thursday with Isabel (Ana's sister). Margarita likes to knit and makes sons of things including scarves. She gave us both one! 

Raul is someone who we have to focus on. He is so ready to be baptized. He has easily come to church seven times and helped us give another guy a church tour last week. We don't know what his deal is. We are hoping to take the bishop with us this week and have a good chat. Raul is the funniest guy ever. He is between 50-60 years old. He is very friendly, but not in a creepy way. He likes to joke about how he sold the Book of Mormon we gave him etc. He always puts his hand on our shoulders when he talks and we always kind of back up and slip his hand off, haha. Anyway, we are also trying to set him up with a lady in the ward. Her daughter says he needs a few more teeth before that can happen. :)

We had a fireside with a seventy on Saturday night. It was amazing. Actually his grandson is an AP in our mission so that was funny and cool. He gave a really good fireside and showed us an excerpt of one of my favorite talks by Elder Holland. He says, "Salvation was never a cheap experience. How can we ever expect it to be easy for us when it was never ever easy for Him." I love that! I love being a missionary. Like Junior says (a cute eight year old grandson of a less active) in his prayers, "Some days are hard...some are easier. Lord, give us hope to live a thousand more years. Amen." Let us all have hope that we truly can live together as families forever. I love you and miss you and can't wait for the day you can meet all of these wonderful people who have changed my life!

 

 

Lot's of hot air balloons to go on rides in.  I can't wait to come back and go in one!