Happy Groundhog Day!

Wow, I completely forgot about that. We don't have winter here. It's a beautiful day.

Jesus didn't get baptized!

On Tuesday he decided that he was getting baptized for sure. He really wanted to get the gift of the Holy Ghost as soon as possible.

On Wednesday we went to the temple to walk around and he still seemed super solid. He said it still hadn't hit him that he was really getting baptized.

Thursday and Friday the same. He seemed completely calm and fine.

On Saturday he had his interview and he did really well! Dehlin said he is definitely ready to be baptized. Then he texted us after that and started freaking out! Apparently it "hit" him that he was getting baptized during the interview. He was hanging out with a friend who was trying to convince him not to get baptized. So then he spent that whole night researching the church. He got into a lot of anti Mormon stuff. He didn't go to sleep until six because he was so worried about it. Then he woke up at six thirty because he was still worried about it.

Which takes us to Sunday morning when he texted us that he can't get baptized because he didn't believe that Joseph Smith is a prophet. We were like can we come over and talk to you????

But then! And this is where it gets confusing so hold on. He texted back and said yeah I'll just come early to church so we can talk.  Bingham and I looked at each other so confused. He's coming to church???? So he came to church and told us all his doubts. He stayed all three hours stumbling around from lack of sleep. He really liked testimony meeting. He was fasting, too! The elders got super concerned and sat him down to have a talk but he couldn't process anything because he was so out of it. We told him go home and take a nap! And then when you wake up break your fast. And then as a side note we added, do you want to come to someone else' baptism with us tonight? He said yes but we were sure he wouldn't make it because once you take a nap after not sleeping you don't get back up right? Am I right??!! But then he did come and it was all the way in Cypress which is suuupperrr west. He got to meet president Taggart. I asked him if he ate and he HADN'T. So miracle of miracles I find him a delicious spearmint dark chocolate chip cookie and forced him to break his fast. "But I need help!" He said. "You need food" I replied. So he said the prayer to end his fast right then and there in the middle of a crowd of members from Buena Park with all their crazy niños running everywhere. Then we watched the baptism. It was really nice. He said that it gave him a spiritual energy boost and that it made him really happy.

So where are we at now?? I have no idea. I'm so confused by him. He's coming tonight to the Noche de hogar. It's his first time because his crazy calculus class finally ended!

Sorry I told that story so crazy. I don't have a lot of time today and that's how I would tell it to you if I was in person anyway so I guess we're going for the realistic style this week.

Enviado desde mi iPad

Happy Monday!!

We wake up at 6:30 everyday. It's a rule! I'm sorry you're so tired.

Last Tuesday night Jesus decided that he was going to pray about whether or not to be be baptized and then turn to a random page in the Book of Mormon and read the chapter there. The first passage he read was about infant baptism so he decided to try again. The next chapter he read was about the importance of baptism in general and told the story of when Alma baptized a bunch of people. He definitely got an answer but in our lesson on Wednesday he lied to us and said he didn't! We assumed he hadn't recognized it or something because it was so obvious!

That night he came to the very end of institute after his class. (Fun fact: We have an institute building on the campus of Santa Ana College.) He wanted to talk to us after before playing pool with the other kids. He started by apologizing to us about being so hesitant. We let him go on and on apologizing until I interrupted him. "Jesus!" I said, "You haven't been that hesitant. You meet with us everyday in the thirty minutes you have between work and your intercession calculus class. You read the Book of Mormon and pray everyday. You go to church with us. Even right now you're at institute with us. What are you being hesitant about?" 

After that I'm not entirely sure what everyone said because it was entirely guided by the spirit. Over the course of my mission I've felt the spirit less and less strongly while I'm talking to people because I learned how to speak Spanish and that God trusts me to say the right thing without help. At first it would always tug on me to make sure I would say the right thing. But this conversation must have been super important to God! Because he completely took over and basically dragged me through the dirt with the spirit! It hurt so much! And my companion was really confused. I'm not really sure what I said but it was crazy.

Basically what it summed up to was that I got him to admit he was hesitant about baptism even though he'd gotten a clear answer. Then I promised him he would feel prepared by the time of his baptism if he did everything we asked. I showed him a calendar and let him choose when he wanted to get baptized. I thought he was going to pick April but he picked February 1st!

He's still working on feeling prepared. He has trust issues with God. After our lesson yesterday he said one of the most sincere prayers I have heard. He told God that he really wants to be baptized and he asked him if he could please take away the part of him that doesn't want to be baptized. He started crying. We will see of his prayer is answered or not.

Henry blessed the sacrament yesterday! He looked so pleased with himself. I feel like he gets more joy than the average person out of doing the right thing. Oh! And last Monday at the Noche de hogar he told me he wants to serve a mission! He asked me lots of questions about what it's like. He also asked lots of questions about snow and Illinois. He wants to serve either in Guatemala or English speaking to learn English.

Everything is staying the same for transfers. All the girls are staying, too. One companionship is getting a baby though! So they will be in a trio and now we are over 15 hermanas! She's from Mexico and is part deaf. She can read lips perfectly but only in Spanish. So that should be fun!

We had a seven hour long meeting with the proselyting department from Salt Lake. They are so pumped! And it made me feel like anything is possible.

We met this new kid named Pedro who is also from Guatemala and doesn't speak English. He is really sweet! He is looking for a church with order so he was super impressed with church at the Greenville building. It's one of the biggest chapels in the world and there are a million classrooms and Mormons there. His first language is actually a lengua from there called chesckA? Or something like that. So it's super weird because he will slip into his lengua when he doesn't know a phrase in Spanish and we're all like whahhhhh???? Switch back to Spanish! And then he gets mad when we switch into Spanglish because he doesn't understand it and he reminds us that he's not Mexican. Lessons with him will be fun.

We're also teaching this guy named Ozzie. We got him from a member as a facebook referral. But then we saw him on the street one day and we recognized him. We flagged him down and we're all like are you Ozzie?!?!? He was really confused and we asked him if a random white girl messaged him on facebook. He was like yeah.... I said, "That was me! Why didn't you respond?" He tried to comfort us and he accepted a Book of Mormon but didn't seem that interested in being taught. That was a couple weeks ago and he messaged us and told us he's in 1 Nephi 12 and if we could please meet to explain some parts of it. Now he wants to be baptized! He works a lot so it might take awhile to teach him.

Have a great week! Love you!

Sent from my iPad

The party is today. I actually have to go to a dress rehearsal like right now. I'm super excited!! It will be fun! But I'm also nervous about us all getting in trouble...

The Bowens are leaving sometime next week. The new pres sound super scary! He's going to change everything and shackle us down with rules!!! We will basically be his slaves. I snuck into transfer meeting today to hear Pres give his last talk and he was basically like good luck, because you're going to need it.

Yeah I'll take an afghan. My favorite color is black. So maybe Black and a very light blue? Did you ever order concealer?

Why are you going to Guatemala again? You should wait so that you can take me. Then I could talk to everyone for you. When are you going?

I get another transfer with Hulet! She's not that excited because she's been in Anaheim for forever but we are very happy to still be together.

Here's a picture of my district from this transfer. And our ward mission leader. Love you!

 

My weeks been good. Imagine that you're in high school again and that your best friend is the the most popular girl in the school. She's the head cheerleader and everyone is obsessed with her. Her life is pretty dramatic. So naturally, so is yours. You've now successfully experienced the first three transfers of my mission with my mom, Morley.

Even though I'm not with her now, I'm still involved in all of her drama. I'm not complaining. I would be so bored without her.

Anyways, she's really good at getting her way. And because I'm her best friend, her way frequently involves my presence. On Thursday I found myself going with her to a secret dance practice. We're going to perform it for president right before he leaves. Did I tell you were getting a new president soon? Well they're throwing a surprise party for him. All the language programs are doing something. Because ours is so big, they decided to just have the older leaders do it. But somehow I ended up kinda being in charge. I thought it was all coincidence or just the result of bad planning until I looked around at nine thirty and realized were were hanging out with all of Morleys favorite people. I still don't know how she did it.

Yeah, they're really bad at keeping track of who has a bike. They keep on telling me to buy a new one and that they're going to take away my car. And I'm like you're telling me this while I'm talking to you on the phone on my BIKE.

Mommmmy,

 

Your emails always crack me up. They remind me of British novels set in the 80s. Hilarious because nothing seems to go right.

I'm pretty sure I will always have a wonderful companion. All the Spanish sisters are super cool and once July comes Ill be one of the oldest ones because everyone is leaving so I will have the right to boss everyone into being cool. Looking forward to it!

 

Hahah I fell asleep during my graduation ceremony. I was just so tired!! And I had slept through all my classes that year so why not graduate in the same state, right?

 

That lady, and dad, and charles all sound very immature. Im sorry you have to put up with such people. Courage mother! I want to go camping! I miss being outside. There are too many buildings here so it never feels like we go outside. and it never rains. We live next to the city museum so we checked it out the other day. It was pretty cool! And I learned a lot about the history of anahiem. Apparently its origins can be attributed to three germans from san Francisco picnicking in the area and saying, "Boys, I have hit upon the right idea. We should make this into wine county." And then they named their vineyard town thing anahiem because it is the heim or home of the santa ana river. And then a bunch of catholic missionaries came and converted everyone. And thats where I come into the history. Slowly breaking the ties that everyone here has to the San Bonifacio church. Lame.

 

Hello! I'm doing quite well. How are you?

I love my companion so much. She is becoming my favorite. Maybe second after the ccm one though. She reminds me of Fara Sneddon. Imagine knocking doors and doing daily planning with Fara and you will understand how happy I am and thoroughly entertained. She is a well read theater major with an excellent vocabulary. She is a touch dramatic but in a sarcastic way. She loves me because her last companion was emotionally draining. She appreciates that I'm always happy and that I am able to make my own decisions. I appreciate that she has a brain and a sense of urgency. She's even taken psychology before! So we can strategize how to get our investigators to go to church using esteem friendly techniques and what not. This is probably my favorite transfer even though the area isn't doing that well. It makes such a difference who you spend your time with! I miss biffy and Morley too though. But I see Morley pretty often now.

Today is the elotada!!!! The whole stake gets together every year and eats elotes, which is corn with mayo, cheese, and spicy stuff. It's really good! And I'm so excited to see Biffy and the members from garden grove and other missionaries. I'll get to see Gomez!!!!!!!!!! Max got the melckezedek priesthood yesterday!!!!! Yayyyyy!!!!!

Downtown Disney was fun. I didn't buy anything. We'll probably go back soon.

I went to the farmers market!!! Best thing ever!! It's Bunch of fruit and vegetables being sold by Mexicans!!! They even gave me a discount because I spoke Spanish to them!! Definitely going every week. Everything is organic and tastes so much better than the stuff at the store. The mangos mother!!!

There is always random festival stuff going on where we live.

Love you!!!

Hola!

Yeah, the Gomezs wanted to give me a balloon but we could never quite
find time to meet up. I did get to talk to max on the phone for awhile
though. :) They are handling the birthday thing a lot better than I
thought they would. Christmas was pretty bad.

Honestly when I first got here they weren't teaching anyone. In this
mission we make boards and draw a "baptism escalator" on it. It has
the dates underneath and you put the people on top, they're supposed
to keep moving closer to their baptismal date and the if they're not
progressing you reset it. Well anyways mine in garden grove was full
of people. And this one only had six and they were all at the bottom
of the escalator. I was confused because this is a good area and my
companion is a really good teacher. She said that everyone they had
been teaching all dropped them at the same time about a week before I
came in. Super weird.

At first, I just followed Hulet around because she knows the area, but
this past week I started taking charge more. I developed a finding
system that works well for this area and we went through all the
potential investigators and made a plan for each of them. I feel so
much better now!

Because we aren't teaching anyone steadily we just walk around talking
to everyone. We've met a lot of cool people! And we've gotten a lot
better at reading people when we first meet them!

Gaby wants to be baptized in June. Were also teaching her husband and
son. The whole family has been very sick lately though. They keep
going to the doctor.

Everyone else doesn't really know anything yet. But they will! I'm so
excited to teach all of them.

I really like living in downtown Anaheim. It fits me better. During
lunch one day last week we were walking through a fair and an old
painter genius man asked us to paint some leaves with him. We gladly
obliged.

I'm going to downtown Disney today!

Have a nice week! Love you!