Enero 9

Well this week was--- Whoa. Back up.
Hi! Hope everyone is doing peachily!
Ok. So this week was a roller coaster. We have about 4 people set to be baptized this coming Saturday. G, JD, A and Am. The E parents are still struggling with smoking (although they've cut back a ton) but the 3 oldest kids we believe are ready. Hopefully the rest will be baptized the next week. G is also ready. We got to go with him to gospel principles yesterday at church and he commented in class and his comment might just be called his testimony... it was powerful and he teared up. It was so neat. And the guy sitting next to him asked him if he was getting baptized and he happily responded that yes, he was, this Saturday. I think it really hit him then. We were super blessed yesterday at church. When we have the Es come it's QUITE exhausting. We were prepared to have 9 kids there again plus some... but as it turned out their cousin was put in the hospital and they all went to see him. So we just had G, his daughter Ab (who was oh so happy to see us. ), B (an inactive's wife whom we've been trying to teach and doing a lot with), S and Sa (another part member family--Sa is inactive and S isn't a member but we've been teaching her) and V is back from Alabama so she came too! She is also very ready to be baptized, but her mom is hesitant. We're meeting with them tonight and will hopefully find out the full concern(s). For the mom there is a language barrier (but we could get translation) and her whole situation is up in the air so I think she just has a lot of fears about joining something when the rest of her life she's trying to get pinned down... but we're trying to help her understand that having the fulness of the gospel helps clear your vision and that the ward becomes your family. She's already had really good experiences with the ward so she can't deny that they would treat her as family. But yeah. We just love em and it was so good to see V again. And it was AWESOME to have B and S in church too. They've never come before! B, I haven't really talked about much but we've spent a bit of time with her and her husband to built a relationship of trust to be able to teach her and we've grown super close the 4 of us. They're people that I'll keep in contact with after the mission for sure. So this coming week I expect to be slightly crazy. Sister L and I have to plan the baptismal service (and tonight we're going to gauge who's actually ready out of the E family, so pin down who's getting baptized for sure and who will baptize them and who'll give talks, etc.) Sister C and I have to plan for the weekly Thursday morning training AND President's Devotional. Three big meetings to plan this week so please pray for them to go smoothly. . . It's Sister C's last Training meeting too... Sad day. Yeah, she goes home at the end of this transfer, which is Jan 19. I love her so much.
There are SO many other things that happened this week but the details slip my mind....or else they're details that I'd rather just write in my journal because no one else understands why it's significant lol.
In response to your emails...Yes, about the sports on pdays. Actually this morning we played a good hour of ultimate frisbee at the church with the elders and other sisters at the jail. SUPER FUN. It was good to just run for an hour. Yes, I have another transfer in me hahaha. I have a feeling I'll be getting a new companion, though. I love Sister L so much. And I have learned so much from her. My work ethic here has been a bit different than it was in other areas, which in some ways has been good but a lot of times I feel like we're not working hard enough. Anyway, I'm a little afraid for my new comp if I do get a new one. I worked poor Sis T into the ground in Hays and I fear I'll want to do that here too, especially with only 1 transfer left. We are teaching people with so much potential. Not to mention if we've been able to find this many with this much potential, there HAS to be more out there! But you're right that spending 24/7 with another person not of my own choosing has given me huge opportunities to chip off and smoothe out my rough edges. Naturally I still have many, but I have definitely changed. I'm so grateful to the Lord for those opportunities to change, to see other ways of doing things, to appreciate many personalities and strengths in different people and to choose whether or not I want to incorporate different things into my own methods or personality. My communication skills have gone WAY up. Hopefully I won't lose that! haha. The Lord really knows what He's doing, though. Every missionary is in the area they're in for very specific and miraculous reasons.
Well'm, I gotta go email Pres but I hope everyone is having a marvelous week and that the scriptures are getting lots of your attention. :) If anyone's up for it, take the 90-day Book of Mormon challenge. It requires you to read about 6 pages a day. Anyway, I LOVE you all muchisimo and thank you for your emails and your prayers.
Smile! The Church is true!!