July 25, 2011

Hello!

I'm so happy to hear about the baptisms! I'm glad to see that the Glayds Knight concert is still having an effect in our area! Tell the Elders congratulations for me! I'm surprised to hear that Elder Miller is still there! Isn't that almost a year he's been in Chaffey ward?

We're coming up on transfers soon, on Aug. 9, but Sister Taua and I are both pretty sure we're staying together here in Everson. We may or may not be plotting how we're going to retaliate if President does happen to try to separate us...We've heard that we're getting three new sisters this transfer, to take us from 12 in the mission to 15 total...and rumor has it that President got a call from Headquarters that we'll be getting twenty more sisters! At first we thought that meant we'd be getting a group of temple square sisters, but apparently not! Supposedly they're twenty brand new, full time sisters! We're assuming we're getting them over time over the next few transfers; we're not sure if these 3 are part of that 20 or not, but it's exciting either way! Though it will make guessing where we're all getting transferred harder, haha! Though now I have to worry if more sisters' bike areas are going to be opened....

Our "new contacts" didn't go as well this week, but we were still able to find new investigators. We started teaching an older lady that we tracted into. She's a little senile. She's very funny, but very sweet! The Elders also came to help out in our area for a little bit and they found a gang-banger dude that we were able to have a lesson with. He was interesting. We'll see if we get another lesson with him...

We had sisters exchanges this past week, so I got the items you bought for me at Disneyland. Thanks so much!

On Saturday we went to a baptism for a couple in the branch we share a building with. This branch hasn't had a convert baptism in a VERY long time; there is a church up here that has a very strong base in their area, so it's very hard for the Elders to find people to teach. They have three children, ages 5, 3 and 1. It was a really special day for the branch. President Wilson also showed up (even though he missed the actual baptism part because of traffic). It was nice to see him support this family and the elders that have been teaching them!

Later that evening we went to our stakes' Pioneer Day dutch-oven cook out. Only one of our investigators came, of all those that said they'd try to make it, but he seemed to be having a good time. This was Eric, our investigator on date for Aug. 6; he came with his girlfriend and her family.

Yesterday our ward Young Women's president asked us to teach her lesson (it was actually our "trade off" to teach her lesson, since she gave us a ride to the stake center Saturday night). We taught on obedience. Our ward only has 4 young women, and only 2 were there yesterday. We really need to find teenage girls to teach! We do have an in-active, part-member family, where the mom is a member but her daughters (15 and 13) were never baptized. The mom is really open to us coming to visit; though their schedule is really hectic with the summer and everything. We have an appointment with them this coming week, so HOPEFULLY we can start teaching them...finally!!

We're living in an apartment now. It's conveniently located right next door to the church building, and it smells kinda funky. Elders haven't lived there for over a year...you'd think we could get rid of the smell! ;) haha Really it's just that we live in cow central. Nowhere smells exceptionally good. Because we don't live with members, that means we are getting ready for apartment inspections by the housing coordinators this coming week. We had fun re-decorating our apartment; we re-arranged our living room furniture and we cut out the pictures from some old pamphlets and pass along cards that had the wrong missionary info on them and made a delightful collage on our living room wall. We probably had more fun making a collage of Christ pictures than any normal person would have, but we're missionaries, so we decided it was okay.


Love you all! Have a fantastic week!
Sister Heather Holdsworth