hello everyone.
this has been a really long week. i think because so much happened in it. it should have been enough to have lasted us a month.
transfers happened and we got a new sister in our apartment named sister bevan. she came from my old area in laredo so she was able to give me updates on everybody. i love frank and jesus! the two brothers who got baptized the week after i left.. they are the sweetest. they sent me a note with her. apparently they have both read the book of mormon like three times now. they are preparing to serve missions. and are just awesome. and i guess all of these things that we would do with them have started a tradition. like my last night with them we took a picture by this dead end sign by their house, and now they do it with every missionary that leaves. and they still go to wendy's every wednesday. they're so cute. it's been nice to have someone to talk laredo with.
sister petersen and i found the most awesome people this week. isaac and his grandma. we first started teaching isaac. he, like nearly everybody in the valley, has had a pretty sketchy life. when he was 12 years old he was high and on shrooms and crashed a four wheeler into a trailer home and was in a coma for 3 months. enough said. anyway, we had this amazing lesson with him about the savior and forgiveness. after we shared this powerful scripture with him, he tooked out his pack of cigarettes, looked at it, looked at us, and then asked us if he could give to us. he said, "i don't need these. i don't want to smoke them anymore." he hasn't smoked one since. it's been six days. he still has a problem with the marijuana, but he is trying to quit. he is amazing. the next time we came over we had a great lesson about repentance. his grandma sat in on it. she cried. she has had an equally rough life and wants to change. we love them. we are going to work hard with them to help them overcome all of their addictions and change their lives around. they are so sweet and willing.
sister bustillos and sister call went home this week. i am suddenly becoming one of the oldest sisters in the mission. five of my seven companions have gone home now, if you count sister carlos who is home on medical leave. it's pretty crazy. where does the time go?
anyway, this week we started this "purification challenge" that our district leader challenged us all to do. we thought of all the things that distract us from the work and decided to cut them out of our lives for forty days. he promised miracles. we're already starting to see miracles in that we randomly may have a baptism this week. this young boy who's parents are coming out of inactivity (they've been back for four months now) will probably get baptized this sunday. we just met him yesterday and his parents said they need to get him baptized. he's so cute. he's been coming to primary and everything so we don't really need to teach him anything. hah.
well. i am out of time. hope you are all doing well. until next week..
xoxo
me
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Exciting News
hello people.
this was a week of exciting news.
exciting news number 1:
sister petersen and i will be staying together for another transfer. yay! this is the first time that has happened to me since sister kellett. looks like i finally get to stick around and see some of the fruits of my labor. we're excited.
exciting news number 2:
the church is growing down here! we had a special sacrament meeting with the hidalgo 1st ward (my old spanish ward from mission), my ward now, and another ward. they made a brand new ward and split some wards and changed boundaries and it's awesome. they are buying land to build another chapel that is actually IN mission, since we go to mcallen and la jolla everywhere BUT mission. the other cool part about it is that there are now more spanish wards than english. 5 spanish, 4 english in the stake. i love the hispanic people.
exciting news number 3:
remember my favorite family, the elizondos? the guy who got deported and put in jail from my old mission ward? well with the new ward boundaries, they are going to be in my ward! so i get to see them every sunday again and take them out to lessons with us and everything. i am very happy about that.
we found a cool guy this week named michael. he is 23. he has had a sketchy past... surprise surprise. he has been in and out of jail since he was 17... he just got kicked out of the army last year because he punched his sergeant in the nose and broke it. he has a five year old son that he doesn't get to see very often. anyway, he's really trying to change his life around. he loves the book of mormon. he's read a lot of it. we set a baptismal date with him for the 14th of november. we're hoping things will work out with him. he's a good kid.
anyway, i think that's about all i've got for this week. hope this email finds you all happy and safe.
love,
me
this was a week of exciting news.
exciting news number 1:
sister petersen and i will be staying together for another transfer. yay! this is the first time that has happened to me since sister kellett. looks like i finally get to stick around and see some of the fruits of my labor. we're excited.
exciting news number 2:
the church is growing down here! we had a special sacrament meeting with the hidalgo 1st ward (my old spanish ward from mission), my ward now, and another ward. they made a brand new ward and split some wards and changed boundaries and it's awesome. they are buying land to build another chapel that is actually IN mission, since we go to mcallen and la jolla everywhere BUT mission. the other cool part about it is that there are now more spanish wards than english. 5 spanish, 4 english in the stake. i love the hispanic people.
exciting news number 3:
remember my favorite family, the elizondos? the guy who got deported and put in jail from my old mission ward? well with the new ward boundaries, they are going to be in my ward! so i get to see them every sunday again and take them out to lessons with us and everything. i am very happy about that.
we found a cool guy this week named michael. he is 23. he has had a sketchy past... surprise surprise. he has been in and out of jail since he was 17... he just got kicked out of the army last year because he punched his sergeant in the nose and broke it. he has a five year old son that he doesn't get to see very often. anyway, he's really trying to change his life around. he loves the book of mormon. he's read a lot of it. we set a baptismal date with him for the 14th of november. we're hoping things will work out with him. he's a good kid.
anyway, i think that's about all i've got for this week. hope this email finds you all happy and safe.
love,
me
Monday, October 11, 2010
A Slippery Serpent
happy columbus day to all!
the temperature is dropping here down south. it's been even as cold as the 70s in the mornings when we get up to go running. such drastic climate changes have put me under the weather.. i've got a mad 'grippa' (cold) and it has not been fun. who would have known that my body would adjust to being in the scorching heat for so long and get a cold when it's in the 70s. weak.
i seem to have gained my first 2 pounds of mission weight. i held strong for ten months, but i think i've just had one too many desserts at members houses. i am making a plan of action to shed them though. although it's time to gain a little extra and go into hibernation for winter time, right?
well, this week was a week of opposition. all of the people we've been so happy about have slowly been dropping off the radar like flies. i'm learning a lot about the lord's timing. sometimes we just want to see the miracles happen while we're here, but it's not always god's way and sometimes we have to wait. maybe i won't even see the miracles happen with some of these people. but that's okay. we just know that we are doing our best and it's all in their hands to have faith and make good decisions with the knowledge and experience they have. sigh. i hate patience.
anyway.. we have one week left of the transfer. i can't believe it went by so fast. we'll see what changes they throw my way this time. there's not much else to report on this week. we'll hopefully find some new cool people these next few days.
OH. me and sister petersen almost got attacked by a rattle snake. we were knocking doors down this kind of sketchy dirt road (successfully though because we found a family of investigators) but to get back to a main road we had to go through a field of grass. let's just say we heard rattling and saw grass moving and we froze. then we decided to run. it wasn't very funny when it was happening, but now it's pretty funny to think about. don't worry, mom. we learned our lesson and will not run through sketchy fields anymore.. no matter how much of a shortcut it is.
que les pasan bien!xoxo
me
the temperature is dropping here down south. it's been even as cold as the 70s in the mornings when we get up to go running. such drastic climate changes have put me under the weather.. i've got a mad 'grippa' (cold) and it has not been fun. who would have known that my body would adjust to being in the scorching heat for so long and get a cold when it's in the 70s. weak.
i seem to have gained my first 2 pounds of mission weight. i held strong for ten months, but i think i've just had one too many desserts at members houses. i am making a plan of action to shed them though. although it's time to gain a little extra and go into hibernation for winter time, right?
well, this week was a week of opposition. all of the people we've been so happy about have slowly been dropping off the radar like flies. i'm learning a lot about the lord's timing. sometimes we just want to see the miracles happen while we're here, but it's not always god's way and sometimes we have to wait. maybe i won't even see the miracles happen with some of these people. but that's okay. we just know that we are doing our best and it's all in their hands to have faith and make good decisions with the knowledge and experience they have. sigh. i hate patience.
anyway.. we have one week left of the transfer. i can't believe it went by so fast. we'll see what changes they throw my way this time. there's not much else to report on this week. we'll hopefully find some new cool people these next few days.
OH. me and sister petersen almost got attacked by a rattle snake. we were knocking doors down this kind of sketchy dirt road (successfully though because we found a family of investigators) but to get back to a main road we had to go through a field of grass. let's just say we heard rattling and saw grass moving and we froze. then we decided to run. it wasn't very funny when it was happening, but now it's pretty funny to think about. don't worry, mom. we learned our lesson and will not run through sketchy fields anymore.. no matter how much of a shortcut it is.
que les pasan bien!xoxo
me
Monday, October 4, 2010
Great story
hello everybody.
i am going to copy and paste the email that i wrote
to my president this week, because you all should know the story too.
it's the story of the fifteen year old on probation that i mentioned
last week, but i didn't share the details because i was too busy
sharing the other story. i got chastised this week in my interview
with president trayner for not sharing this story in my letter to him.
"hello, hello. so, as requested, here is the story of azalea:
it's neat to look at it from the two different sides, now and in thef uture. from our side: the night before it happened, we were planning and i was looking at the map to find a street to contact. this one neighborhood in the bottom far away corner of our area stood out to me. i asked sister petersen about it and she said she couldn't remember ever contacting it. so we decided to go to it first thing in the morning. when we pulled into the neighborhood, sister petersen realized that she had just recently contacted almost that whole neighborhood just weeks before with sister smith. but since we already made the trip out there, we decided to contact this one little street that they hadn't hit. and then of course it was the last door on the street that the miracle happened. we knock on the door and a very sleepy looking fifteen year old girl answered the door. we had just woken her up. we got to know her alittle and then told her that we share a message about jesus christ and how we can strengthen our family relationships by living the things that he has taught us. we said that, still not knowing mucha bout her. she let us in, and we sat down and talked about the doctrine of christ.
Her side: she told us that just the night before she had stayed up half of the night crying and praying, and asking for things to get better with her relationship with her mom. azalea has been locked up three times, and is on probation, and she and her mom do not have a very good relationship. she expressed to us that she even had thoughts of suicide, and that is what brought her to be praying so desperately. we were able to promise her that through jesus christ things with her family could be better. she could be forgiven of all those past things she's done and start a new life. she could have god's spirit with her to guide her and help her make good decisions. that even if things with her family never improve, she has heavenly parents who would always be there for her. we set a baptismal date with her for the 31st of october. she has been reading in her book of mormon and been preparing for that day.
at times like these i know that the spirit of our father in heaven really is here in mcallen and is truly preparing people to receive us, and preparing us to find them. all miracles aside, this week was kind of disappointing (not discouraging). azalea didn't come to conference and we had to drop two of our investigators with baptismal dates. but it's okay. we have faith and we will find more and help the ones we have..."
this week we found caleb at his parents home alone, doing the deed with his girlfriend. it was really awkward and i'd rather not re-hash the details. hah. but we had a "you need to get off the fence and make a decision about something...anything.. or there is nothing else wec an help you with" lesson with him. it was sad but it went well. he is really thinking and meditating on his life and if he wants to choose to be happy or choose to keep getting into trouble all the time. we're hoping that with some time alone to think he'll figure his life out.
anyhoo. general conference was great. i hope everybody enjoyed it. i am running out of time. hope everyone is happy and healthy and well.
until next week.
brittany
i am going to copy and paste the email that i wrote
to my president this week, because you all should know the story too.
it's the story of the fifteen year old on probation that i mentioned
last week, but i didn't share the details because i was too busy
sharing the other story. i got chastised this week in my interview
with president trayner for not sharing this story in my letter to him.
"hello, hello. so, as requested, here is the story of azalea:
it's neat to look at it from the two different sides, now and in thef uture. from our side: the night before it happened, we were planning and i was looking at the map to find a street to contact. this one neighborhood in the bottom far away corner of our area stood out to me. i asked sister petersen about it and she said she couldn't remember ever contacting it. so we decided to go to it first thing in the morning. when we pulled into the neighborhood, sister petersen realized that she had just recently contacted almost that whole neighborhood just weeks before with sister smith. but since we already made the trip out there, we decided to contact this one little street that they hadn't hit. and then of course it was the last door on the street that the miracle happened. we knock on the door and a very sleepy looking fifteen year old girl answered the door. we had just woken her up. we got to know her alittle and then told her that we share a message about jesus christ and how we can strengthen our family relationships by living the things that he has taught us. we said that, still not knowing mucha bout her. she let us in, and we sat down and talked about the doctrine of christ.
Her side: she told us that just the night before she had stayed up half of the night crying and praying, and asking for things to get better with her relationship with her mom. azalea has been locked up three times, and is on probation, and she and her mom do not have a very good relationship. she expressed to us that she even had thoughts of suicide, and that is what brought her to be praying so desperately. we were able to promise her that through jesus christ things with her family could be better. she could be forgiven of all those past things she's done and start a new life. she could have god's spirit with her to guide her and help her make good decisions. that even if things with her family never improve, she has heavenly parents who would always be there for her. we set a baptismal date with her for the 31st of october. she has been reading in her book of mormon and been preparing for that day.
at times like these i know that the spirit of our father in heaven really is here in mcallen and is truly preparing people to receive us, and preparing us to find them. all miracles aside, this week was kind of disappointing (not discouraging). azalea didn't come to conference and we had to drop two of our investigators with baptismal dates. but it's okay. we have faith and we will find more and help the ones we have..."
this week we found caleb at his parents home alone, doing the deed with his girlfriend. it was really awkward and i'd rather not re-hash the details. hah. but we had a "you need to get off the fence and make a decision about something...anything.. or there is nothing else wec an help you with" lesson with him. it was sad but it went well. he is really thinking and meditating on his life and if he wants to choose to be happy or choose to keep getting into trouble all the time. we're hoping that with some time alone to think he'll figure his life out.
anyhoo. general conference was great. i hope everybody enjoyed it. i am running out of time. hope everyone is happy and healthy and well.
until next week.
brittany
Monday, September 27, 2010
Miracles
hello everybody!
i am staying nice and cool here in texas. yes, that's right. we got a cold front this week. so instead of being 96 all day every day it's going to be in the high 80's. i may need a jacket so i don't freeze.
this was a week of miracles! there is this girl named genesis that we are teaching. in fact, missionaries have been teaching her since the beginning of may. she origanally was going to get baptized the first week in june, but her mom wouldn't let her. she's 17, so she needs parental permission. apparently after asking a few different times, after a fast by the whole young womens in the ward, and lots of praying, mom still wouldn't budge. so finally we decided to try and talk to her. miracle number one was that she showed up one night while we were over with genesis. usually her mom is ALWAYS working. the missionaries had only met her twice in the whole 4.5 month period of teaching her. so anyway, she shows up. we help her carry some groceries in. we ask her if we can set up an appointment to visit with her. she said yes. that was miracle number two. so after a couple days the appointment rolls around. she was actually home. that was another miracle. we then just laid it all out. that genesis wanted to get baptized and that we wanted to share with her what we've shared with genesis so that she can understand a little better why it is genesis has been willingly making these changes in her life and coming to church and early morning seminary and youth temple trips even though she couldn't go inside the temple. we taught a little bit to her mom and she completely opened up to us. told us her whole life story. she's had a very tough life. she also expressed her concerns about her daughter joining the church. they were all pretty much misconceptions. she thought that the second she got baptized we would send her off to some foreign country to be a missionary and she'd never see her again. she thought that her daughter wouldn't be able to get a job or do any of the things that she wanted to do in her life. so, two hours and many tears later she finally agreed to let genesis be baptized. she got baptized this weekend, her mom came to it and it was beautiful. her mom sadly expressed that she does not believe in an afterlife and that no book or saying a prayer could ever make her believe otherwise. so teaching her right now isn't much of an option. but i know that with time genesis' example will have a big impressionon her mom and one day she'll find a little more happiness to her life as well.
we have added more troubled youth to our teaching agenda. one girl who we found this week is 15 and has been locked up three times. she is hopefully getting baptized in november (it will take longer because she's on probation and there's lots of paper work and meeting with her parole officer involved) but she is awesome.
anyway. i'm out of time and p-day is a burnin'. today we are trying out a new thai food restaurant to celebrate the baptism. hope you are all doing well!
love,me
i am staying nice and cool here in texas. yes, that's right. we got a cold front this week. so instead of being 96 all day every day it's going to be in the high 80's. i may need a jacket so i don't freeze.
this was a week of miracles! there is this girl named genesis that we are teaching. in fact, missionaries have been teaching her since the beginning of may. she origanally was going to get baptized the first week in june, but her mom wouldn't let her. she's 17, so she needs parental permission. apparently after asking a few different times, after a fast by the whole young womens in the ward, and lots of praying, mom still wouldn't budge. so finally we decided to try and talk to her. miracle number one was that she showed up one night while we were over with genesis. usually her mom is ALWAYS working. the missionaries had only met her twice in the whole 4.5 month period of teaching her. so anyway, she shows up. we help her carry some groceries in. we ask her if we can set up an appointment to visit with her. she said yes. that was miracle number two. so after a couple days the appointment rolls around. she was actually home. that was another miracle. we then just laid it all out. that genesis wanted to get baptized and that we wanted to share with her what we've shared with genesis so that she can understand a little better why it is genesis has been willingly making these changes in her life and coming to church and early morning seminary and youth temple trips even though she couldn't go inside the temple. we taught a little bit to her mom and she completely opened up to us. told us her whole life story. she's had a very tough life. she also expressed her concerns about her daughter joining the church. they were all pretty much misconceptions. she thought that the second she got baptized we would send her off to some foreign country to be a missionary and she'd never see her again. she thought that her daughter wouldn't be able to get a job or do any of the things that she wanted to do in her life. so, two hours and many tears later she finally agreed to let genesis be baptized. she got baptized this weekend, her mom came to it and it was beautiful. her mom sadly expressed that she does not believe in an afterlife and that no book or saying a prayer could ever make her believe otherwise. so teaching her right now isn't much of an option. but i know that with time genesis' example will have a big impressionon her mom and one day she'll find a little more happiness to her life as well.
we have added more troubled youth to our teaching agenda. one girl who we found this week is 15 and has been locked up three times. she is hopefully getting baptized in november (it will take longer because she's on probation and there's lots of paper work and meeting with her parole officer involved) but she is awesome.
anyway. i'm out of time and p-day is a burnin'. today we are trying out a new thai food restaurant to celebrate the baptism. hope you are all doing well!
love,me
Monday, September 20, 2010
Humbled
hello, hello.
this was a long and eventful week. first of all, we had a conference with elder richards from the quorum of the seventy. it was awesome. the theme of the conference was becoming a tool in the hands of the lord. it really built up my faith and confidence and helped my love for the work grow. second of all, we found some really neat people this week, and set three baptismal dates with people for october. caleb is doing alright. we taught him the word of wisdom and he has been having a hard time quitting smoking, so we are really going to try and support him through that this week. sister petersen and i have had some really good lessons this week. really powerful ones where we could just feel the spirit working through us and we've seen lots of good things happen. i continue to feel humbled and tried as i have no idea what i'm doing as far as missionary work goes, and neither does sister petersen. but i think we're running off of pure faith fumes and it's working well for us.
did i tell you all about the crazy old guy investigator named oscar? he's really adorable actually. he's like 84 and he made us pancakes the first time we went over to visit him. he has a few screws loose. he wants to get baptized but he won't quit breaking the word of wisdom to do it. nevertheless, he comes to church every sunday and argues with the sunday school teachers and wreaks havoc. he's very sweet though and the people are patient with him because they know he's not quite all the way there. he calls and says weird things like, "yo quiero casarme con dios" which means i want to marry myself with god." hah. adorable. slash crazy. but we love him.
anyway, i am running out of time but i hope everybody is doing well this week. until next time..
love, brittany
this was a long and eventful week. first of all, we had a conference with elder richards from the quorum of the seventy. it was awesome. the theme of the conference was becoming a tool in the hands of the lord. it really built up my faith and confidence and helped my love for the work grow. second of all, we found some really neat people this week, and set three baptismal dates with people for october. caleb is doing alright. we taught him the word of wisdom and he has been having a hard time quitting smoking, so we are really going to try and support him through that this week. sister petersen and i have had some really good lessons this week. really powerful ones where we could just feel the spirit working through us and we've seen lots of good things happen. i continue to feel humbled and tried as i have no idea what i'm doing as far as missionary work goes, and neither does sister petersen. but i think we're running off of pure faith fumes and it's working well for us.
did i tell you all about the crazy old guy investigator named oscar? he's really adorable actually. he's like 84 and he made us pancakes the first time we went over to visit him. he has a few screws loose. he wants to get baptized but he won't quit breaking the word of wisdom to do it. nevertheless, he comes to church every sunday and argues with the sunday school teachers and wreaks havoc. he's very sweet though and the people are patient with him because they know he's not quite all the way there. he calls and says weird things like, "yo quiero casarme con dios" which means i want to marry myself with god." hah. adorable. slash crazy. but we love him.
anyway, i am running out of time but i hope everybody is doing well this week. until next time..
love, brittany
Monday, September 13, 2010
Another great week :)
hello mis queridos!
this was a looong week of finding people to teach. but i would say we had some success. since we're both so new here, we decided the best plan of action would be to look through the former investigator records and go back to people and find less active members. so we were on a hunt most of this week. it was great because we hardly found anybody that we were initially looking for, but as we were actively searching and going about a good cause, we found other prepared people that were placed in our way. at one point we were clear up in the middle of the country in this trailer park and we were seaching for a less active family whose lot number we didn't have. we just decided to knock on every door. we met a sweet girl named dulce. she is 22 and has a two year old son. she and her boyfriend live in a tiny little trailer. she was doing the dishes and we helped her clean. she was able to open up to us about her beliefs in god and how she wants the best for her son and doesn't want him to grow up in gangs or violence and drugs like so many people around here do. she expressed her desires to get back to a church and strengthen her relationship with god. we were able to testify of the gospel and how following jesus christ is the best thing for a family and she asked us to come back and talk with her and her boyfriend this week. she is so sweet and humble and we are excited to work with them more. we were also able to teach a girl named steffany. we were walking down a street, on the hunt for another less active member and we were awkwardly walking exactly the same speed and direction as somebody a good 15 feet in front of us. we decided we could either creepily follow them and not say anything or creepily speed up and harass them with our message. we decided on the latter and started talking to them. she turned out to be the neighbor of this girl who had just been baptized in our church that we didn't know had moved into our area. the conversation with this woman didn't go anywhere, but we did decide to stop by the recent convert and talk to her since now we knew where she lived. when we stopped by the house, recent convert wasn't home, but her sister who has been to church a couple of times and is just awesome was home. we taught her a lesson, gave her a book of mormon, and she is excited to learn more. we're meeting with her on tuesday.
i have a feeling my favorite family in this area is going to be the sanchez family. it's a husband, wife, and three kids who all got baptized in july. they are so amazing. they used to be doing drugs and crimes and had all sorts of problems but have now completely changed their lives around and are going to convert the whole neighborhood with them. well, brother sanchez has an 18 year old son named caleb from another marriage who was living in houston but just moved in with his dad this week. he wanted to leave houston because he was getting in a lot of trouble and wants to change his life around. go back to school. etc. so we taught him twice this week and he came to church and he is just awesome. brother and sister sanchez's testimonies are so strong and they have been such a help in their son's life and process of changing. he's praying about baptism and will hopefully be baptized in october.
anyway. this area is great. the members are awesome, we have at least one food appointment every single day this week. they are treating us well and we are figuring out how to work with the people here. i am continuing to love being a missionary and seeing the hand of the lord in people's lives daily. i know that he really is mindful of his people wherever they are and that we are all numbered to him. he loves us. i have been able to feel a tiny little glimpse of his love for others here in south texas. he is constantly preparing and humbling people to be ready to come unto christ. i know that we have never sinned too much to be able to turn around and come back to him. i know that we will never be able to pay back the things that he did for us, but as we have faith and repent and are baptized as he has asked we can find more happiness in our lives. i know that god answers every humble and honest prayer and that as we seek for truth and light we can find it. i know that today is the day to do it. i know that one day we can all return to live with the savior and jesus christ and i hope to be clean and spotless and have them welcome me into their arms. i know that every single person can have that. i hope that you are all doing well. thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
love,brittany
this was a looong week of finding people to teach. but i would say we had some success. since we're both so new here, we decided the best plan of action would be to look through the former investigator records and go back to people and find less active members. so we were on a hunt most of this week. it was great because we hardly found anybody that we were initially looking for, but as we were actively searching and going about a good cause, we found other prepared people that were placed in our way. at one point we were clear up in the middle of the country in this trailer park and we were seaching for a less active family whose lot number we didn't have. we just decided to knock on every door. we met a sweet girl named dulce. she is 22 and has a two year old son. she and her boyfriend live in a tiny little trailer. she was doing the dishes and we helped her clean. she was able to open up to us about her beliefs in god and how she wants the best for her son and doesn't want him to grow up in gangs or violence and drugs like so many people around here do. she expressed her desires to get back to a church and strengthen her relationship with god. we were able to testify of the gospel and how following jesus christ is the best thing for a family and she asked us to come back and talk with her and her boyfriend this week. she is so sweet and humble and we are excited to work with them more. we were also able to teach a girl named steffany. we were walking down a street, on the hunt for another less active member and we were awkwardly walking exactly the same speed and direction as somebody a good 15 feet in front of us. we decided we could either creepily follow them and not say anything or creepily speed up and harass them with our message. we decided on the latter and started talking to them. she turned out to be the neighbor of this girl who had just been baptized in our church that we didn't know had moved into our area. the conversation with this woman didn't go anywhere, but we did decide to stop by the recent convert and talk to her since now we knew where she lived. when we stopped by the house, recent convert wasn't home, but her sister who has been to church a couple of times and is just awesome was home. we taught her a lesson, gave her a book of mormon, and she is excited to learn more. we're meeting with her on tuesday.
i have a feeling my favorite family in this area is going to be the sanchez family. it's a husband, wife, and three kids who all got baptized in july. they are so amazing. they used to be doing drugs and crimes and had all sorts of problems but have now completely changed their lives around and are going to convert the whole neighborhood with them. well, brother sanchez has an 18 year old son named caleb from another marriage who was living in houston but just moved in with his dad this week. he wanted to leave houston because he was getting in a lot of trouble and wants to change his life around. go back to school. etc. so we taught him twice this week and he came to church and he is just awesome. brother and sister sanchez's testimonies are so strong and they have been such a help in their son's life and process of changing. he's praying about baptism and will hopefully be baptized in october.
anyway. this area is great. the members are awesome, we have at least one food appointment every single day this week. they are treating us well and we are figuring out how to work with the people here. i am continuing to love being a missionary and seeing the hand of the lord in people's lives daily. i know that he really is mindful of his people wherever they are and that we are all numbered to him. he loves us. i have been able to feel a tiny little glimpse of his love for others here in south texas. he is constantly preparing and humbling people to be ready to come unto christ. i know that we have never sinned too much to be able to turn around and come back to him. i know that we will never be able to pay back the things that he did for us, but as we have faith and repent and are baptized as he has asked we can find more happiness in our lives. i know that god answers every humble and honest prayer and that as we seek for truth and light we can find it. i know that today is the day to do it. i know that one day we can all return to live with the savior and jesus christ and i hope to be clean and spotless and have them welcome me into their arms. i know that every single person can have that. i hope that you are all doing well. thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
love,brittany
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