Well that was unexpected!

Hello family!!

You have no idea how excited I am to write you. This past week has been one crazy adventure. Let me just say that!

Monday Was busy with packing and saying goodbye to members and taking pictures and all that good stuff that comes with leaving an area. I was really sad to leave - sad to leave the people and our new investigators and the nice breeze. But Bakersfield is where I am needed now and I can't wait to be there.

Tuesday we had to be to transfer meeting early and our car was packed to the brim with everything! Transfer meeting was good, but very unexpected...! So guess what!? I am in Bakersfield, but I am not in the are that I thought I was going to…I am in Buena Vista - FULL SPANISH and with Hermana Poole, who has only been out one transfer a head of me. I was shocked, but at the same time I was comforted about hearing where I was going. After the meeting we packed up the car and headed to the apt. Unpacked got some groceries and started working.  It was a miracle day, literally. We visited some potentials and one of them is named Omar. He has been hard to contact for the last few weeks, but when we went over he let us in and we taught him the first lesson, which went really well. Even the Spanish went well.  We then tried a different contact, which wasn't home, but as we walked back to our car there was a guy next door that was like "I have been waiting for you guys..." and Hermana Poole and I are thinking sweet!! This guy is prepared. So we start talking to him and explained who we were and what we do as missionaries and we gave him a Book of Mormon and made a return apt to go back. It was really neat! I like street contacting like that because they see you out working and they are more interested in who you are. OHH also…it was 117 DEGREES!!!! That was not expected at all…haha. I hope I can survive this heat!

Wednesday we had a good lesson with an older guy named Manuel. He is about 70ish and hilarious! And maybe a little crazy too, but we still love him. He has some opinions about things, but we are slowly helping him find the truth. We then did some service at the library putting books away and can I tell you that I am SOO THANKFUL for air conditioning…haha.  It was a nice break from the heat. We then did some more contacting and had another miracle lesson with a lady named Maria. She is religious, and really open to listening. So we taught her about the Restoration and left a Book of Mormon with her and set up her baptismal date! And then the rest of the night was full of some more knocking, which is always fun. OHH, and I didn't know Bakersfield was full of creepy ice cream trucks…haha. It is a goal of Hermana Poole and I's to get ice cream from there and take a picture of it, so be looking for that in the future!!

Thursday morning we did a service project with our district picking up trash on the side of the road. That was fun and we all got a little burnt! After showering and feeling all nice we started planning for the next week and the first week always takes the longest because sometimes one of the companions doesn't know a whole lot about the area and the investigators, so time is spent there filling in the other. So yeah! But we have a ton of lessons set up and we are planning on setting all of them with baptismal dates!! Something that we are learning about from our mission president is that we CAN have the faith to find, teach and baptize. You just need to put the Lord to the test! I believe this. It is hard, but it can be done :) Hermana Poole and I know that we can find, teach and baptize even with out using perfect Spanish! That night we had a lesson with some investigators and we taught about Faith and how important it is to continue to nourish and grow it and they really liked that chapter so we invited them to continue reading that.

Friday we had our district meeting and it was fun to meet the other missionaries in the district. They all serve here in Buena Vista and they are in the same ward with us too! So that is fun! We had a "surprise" lesson (surprise meaning we just show up without them knowing haha) and we taught an investigator Margarito. He is not keeping appointments, but he has read like half the Book of Mormon. It is hard to drop him, so we are going to keep surprising him! And then we had an interesting lesson with the guy that stopped us on Tuesday night. His name is Raul. He likes to talk…a lot. So we didn't get to yeah much of a lesson, but we got to know him pretty well and figure out some things that he believes in and questions he has. Later that night we had a lesson with a recent convert Connie. She is awesome and really has a strong testimony of the gospel. That night we contacted some more and had a miracle lesson with a family that let us in and we taught the mom and daughter and that went really good! And later we ran over to a less active to share a scripture with them. 

Saturday we had another lesson with Manuel and talked about the 10 commandments, and asked some questions that we think he is struggling with. After we did some more planning because we didn't finish from Thursday and then we headed out to contact some potentials, but Hermana Poole had a thought to go visit one of our referrals that we didn't get to contact earlier in the week. And guess what! HE WAS HOME! So we taught him the restoration and he wants to learn more and read more in the Bible and now the Book of Mormon, and so that was exciting! 

Sunday was good as always. I am actually glad to still be in a Spanish ward because I love the himnos (Spanish hymns), and the speakers. The Spanish is starting to come and the Lord is helping me everyday. After lunch/dinner with a less active we headed over to an investigators who has also been hard to contact and he was out in his garage and so we taught him and the lesson was good, my Spanish was not so good, but that is alright. I am still learning. 

This past week was amazing. I am exhausted and so ready for pday haha, but I love this area and the people here. I know that the more I am in Spanish and the more we teach and I open my mouth, it will be filled and my Spanish will come!

Hopefully I will survive the heat and won't die! haha. We have this trick where we freeze one bottle and then take another one and drink and refill it as the day goes by. It helps a lot!

I love you all and I miss you tons!

Talk to you later :)

prayer list- Connie, Margarito, Manuel, La familia Ruela, Manuel and Teresa, and Omar.

LOVE YOU!!

Hermana Aase