It gets worse before it gets better!

Good Morning Family!!

What a wonderful day today it is...it is a whole 50 degrees outside and I am dying...! What am I going to do when I get home and it hits winter...? But it is supposed to be warming up this weekend. So fingers crossed! 

This past week was SOO, SOO much better. Like 3x better than the first 2 weeks put together. We had a great week of meeting and having lessons with our investigators and finding new people to teach!

((left) Me on the slack line! it was kinda hard, but a good challenge! (Right) Zip line!)

(Swinging)

Monday- Well, the Zone Activity that we had was SUPER fun! We went to this backyard giant play ground! It was cool! They also had a trampoline so I got to jump and flip on that. I was in heaven for sure! But, my body was hurting later..haha. That night we had a lesson with Miguel and we read more in the Book of Mormon and helped him see the importance of daily reading. We then had our other appts cancelled, so we went to a potential named Mary, and she was home! And she had her friend there, so we got to teach her and her friend! We then stopped by a members house, and invited her to a lesson we had with an investigator. 

Tuesday- We headed over to the soup kitchen and did service there, but guess what?! NO one showed up to volunteer in the kitchen, so Hna Soto and I took care of the WHOLE kitchen by ourselves!! Stressful?...just a tad! We then passed by a members, Hna Rodriguez, and shared a short message with her. And then we headed to a different street and contacted until dinner time. After dinner we passed by another members house and shared a message about the lost sheep parable in Luke 15. I love this parable, because we, at one point in life, have been lost, but others and the Savior can help us come back to the fold and be happy and safe. After that we had a lesson with Sheila and her family. We are starting to do a 5 week program with some active families, less active families, and recent converts in the branch. The program is to help them feel more comfortable sharing the gospel with their friends and family. We did a role play with Sheila and her family about sharing the message of the Restoration in 3 minutes. That was a blast!

Wednesday- Was a busy busy day! We had a lesson with Rosaura in the morning and we talked about the importance of baptism and we set her with a baptismal date for March 21, right before she heads back to Mexico. We then had a lesson with Rosemary and we talked about the power of fasting and prayer. And we talked to her about how she is feeling about baptism, and she still feels good about it, so we decided to pray with her and help her pick a date. While praying she felt sometime in March, so then we prayed again, and she felt the 28th of March, so we prayed one last time to have her confirm for that date and she just smiled and said "yes, this is the day"! The spirit was really strong in that lesson and we were so happy! We hope and pray that she will be baptized at the end of March! After that lesson we did a bit of contacting before our lesson with Aida. With Aida we taught about the importance of going to church, praying and reading. We call this CPR - just as CPR revives your heart when you stop breathing, going to church, praying and reading revive your spirit when it is down. Aida then told us that she wanted to come to church! So we hope to see her on Sunday! We then ate a quick dinner and headed to a lesson we had scheduled with a potential named Andres. He was waiting for us to come when we got there! Who does that?? We taught him the Restoration and he had a few questions but committed to read the Book of Mormon. And lastly we visited the Alvarez family because Hna Soto hadn't met them yet, and we talked and then shared the parable of the lost sheep. 

Thursday- We didn't have such a busy day, but our appt with Rosaura got cancelled, so we tried to visit a couple of Hna Arnold's friends that she wants to share the gospel with, but none were home. We then sat outside on our balcony and planned in the sun! It felt so good to feel the sun on my skin. That night we stopped by Enrique and Claudia to see what was going on because we haven't seem them in 2 weeks. Enrique was sleeping, but we got to talk to Claudia for a bit and see how she is feeling. She told us that she isn't ready to commit and change religions, but would still like to learn. It was good to see her and she what she was feeling. That night we headed over to Pedro's and did the 5 week program with him and it was so much fun!! He was getting mad cause we were quizzing him on the lesson, but he got to role play and practice sharing the gospel. I am sure I say this about Pedro every time we have a lesson with him, but he is so awesome!! He is growing and everything!

(Hna Meacham and Hna Flood on exchanges)

Friday- We headed to District meeting and I had the training for it and I talked first about being personable, with all that we come in contact with- so smiling, being open, asking questions, and the most important, listening. Listening is key and if we don't listen to our investigators or members, then they wont be as open to telling us what they are thinking or feeling. And then the other thing I trained on was attitude. Now, I always feel like when you are assigned a talk in training, it is more for you then those you are teaching...haha. But I talked about how we need to have that positive attitude all the time in missionary work, we are doing the Lord's work, that should give us joy right!? What I like to think is, "happy attitude = good things to come." After lunch we started our exchange with Hna Meacham and Hna Flood. I was with Hna Flood and we started the day out with contacting. We met this guy named Tino and we talked with him for like 45 minutes about church and the gospel. We are planning on going back for sure! We then contacted a bit more before we went to dinner, and then after dinner we stopped by a former investigator's and talked to her for a little bit and made an appt with her! Then we had a lesson with Maria Morelos and we taught about the Atonement and what it can do for us in our lives right now. It was a good lesson where our Spanish was being tested for sure! haha. Lastly we went to a lesson with the Valdez family and did the 5 week program with them as well.

Saturday- We got out and contacted a little bit, and then the Hermana's left to go back to their area, and we contacted for the afternoon. Before dinner the bike elders in our branch did a blitz in our area and helped us find a couple more people to teach and talk to. After dinner we passed by Hna Paty and talked to her about family history work, had correlation, and then tried to visit a couple investigator, but none were home.

Sunday- Aida came to church!! And she loved it! We were so happy she came. After church we had a lesson with the Rasch family and started the 5 week program with them as well, and it was really fun to watch them do role plays and to practice sharing the gospel with their friends. After that we did a bit of contacting and talked to a few people. Later that night we visited the Rojas family and shared with them what this 5 week program is all about and invited them to do it as well, and then we shared a quick message with them. 

All in all it was a much better week! We are excited for this week! We have exchanges and interviews with President. So, it should be fun!

I love and miss you all tons!

Can you believe that I only have 5 months left...NOT COOL! haha. But "come what may and love it" right? I just gotta love and cherish every moment here. 

I hope all is well with you! Stay warm and we will talk next week!

Love, Hermana Aase