Week 31

Hola Familia!

So with a holiday yesterday the libraries were closed so we get to email today.  What another fantastic week to be a missionary.  We had a lot of neat experiences come our way this week.  Plus since we had a little extra time yesterday we also had a crazy fun P-day!  Hmmm where to begin?  So yesterday we started our P-day going to get Hna Mitchell's hair cut.  She has super long hair, but decided to cut it off because it is just too hot down here!  So we went from hair place to hair place trying to find one that was open.  We finally saw a sign that said Brenda's hair, walk in's welcome and so we didn't have to worry about which place would be best because there really was only one option.  It actually turned out great.  Hna Mitchell donated two braids to locks of love and she has a super cute bob/A-line.  I was happy because I marked off one of the things on my district movie bucket list.  (The District are DVDs of missionaries doing missionary work that people can watch on BYU TV or online I think).  Anyway there is one scene where the missionary talks about family history while getting his haircut, so now I have talked about missionary work in a barber shop and one of the ladies wants the missionaries to stop by and teach her a little more, so we were excited.  Then after getting her haircut we still had tons of time, so we decided to go up the tramway here in the Franklin Mountains.  It was a beautiful view of El Paso, New Mexico and Mexico.  We had to be careful about our skirts because it was super windy up on top of the mountain ridge, but we had a great time.  One of the thing's I love about being a missionary are the random people who talk to you and then they say something in the first five seconds and you go, wait a second - you're a mormon aren't you?!  That happened on the way back down the mountain.  The park ranger asked, "so is it your P-day?"  We said "yep what ward are you in?"  He was in 5th ward.  The funny thing was he actually served his mission in Washington (Eastern Washington, but still pretty close).  That was funny because just the other day we were out at about 8:40 at night and we didn't want to return early, so we went over and started talking with this lady who was outside her house.  As we were talking this cop car slowly pulled up behind us and I glanced at it, but didn't think anything of it.  Then it pulled slowly to the side and for one split second I saw us being hauled off to jail for talking to people on the streets and having the Elders come bail us out.  We turned and said yes officer?  He then said have you seen 5 women and a baby stroller?  We said we hadn't (we couldn't imagine why they would be looking for 5 women and baby stroller!)  Then the officer said, so sisters how's the work going.  We said fine and the little "I bet he's LDS bell" started ringing .  Then he asked us what ward we were in and we told him and asked what ward he was in.  He lives on the westside, so in my old area.  Sometimes it's so funny being a missionary because I feel like I am living in one of the "I'm a mormon videos"  We're just walking along preaching the gospel and then a random person walks up and says "Hi! I'm a park ranger and I'm a mormon!" or "Hi! I'm a police officer and I'm a mormon!"  I love that feeling that we are all connected by the Church even if we've never met or if we live on opposite sides of the world.  So then to end our P-day we played basketball with the zone.  Two other sisters in our zone came and played too.  The funniest thing about playing basketball with Elders is how careful they are.  It's like there is an hermana forcefield and when you get the ball they all back-up 3 steps.  We can practically walk up to the basket!  So when there are more sisters, we have someone guarding us at least, so it's not that easy.

During the week we had several little miracles.  This week at least 3 times we had experiences where we felt like we needed to go back or visit a person and because of that we had an opportunity to teach or serve.  The first one was last Monday.  We went to contact a person that we had talked to the week before.  When we arrived she didn't have any time, so we got back in the truck and started to drive to our next plan.  There had been two men working out on their porch and after we had gone a few blocks we felt like we needed to go back and talk to those two men.  We returned and when we got out of the truck we didn't see the two men anymore, but there was a woman outside working on her plants.  We started talking to her and after a half and hour and a short introduction to the gospel she wanted to learn more.   The following saturday we had an excellent lesson with her and she wants to read and find out for herself if the Book of Mormon is true.  That is one thing that is so wonderful and unique about our message.  We invite everyone to ask God if what we are saying is true and we know that through the Holy Ghost a person can know what we're saying is true.  People don't have to believe us they just need to be willing to ask.  So now we are teaching her and are really excited to see her progress and learn more about the gospel.  Then when we went to talk to the two men they weren't interested at all.  We now know that when we felt prompted to return it wasn't for those two men, but for the neighbor next door.  We had a similar thing occur on Saturday night.  It was around 7:30 and we were trying to figure out what to do, so we decided to pray and ask Heavenly Father who we should visit.  The name that came strongly to mind was a less active member.  When we went over to her house she was in the process of moving and she actually needed our help to load things into the truck and then unload in her new apartment.  Another little testimony builder that the Lord knows us and he will help put us in the right place at the right time.  The third experience we had this week was with one of our investigators.  We had been trying to visit her, but she kept being gone.  It was around 8:30 when we drove by her cousin's house to see if her car was there, it wasn't.  So we drove over to her house and she wasn't there.  We weren't really sure what we would be able to do with so little time, so we were debating on just going back to the apartment early and maybe look through the area book to find people we would want to visit the next day, when the name of a couple in our ward popped into our heads.  We decided that we would stop by and share a brief message and ask if they had anyone they would like us to teach.  We checked their address and they just happened to live on the same street as Maria's cousin and as we were driving by, Maria was just getting out of her car.  We were able to pull over and help her carry in her groceries and then share a message with her and her cousin who has invited us back to teach her as well.  What a special blessing that the Lord helped us to find the person we wanted to visit by taking us to the very street she would be on.  I love all the special blessings that I receive as a missionary.  I am so grateful to know that the Lord knows each and every one of us and that he loves us.  Being a missionary I get to witness first hand how aware the Lord really is as he directs us to the places and people where we can do the most good.  I hope everyone has a great week.  I love you all so much!

Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus