Week 68 - February 11, 2014

Buenas Tardes Familia!

How is everybody doing?!  I hear that my mother is posting falsehoods about how much time I have left!  Ignore the Facebook post!  I still have an eternity to serve!  :-)   I can hardly believe that my last transfer starts next week.  I am not really sure where the time has gone.  I am hoping I get to stay in Rio Grande with Hna Budge.  There is no reason to change us, so hopefully we will stay.

So we have had a fun week.  Where should I start...

I received a package Thursday last week from UPS so I had to sign for it.  The funny part was when I opened the door and he says I have a package for H-her-hermana.  Hehe people who don't speak spanish are funny when they think "sister" is my first name.  I just go with it and tell them it is pronounced Ermana.  Not sure what my mother was thinking giving me a name with a silent H on it.  Weird. :-)

So I hear that good old Washington was buried under snow this week.  I think it was last week that we had a tiny bit of snow, but nothing major.  It does however get cold at night even if we get to enjoy nice 60 degree days.  I have to tell you the sad story of the fishy.  As background, whenever my family has ever been slow to respond to an email I often send the following email "Fishy why are you sleeping?"  Usually they respond very promptly.  Well as I was on exchanges this week we went to this house and they had a pond.  A very cute little pond out in front of their house.  However, a tragedy occurred in that little fateful pond.  I have included a picture because I couldn't resist.  Two poor little fishies are sleeping never to answer again.  The pond froze and these little fishies in their attempt to escape didn't quite make it out and now are forever frozen there little fishy bodies stuck in the ice as a sad witness to all that ABQ can be cold at nights.  So no making fun of me for being a cold weather pansy.  It's so cold in ABQ that things meet their end!

The Fishies

Other than that I had a really good exchange.  I went to the singles ward with Hermana Morris.  That is the sister who's brother served in Ridgefield ward.  We had a good time and we taught some good lessons.  There was a little miracle involved with this exchange as well.  We were actually suppose to go on exchanges on Tuesday night, but I was sick so we had to reschedule.  We were planning on doing it this week, but then another companionship of sisters got sick on Thursday night, so we ended up doing it pretty last minute after zone conference on Friday.  The miracle was that on Friday night, Olga and her son Justin were getting baptized at the stake center.  I had been wishing that I could go, but even though it's in the zone, it's too far to travel.  Well with the exchange being moved to Friday I was in Los Lunas that night and we happened to have a baptismal interview for the other sisters that night at the stake center.  So I was able to see Olga right after she was baptized and get a picture with her and tell her how happy I was for her.  So the Lord works in mysterious ways.  Sometimes even through fevers. :-)

Exchange with Hermana Miller

Olga, Justin and Dulce after the baptism

Another cute story tied to that fever is when Crystal (one of our investigators who is going to be baptized at the beginning of March) was texting us because we had to reschedule our visit since I couldn't go out that night and work.  After we got all of our new plans arranged Crystal texted me and said "I will pray for you because now I know how."  It was one of those moments that melts your heart.  It is such a blessing to know that I am helping people in their lives.  Something as simple as teaching someone how to pray to their Heavenly Father has such a huge impact on the rest of their lives.  It's another moment that just shows me that this mission is exactly where I am meant to be.

Tug-o-war with Sugar, Crystal's dog

Another miracle we had this week was finding Mona and her daughter Johana.  Well we actually found them about 2 weeks ago but we weren't able to have our first lesson with them until this past week.  We had this great lesson as we built Jesus Christ's church with Jenga blocks.  It was interesting because she has an almost two year old son who really liked the Jenga blocks and thought it was lots of fun to throw the Jenga blocks around.  You know you are an experienced missionary when you can teach while Jenga blocks rocket past your face without getting distracted.  We actually went back last night and Mona had found one of the Jenga blocks that we had missed in our clean-up from the last lesson.  He was really throwing those blocks!  Mona is really excited about the Book of Mormon.  She said her mom had a copy on her shelf but she never knew where it came from.  She also was interested to find out that Joseph Smith didn't write the Book of Mormon, but that it was written here in ancient America and that Joseph Smith only translated the book.  I am excited to see where this little family goes.

Well if I ever had any fears that I won't get married, they have all been put to rest.  For one of our dinners I ended up helping the Sister finish making homemade flour tortillas, which are delicious by the way.  Anyway as I was cooking them on the hot plate they were getting really big and fluffy.  Well she walked over and told me that if you can make tortillas puff up like that it means that you will get married and be a good wife.  Good to know.  It reminds me of the time I was like 10 in cooking 4-H and the guest at my breakfast turned to me and told me that "You make good wife."  Yep as I recall I spilled hot chocolate all over the table after he said that because I became so nervous. :)  So, I not only know how to make some fantastic tortillas, but they have predicted my wonderful married future ahead of me.  From all of the proposals I've received on mission I'm sure I can find someone. hehe  Plus the the tortillas have spoken, so what else is there to say.

Well last but not least we have had some great member missionary work this week.  One of our recent converts, Manuel, invited us to come share the gospel with his buddy.  By the time we got to the lesson he had three other people there as well ready to listen to the lesson.  All he did was ask them if they wanted to sit in and they all said yes.  It was interesting teaching 4 different people at once, but also challenging because you are trying to address all of their individual needs and teach a lesson as well.  It went really well and they all are learning more about the church right now.

Our other recent convert, Olga, had an interesting week as well.  She hasn't been able to come to church since the start of the year because she works a night shift and with our ward moving to 11am it was too hard.  She kept asking her boss to change her days off from Thursday/Friday to Friday/Saturday so she  can come to church.  They originally told her yes and then they changed and told her no and they kept giving her the run around.  It's a sad thing to see because I have seen so many people who stop coming to church because of work and bam 5-10 years have passed and they have forgotten their testimonies about the gospel.  We have been praying a lot for Olga and on Saturday we stopped by to see if she was home, but we weren't sure if she would be sleeping.  She opened the door and was super excited to see us and proceeded to tell us that the night before she had quit her job.  She was so happy and excited to tell us and she kept saying that she has faith that God is going to help her find a new job and that she wants to go to church.  Sure enough she was at church the next day.  I absolutely love her and her desire to put the Lord first.  What a great example she is of faith and trusting in God.

Well that was a long letter.  I'd better stop writing otherwise you will all fall asleep at your computers.  I love you all so much and we'll talk to you in a week!

Les Quiero,
Hermana Klaus