Week 74 - March 25, 2014

Querida Familia,

Where has the time gone?  Can this really be my final week in the mission field?  I guess, as a missionary, you never really think this week will come, but come it does.  There are lots of emotions that roll around inside a missionary's head at this time.  I feel very blessed as a missionary and I know that these will always be the best 18 months for my life.

We had a great week.  The highlight of the week was Crystal, Ivy and Adrian's baptism.  The night before was great.  A family in the ward invited them over to have a BBQ.  The food was yummy and we had a great little FHE lesson afterwards.  The baptism was really nice, but a tiny bit stressful.  We got a call from the Bishop in the morning saying that the person who was going to baptize them had a family emergency and was flying out of town that morning.  So we had to figure out who was going to baptize them.  Crystal then wanted the Bishop to baptize them, so we were able to quickly resolve the problem, but it was one of those moments where you are just like "are you serious?!"  If it's not one thing it's another.  But they were awesome and none of Satan's curve balls stopped them. Crystal was really nervous for the water, but she did great.  She told us right before that her heart was beating a 100 miles a minute.  Afterwards she told us that she just felt very light and happy.  It made me all gooey inside.  As we watched them make this special promise with Heavenly Father I got a little teary eyed thinking about my mission and all of the special people that I have had the pleasure of teaching.  I couldn't have asked for a better mission or a more inspired mission.

Crystal's Baptism

We also a great lesson this week with a less-active lady.  We brought Soledad, a recent convert, and she is fire cracker!  The only risk when you bring spanish ladies together is that they might never stop talking nor breathe for the next hour, so it takes some skill being able to have a lesson.  But we managed and it was exactly what she needed to hear.  The funniest part of that lesson was the little dog. He is a brown chihuahua named Whitey, but he also has this little devilish streak in him.  The very first time we visited her, Whitey just wanted to eat us and if we even thought about touching him you would see the little demon dog inside emerge.  Well he is actually getting a little more used to us, which is kinda of sad, because his little attitude is really funny.  So this last lesson he didn't hardly growl at us at all until he was sitting on the back of the couch and then he jumped down in between us and then he went all crazy dog on us with his hackles up.  After he finally jumped down the hermana told us that he hates pillow cushions and the silly dog had jumped down on top of one.  Really that was your problem?  Anyway as we were getting ready to leave whitey was on the couch and there was a pillow sitting on the edge and hermana budge decided to do a little experiment and just barely nudged the pillow towards him and he went all crazy growly again.   Things I have learned on my mission 1.) don't trust chihuahuas!  hehe

Last night we had a lesson with Crystal and her family and it was so good.  We actually watched the long Joseph Smith movie and unlike the last time we watched a movie there was no cockroach walking around the light bulb on the inside projecting it's shadow all creepy like on the movie screen.  Although now that I think about it we did have one little cockroach last night and we gave Hermana Budge the privilege of killing the little bugger.  She stomped on it and it gave a nasty pop! hmmm maybe going home to the roach free Washington won't be so bad after all.... :D  The only comforting fact about leaving is knowing that I can get on the phone and call them whenever I want to!  Well after our fun little lesson we knelt down to say a prayer and there were blankets all over the floor from the kids so they didn't have to sit on the hard floor.  Well Sugar, the big black lab, came and sat next to me as I knelt, and Ivy barely got out dear heavenly father... when Sugar totally flopped herself on me.  That made me slip off my knees because of the blankets and fall into crystal and Claudio her husband was telling Sugar to get off me while trying not to laugh.  Well after we had all settled down Ivy gave a very nice short prayer.  Then Claudio told her she should say a longer prayer and we said it was perfect and then Ivy said "If it was any longer they wouldn't leave!"  Well that got us all going again as we pretended to be the hurt missionaries that apparently just needed to leave.  She kept laughing and trying to say that's not what she meant that "We wouldn't be able to leave" but we put on our sad faces and said it's ok we understand.  Crystal was just dying with laughter and when we finally did leave we couldn't stop grinning ear to ear.  I just love them!  That's probably the real number one lesson I learned on my mission.  Is how to love.  To have charity, the pure love of Christ.  If Heavenly Father feels about each of us the way I feel about them then he loves us a whole heap!  And my mission has taught me that Heavenly Father really does love us and that we are his children.  He loves us with a love that we can't even begin to comprehend.  He loves us so much that he gave his only begotten son, so that one day we can all return and live with him someday.  I love you all so very much!  I can't believe I'm typing this but... I will see you next week!

Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus

I got my release letter this week in the mail! :-(

So I had to have a therapy session with Hermana Budge. :-)

Really sad when the milk expires the same day that your mission does!