Last Monday we had a sister birthday party for all the sisters in our zone! And to top it off, it really was Hermana Jimenez's birthday that day! And mine was Wednesday and Sister Keavali's was on Saturday! We had a lot of fun! Pictures to follow!
One of our investigators who is on date, Erin, is pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. She has such a testimony of the church already! We had family home evening with her and 2 of her daughters at a member's home on Monday night. It was the cutest and their little daughters became friends! We talked about the importance of baptism and receiving the gift of the holy ghost. Erin and her daughter Carlee are on date for July 19, a day after Carlee turns 8!
Wednesday we had mission leader council here in GJ for all the slts and the zone leaders. Hnas Encarnacion y Smith stayed at our house Tuesday night because they had to drive up from Rifle. My birthday was awesome! I felt so loved! I got to wake up to some nice singing! Elder Redd's birthday was also the same day (he's a fellow Canadian) so it was a Canadian birthday extravaganza. At MLCs we discuss what we can do to help lift our mission. President and Sister Murdock had a mission president's seminar the weekend before. They told us what we should be focusing on is how we can be better parents and spouses by what we are learning every day as missionaries. It makes sense. It was just hilarious that as missionaries we had a meeting focused on marriage.... GAH.
We saw our amazing investigators, Jen and Genesis, on Wed. night. Sister Hugentobler came along with us. It's pretty slow to teach them because they are so chatty and awesome. They are so prepared...they just don't know it yet! As we were talking, Jen's boyfriend, Mo, came in. Normally he says hi and goes to a different room in their apt but he randomly stayed in the kitchen and started answering our questions and asking his own. Pretty soon he had joined us on the couches and was bearing his soul about how much he knows God is real and how he wants Him in his life. The spirit was so strong! The little 10 year old, Genesis, even told us she wanted to be baptized again! The biggest miracle was all 4 of them (Jen has another daughter Risa) came to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Moe commented to me that he had never shaken so many people's hands in his life. :) Because it was fast and testimony meeting that always makes for a bit of nervousness for a missionary. And this time it was well warranted. Chris, an investigator of the Elder's, got up and proceeded to bear his "untestimony" about how he knows God isn't real. It was pretty stressful! After he finished some stalwart men in our ward got up and bore their testimonies. It was all done in good taste and it all worked out! Talk about stress!
On Thursday we had a specialized district meeting, where we had trainings from President and Sister Murdock, the assistants and interviews with president. We basically have the best district in the mission! I loved learning about how I can be a better missionary!
In the afternoon we had a zone meeting. Sister Tew and I got to give a training too!
Saturday we had a rockstar of a day where we found 3 new investigators! AND BRAD GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! Woot! His baptism was one of the best/weirdest experiences of my life. We went early to practice the musical number. When we walked in the stake center we were greeted by a lot of tall college aged men. We were so very confused. Come to find out, the BYU Men's lacrosse team was chilling there before their game that evening. The coaches decided the whole team should come to the baptism! So the primary room was packed to the max. We still laugh about it now. It was just so random! Afterwards they all came and shook his hand! He felt pretty important! Also randomly, a kid I used to work with was there. Talk about my worlds colliding. Sister Tew and I decided we are never going back to college.
Brad's baptism was so awesome. Pres and Sister Murdock were there. And his less-active wife said the closing prayer! At church the next day, his mom in law bore her testimony of how happy she was and it was just the best! And she was less-active too just 4 months ago!
So my companion has been having a bit of a rough time as of late. She's taking care of things but as I was so focused on helping her, I didn't let myself realize that I was having a harder time than I thought. I finally humbled myself and asked President Murdock if I could have a blessing after the baptism. (Actually sister tew texted him for me so it would actually happen she's the best!). I am so grateful for the priesthood power. I learned a lot of things about who I am and what I need to be doing.
Yesterday after church, we took Nancy Valdez, a very special sister in the ward, with us to some lessons. She sometimes says strange things but the Lord blessed us so much! We were able to see our investigator, Cassy Rose and they connected, as well as Martha and Stephan, who we hadn't seen in about 4 weeks! Nancy somehow got them to commit to read the book of mormon! It was amazing!
Later that evening we saw our investigator, Krista, who is 16, with Sarah, a yw in our ward. Miracle of all miracles we were able to set her on date! June 21!
IT's been TOO hot as of late! 85-90 degrees! I really don't know how I am going to handle summer.
I really love being a missionary and I hope you all have the best week ever!
Happy birthday to me!
Brad's baptism!
MLCs
sister birthday party with some of my favorite people!
The sweet Wagner fam who had us over for dinner on my birthday!
