Hey everybody-

 

So, hopefully I'll get better at budgeting my time online, but now I only have about 15 minutes to try and tell you about everything that has been happening lately.

 

If you want details you'll probably have to write me seperately from this, because I just have no time whatsoever.

 

Last Tuesday, I think I told you that I was waiting in the mission home, along with everybody else arriving in Carlsbad that day, basically waiting for the transfer meeting.

 

So, we went to the transfer meeting and I was assigned my trainer. Her name is Sister Saxton, and we are seriously two peas in a pod. I couldn't have asked for a better companion for these first few months! She's actually only just barely finished her own field training (it's a 12 week course), so there's still a lot that we are both learning as we go.

 

My ward/area is called French Valley. We're up in almost the northernmost part of the mission, right next to Temecula. It is so blazing hot every day, sometimes I think I'm going to melt into a puddle, but we always make it to the end of the day without dying. ;)

We are having incredible success here. I feel like every day, Sister Saxton is telling me how crazy it is that we are meeting so many people that are interested in the Gospel, especially youth. Right now we are teaching four youth, ages 12-17. It's crazy!

 

I wish I could tell you about all of the people that I've met. I love it here so much. One of our investigators, Victor, has been investigating the church for over 12 years. His wife and children are all members, but he is just having trouble finding the faith to make a committment to the church, even though he knows it's true. I am so determined to see him baptized, especially because I feel like we are similar in a lot of ways. Whenever he prays, he always pauses at parts just before he's about to say something about the truth of the Gospel, then changes the wording so he's not saying that it's true. For instance, at our lesson on Sunday he said "please bless the missionaries that they can find others and teach them about the Church and help them to know that the Gospel is.... right for them." I KNOW HE WAS GOING TO SAY TRUE! I KNOW IT! Hahahaha, it's a tiny bit frustrating when he knows, and we know that he knows, he just isn't willing to admit it.

 

Don't worry, we'll get him.

 

:)

 

We also had an incredible experience. We were going to stop by an investigator's house and see if we could teach her the Plan of Salvation, but she wasn't home. A woman who lives with her named Lashinae (she told us to call her LaLa) opened the door and let us come in to talk to her. We quickly realized that she has been in a really dark place lately. She's had an incredibly difficult past, and is feeling worthless, taken advantage of, and alone. We had a brother from the ward come and give her a priesthood blessing, and the Spirit was so strong. She was sobbing by the end of it. Today is her 27th birthday, so we're going over to her house to teach her the second lesson and just hang out with her on her birthday. I know that we were sent to her at that specific time in her life to help her turn everything around and put the past behind her. I hope that she sticks with us!

Anyway, I've gotta split! We live in a member's house (we have our own little section of the house with our own study room and bathroom, it's adorable) so I don't feel comfortable giving out the address. Unfortunately, that means I'll only get mail once a week, when we have a district/zone meeting, so I'm sorry if my responses are super delayed! I still love you!

 

Love,

 

Sister B