Alive & Well!

Hello everyone! I know that I'm a day late getting this out, but we were able to go to the temple yesterday and changed our p-day. I really am alive and well :) So here's the run-down of the past week.

Monday: P-day. We were out doing our errands and there was an absolute down pour. We went into the post office to buy stamps and it wasn't raining. 5 minutes later when we went back out to the car it was pouring! And I was the unfortunate person who had to back Sister Trunnell out of her parking space. We had FHE with a family in one of the wards. Their niece who isn't a member is living with them, here from Mexico. It was a neat spirit, and it was so nice to actually be with a family doing FHE on Monday night.

Tuesday: We had several cancellations. In fact, most of our appointments fell through. That was quite discouraging. During our companion study, we had an ah-ha moment about something we've been thinking about and implemented that into our teaching this week, and had more success. Quite a bit, actually. It has definitely helped the Spirit of our lessons. And don't worry about me being fed, mom. We had dinner with a family in one of the wards, then went to an appointment with the Luna's, a family who are recent converts, and she fed us a huge meal. We pretty much rolled out to our car and felt like we were going to explode.

Wednesday: We had district meeting with President and Sister Anderson and the APs. It was so good to be able to talk to President in my interview and feel the Spirit they brought to the meeting. But even better than that, when we walked into the church, there was a Spanish woman inside with her little boy. She just moved here from Wyoming and had been talking to missionaries there and wants us to teach her! After having several investigators drop us, this was an answer to prayer. And she is so prepared. She is a very special woman, and we feel very privileged to be able to know and teach her.

Thursday: My rain coat and umbrella got put to good use. It was absolutely pouring for a good part of the day. It was kind of unbelievable. We also discovered that we have a window in our apartment that leaks. We've called the people we live with and are getting it taken care of. We had several good lessons. And we got fed again by the Luna's while we were there with one of our investigators. We felt they would be good fellowshippers for her since they live in the same area, and the Luna's have a daughter about Norma's age. And whenever Hermana Luna knows we're coming, she prepares a nice big meal, and always sends us home with Tamales to eat. At least we're not starving, right?

Friday: We had our weekly planning session. It was very productive. We planned out most of our lessons for this week. We had some wonderful lessons, one of which was with Karla, the woman who fell into our laps. She is very ready and willing to learn. We also had a lesson with another investigator and he asked me if I'm from Cuba. Apparently, I look Cuban. I've been asked if I'm from lots of different places in my life, but I've never heard Cuba. I've even had a couple people ask if I understand English. Yep. Of course, people ask Sister Trunnell and I how much Spanish Sister Michel understands and she speaks it perfectly.

Saturday: We had a couple lessons, and had a couple lessons fall through, but that actually turned out for the better because we were able to take one of our investigators who is preparing to be baptized to the baptism that some of the Elders had. The talks that were given were for her. It was so neat, not to mention the Spirit there was amazing. This was the first convert baptism I've seen on the mission. That was pretty neat. One of the less active members taught us how to make Gorditas and Oshata (rice milk... I don't know if I spelled it right.) VERY yummy! I've got a treat for people when I get home. And once again, we had 2 dinners and rolled home and felt like we were going to explode.

Sunday: Church was good. The service was small, and there were only 6 of us in Relief Society, but it was good. One of our recent converts, Jose, who was baptized the week before I got here, spoke in church for the first time and did an amazing job! It was close to 10 minutes long and he didn't have anything written down. He was nervous as anything, but certainly has a talent. And he told us after that he actually enjoyed talking. And we had a couple investigators at church as well which never hurts anything. That night we met with the Bishops at the request of the Stake President to introduce ourselves. They had Bishopric Training and President Roundsville was going to announce that the goal is to have a Spanish branch and he wanted the bishops to know who we are and what our purpose is. It was a very good meeting.

Monday: I know you were all anxiously looking forward to my e-mail and were very disappointed when you checked my blog (e-mail for mom) and didn't find it. Well I have a good excuse. In fact, this is the best excuse I've ever had. Every 6 months the temple is opened on Monday for the missionaries and yesterday was Temple Monday. Oh how I've missed going to the temple weekly. There is such power from going to the temple. President Anderson asked us to change our p-day so we could carry the spirit from the temple to our areas, and it was powerful. We definitely saw blessings from it. We only had a half day to work by the time we got to the temple and went through the chapel session and endowment session, but had more success and more lessons than we usually do. It was a wonderful day--in fact, I can honestly say that it was the best day of my mission so far. We had FHE with another family again last night. The grandma and aunt are living with them and aren't members. We're starting to teach them as well.

I am looking forward to the rest of this week. We have a full week ahead of us and can't wait to see what adventure is waiting for us next... that is if we live through today. We might explode by the end of the night. We have a lunch appointment with a less active member, and lunch is their big meal. Then we have dinner with a member family. And we have another appointment with the Luna family. Their daughter wants us to start teaching her so she can be baptized. This is something we've been waiting for. We've tried to teach her, but she said that she wanted to do it on her own time... which came faster than we expected. But regardless, within 5 hours we have 3 big meals today. So if I explode, I love you all. But you should be grateful that I'm down here because it will make a big mess ;) I'll let you know how it turns out--if I survive to the end of the week.

Love you all lots!

Hermana Good