A Little Burst of Sunshine: Santa Fe, NM Transfer 8 Week 3

Dear Family and Friends,

Time is flying by. I can't believe that another week has passed and that this transfer is half over already. We did have a pretty good week.

Monday: The Spanish Missionaries from Rio Rancho (aka Sis. Michel and Sis. Field and the elders) came up for p-day. They're in our zone, so that's allowed with permission from the Zone Leaders. The Marquez and Yeomans families, as well as Fernanda Luna came up. It was SO good to see them again! They were all pretty impressed by my Spanish and how it's improved in the 4 months since I left Rio Rancho. We were also told that Becky and Judy Marquez (and possibly Leo) would be baptized on Saturday!!! Oh how happy that made me! We went to the plaza and had a picnic in a park and walked around the plaza a bit.

Tuesday: All of our appointments fell through, as did our back-up plans. So we resorted to tracting. Toward the end of the evening, we were walking up to a house when we heard dogs barking. The inside door was open, with just the outside glass door closed. The dogs came running to the door and we got a little nervous when we saw them: 2 adult pitbulls and one baby. Then we discovered that one of them knows how to open that door and they all came running at us. Needless to say we were terrified! The lady who owns them came out and called them back and told us that they were harmless, but with the way they came running out the door, I don't know.

Wednesday: We went tracting more, and in the rain no less. We have learned that our umbrellas are to never leave the car because these rainstorms are pretty common. And we always know when it's going to rain.

Thursday: We had district meeting, and interviews with President. Because we had zone conference last week and thus no district meeting, I made my birthday cake that mom sent me to take to district meeting and share with the elders, because Sister Cabello and I feel fat enough without eating a whole chocolate cake by ourselves. I put the candles on for a picture, and then took them off and fixed the frosting because we can't have fire in the church. When I got there, one of the elders had written on the board "Happy Birthday Elder Paulsen!" on the board. So I wasn't going to say anything about the cake really being for my birthday. In fact, I wasn't going to mention anything about my birthday. But when I was talking to Sister Miller because she wanted to visit with each of us to get to know us better, she told me how thoughtful it was that I brought a cake for him for his birthday. I admitted that I had no clue it was his birthday, and that I'd actually brought it because mom had sent it to me for mine with an apology that I had to make my own cake. So she announced to the Elders that I'd had a birthday too, and that no one had known. She felt bad that they hadn't known because they didn't have a birthday list from the office yet on the day of my birthday/ zone conference. She felt even worse when she found out that they'd seen me on my birthday. I got a letter from home that week, and mom printed off the birthday wishes from facebook and sent them too me.

Friday: We had our weekly planning session, and a couple appointments. Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Dad and Aunt Heather! I hope you got your cards on time, but if not, sorry.

Saturday: It was a normal, hot day. We had some appointments, and did some tracting.

Sunday: We had church, and had a great lesson with a new investigator! As Sister Cabello was giving the Joseph Smith story, I was watching this sister's face, and it was obvious that she felt the spirit. She told us after that she'd never let anyone religious into her home to talk, but that she felt something different with us the first time we knocked on her door. At first she told us that she was busy, so we went back a few days later and she invited us in. We feel something very special for this sister. She is searching for something more in her life, and the Gospel will bring her what she needs. The Spirit was so strong, and she was touched. We're praying that she'll be able to get Sundays off work like she wants so she can come to church. As we were walking back to our car after contacting some people we'd talked to during the week, we walked past a man sitting in his car with some Latin music playing. I can't even describe how strong of a desire I had to dance at that moment. Holy Cow I wanted to dance. But 1) missionaries can't dance, and 2) it would have been even more inappropriate to break out dancing in the middle of the street. So I contained myself, but it wasn't easy. I had to keep telling myself "6 more months. Just 6 more months."