Santa Fe, NM Transfer 8 Week 5

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week has flown by here in Santa Fe. It's hard to believe that we're already in the last week of the transfer and will find out transfer news again on Saturday. Crazy times. As for our area book, I think we’ve finally contacted everyone and have at least a bit of info on them. And while we can’t go back in time to update it, we make sure we do it every night. One does phone calls and the other area book and switch. Out of curiosity – which mission did Addison Rice end up in – Mesa or Farmington?

Monday: P-day. The Elders from here, Espanols, and Los Alamos and us all got together and played Ultimate Frisbee. I about died between the heat and the altitude. But it was SO fun. I got to thinking, and I really think that the last time I played Ultimate was my VERY first weekend in Rexburg--like the weekend I moved up there for the first time in 2006 almost 4 years ago. I had SO much fun! I may consider being on one of the teams when I get back up there. One of the elders got the frisbee stuck in a tree, so another elder threw his shoe up there to try to get it out, and succeeded, but in the process got his shoe stuck. So he threw the other shoe up to try to get it out, and yep. You guessed it--got that one stuck too. Then the elders tried to throw rocks up, and were unsuccessful with that too, until one of the elders played monkey and climbed the tree to be closer and had the other elders throw rocks up to him and threw them at the shoes until both were safely back on the ground. It made for some good laughs. That much time in the sun caused me to get a sunburn on my head where my hair was parted.

Tuesday: The rain washed our car. (That means it rained a lot. )

Wednesday: We did service for one of the sisters in the branch. She's actually the new Primary President. There are two pianists in the branch, the Relief Society President and Me. And I'm only temporary. At most I have 5 1/2 months here. Her children know the basics of piano, but don't really know how to read music, and definitely not the hymns or primary songs, so for as long as I'm here I'm going to help them once a week learn how to play some hymns and primary songs. And I got word that my little brother has started driving AND that he's taller than me. Only by 1/4 inch, but in 6 months, that 1/4 inch is going to multiply by who knows how much. That sure sent my head for a spin. We finished cleaning what we've been putting off for the past 5 weeks (such as the oven) because of apartment inspections.

Thursday: We had district meeting, and then apartment inspections. The elder and sister told us that we should be the official apartment cleaners for the mission--meaning that it was clean. Really, it doesn't even look like the same place we moved into 5 weeks ago. That night our neighbors knocked on our door to introduce themselves. They said they'd heard that the elders had left and sisters were here now. Apparently the elders helped them move into their apartment about 6 months ago.

Friday: We had weekly planning. That night we had a pretty good rainstorm. As we were driving across town in the rain, our "flat tire" light came on. No bueno. I pulled over at a gas station where I could check the tires out of the rain. A couple were a little low on air, but nothing that couldn't wait until the rain had subsided, thankfully. We had an appointment with some new investigators, and they had lots of good questions about Adam and Eve and stuff. Good thing I'd just been studying that in my personal study. Even still, I didn't understand all of the questions.

Saturday: We were finishing up our studies, when Sister Cabello looked out the window and saw the Jehovah Witnesses walking up to our apartment complex. They knocked on our door, and we answered. They left us very confused with their doctrines, and their scriptures. We had actually found JW bibles in our apartment (does that mean that some elders in the past actually invited them in to teach them?) so after they left compared the scriptures they shared with us and that we shared with them between their bible and our bible. And nothing made sense! How grateful I am to have the truth! As we were driving to our first appointment, a relentless downpour started, and as we walked from our car to the house with raincoats and umbrellas, our skirts were drenched! They don't come out of the washing machine that wet! It was pouring rain that day, but did let up enough for us to go put air in our tire. But that wasn't exactly an easy process either because we couldn't figure out how the air compressor at the gas station works. We went in to ask for help, but they were kinda rude about telling us that they couldn't help us. Well we COULDN'T go anywhere else at this point because we'd let so much air OUT of the tire trying to figure out how to get the compressor to work, so we prayed. And you know what? We figured it out! (A little tip for those of you preparing to serve a mission where you'll have a car and are as car-illiterate as I was a year ago-- learn how to check all the fluids under the hood, change a tire, and put air into a tire. You never know when that kind of information will come in handy. Trust me.) Oh, and happy Pioneer Day!

Sunday: We got word that one of our investigators is definitely going to get married this week so she can get married {I think she means baptized} this weekend! Yea! We've been waiting for this for a long time--since we got here. As for the other two investigators, they are the children, ages 11 and 9, in a part-member, less active family. These children are reading and praying and keeping commitments, except going to church. They want to, but their parents won't take them to church. We always set appointments with them and try to keep a schedule, but the parents frequently leave and take their children with them so they aren't there when we get there for the appointments. At times the parents aren't even in the room present for the lessons. We feel that they aren't being very supportive of their children and their desire to be baptized. We had a baptismal date set for them for this coming Saturday, but as a result of them missing several lessons and not going to church, we went this week and explained to them that we will have to change the date. The mother seemed offended that we have to move it, and the little girl was upset. But we had talked to them about the importance of being at church. When we set the baptismal date, we explained that we needed the three appointments a week to be able to teach the children what they needed to know in several, short lessons. We have never taught more than one or two principles at a time, and would have had plenty of time to teach everything before the baptism. They have only been to church once since we have been here, though have said every week that they would be there. Sister Cabello and I don't know what to do to help them. We want the children to be baptized, but we don't want them to go inactive because of their parents. We’ll keep trying. It was once again a rainy day. And it was cold--only in the 60s. We turned our heater on in our car (yes, we're pansies, and proud of it.)

So yeah. That's my week. Probably the most eventful I've had in a while. I hope you all have a great week!

Hermana Good