11-23 Email

Since you never keep track of when transfers are coming up--it's not that hard, every 6 weeks ;)--I'll let ya know that this is WEEK 6. That means this Saturday we get the much anticipated transfer call! It's difficult to really know if you're staying or leaving, but if I had to guess I'd say that I'm leaving. I really don't know what's going to happen, but that's the fun of it! I'm looking forward to this week to leave this area BETTER than I found it, if I do leave that is. :)

Enough about the future--let's talk about what good happened this week.

Monday we had dinner with a couple sweet older sisters (who are actually sisters) Sister Quinn & Sister VanHouten. & afterward had a lesson with Alissa & Kealin. We taught the Plan of Salvation. 

Tuesday we had district meeting, which was great! We had to trade cars with the Spanish Elders because they were driving to Big Bear (in the mountains where there's snow) & needed 4 wheel drive. I was kinda sad to leave my beloved truck I drove 10,000+ miles on & had for 8 months, but happy to have a small car again!

We did service for the Yoakums, which has turned into a weekly thing. We had dinner with the Muzzy's. Brother Muzzy is a single dad. He's in his 50s & his wife (who was much younger than he) died unexpectedly a few years ago leaving behind a 4 year old daughter & less than a year old son who are now 12 & 9. Since we can't have dinner with a single man, or let alone be in the house with one, they invited Bro & Sis Howe to come over. It was a nice dinner before we had our scripture study class. 

After that we went home to prepare for EXCHANGES!!! The STLs (Sister Training Leaders) drove to our place. Sister Cauble stayed with Sister Anderson & I went with Sister Wood to their area in Apple Valley! The highlight of my day though was seeing my first born, Sister Wagner! She's doing sooo good & that makes me super happy :)

Wednesday was a great day with Sister Wood! I always learn SO much from her--or from any sister I go on exchanges with. Something a little different that she did that she's never done before on exchanges was I was the STL that day. Okay, that's not really what happened, but Sister Wood was training me to be an STL. Hahaha. We walked, talked, taught, & SANG all the day long. I wish I could send you the recording of us singing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer".  It's magical due to Sister Wood's majestic voice. We got back to Wrightwood a bit earlier than normal because they had to go on another exchange. So it was really weird to go back out to work after exchanges haha.

Thursday was great...kinda. So we had dinner with a really great family, but just a heads up: 9/10 missionaries HATE when you have a bunch of friends over to share dinner with because then the missionaries sit in silence as everyone talks about good times they've had & mutual friends 'n such. This is precisely what happened. Occasionally they'll notice how uncomfortable you look & start talking to you, but that ends quickly when another family member/friend takes them back to their younger years. Haha, okay I'm being dramatic. It's not ALWAYS a bad thing, just this time it was super uncomfortable. But they apologized to us & said next time it will just be us. Then we went over to the Peacock's & taught Amber about recognizing the Holy Ghost. We read a couple scriptures about it and then laid out about 20 cards with different feelings/actions the Holy Ghost causes. We then watched a couple Mormon messages & afterwards chose the card/cards that we felt while watching that. It's a neat activity to do to understand & recognize the feelings of the Spirit & how He works with you personally. :)

Friday we weekly planned with the ZLs & spanish sisters. It was good. Then we did some tracting & everyone that we talked to said "We're Christians". This phrase always gets me. It's like people say it implying that we are NOT Christians...? Idk, but as we were on our way to dinner Sister Anderson says "do we have time to stop at that house?" We stopped & met D. At first D wasn't so sure about the Book of Mormon, but he had a strong faith in Christ. I was able to testify of how the Book of Mormon talks & testifies of Christ & how it has strengthened my faith in Him. The neatest thing was that you could almost SEE the spirit change him as we testified. At the end of our conversation he accepted a BoM & said he'd read it! The spirit is AMAZING!!!

Saturday we were able to meet A, a very less active member. Last transfer we met his wife, who is not a member. This time we were able to sit down with him & talk. I asked him about his conversion & he told us how he converted to LDS & every one of his subsequent religions, hahaha. We also got in to talk with E. She is a potential investigator who is not very interested at all, but LOVES missionaries & us visiting. Her husband was actually baptized when he was like 12, and now he's 37. 

Sunday was great! The choir sang "Thanks Be To God", so that was fun. Sister Anderson has been sick with a cold the past few days & I'm HOPING I don't get it, mainly because I'm singing in church this Sunday & I need a voice! So far, so good. 

This ward is so good to us. Our dinner cancelled last minute yesterday & Brother Ogden stepped up & volunteered to feed us. Also, everyone wants to help Sister Anderson any way they can with her cold. They're the sweetest.  Whatever happens this weekend will be alright, it will be in God's plan. I would love to stay in Wrightwood, but I'll go wherever. His plan is greater than mine.

I regret spoiling you with such a long email last week. I can't always live up to those expectations if I want to do other things with my pday ;)

Wellppp, I better get going, BUT thanks for the email. If you want to mention to Jonathan that I emailed him about Christmas music that would be great. 

Have a wonderful THANKSGIVING! I'll be thinking about you all this Thursday! Love you bunches!!

xoxo Sister Viraldo