Hello Dearest Family!
This week has been much much better :) so many miracles have happened. We picked up 3 new investigators this week!! They are golden!! After much fasting, prayer, and hard work, the Lord has blessed us with opportunities to share the Gospel with His children here in Vista. Oscar & Loo Loo are 2 of the new investigators. They are husband and wife and have a 10 year old son- the ideal teaching situation!! They were actually a referral and they really want to learn and come to church, so we are excited for them. Andres is the other investigator we picked up this last week. He's about 19 years old or so, and we found him last week knocking on doors. He is SO ready for the gospel! Throughout our lesson with him the other day he kept saying "oh yeah, that makes sense." and "oohhhh! okay! I was wondering about that!" and he just soaked it all in. Then towards the end of the lesson, when we were really feeling the spirit and we were telling him about the Book of Mormon, his mom came in and said "ok, you have to leave now. Go to your room or the church or something, I need to clean." And Andres got so upset, he said "oh my gosh! as soon as we get to the really good part the devil interrupts us because he doesn't want me to learn the truth!" haha it was so funny, and not that his mom is the devil, but it was neat to see that he already recognizes the spirit, and also the influenzes/interruptions satan brings, because he can't stand it when we can feel the spirit. So to close, we told him to read the Book of Mormon and pray before our next appointment, and then we'd talk about it when we came back. He said, "oh yeah for sure, I'm defintely going to because I want to make sure I'm not going to the wrong church or anything!" And he was being serious! This guy is GOLDEN! Too good to be true. But it is true, because the Lord is preparing His children. :)
My health is also getting better, which is wonderful! I'm still a little sick, but compared to how I was, I'm doing great. I also received a priesthood blessing last week, and in my blessing it said that I would be healed and that my sickness would not impede on the work. Thank you for sending me medicine! I haven't received the package yet, but I'll get it right before I run out of singulair, so that was perfect timing. Thank you! We usually get mail each Tuesday, but the time of day always differs. We try to see our district leader in the morning so that we have time to reply to our letters before p-day is over, but today the zone leaders said there wasn't very much mail this time so they are going to wait to give us our mail until Monday. Lame.
That's great about so many sisters wanting to serve missions! My companion's mission got cut short as well because of the influx of missionaries. This transfer was cut to 5 weeks instead of 6.
I loved that story you told me mom about Jesse recognizing the Spirit :) he is just such a sweetheart. I'm so glad to hear that you can feel the spirit stronger and that you are seeing blessings :) I wonder what blessings you'll receive when Jake is out! (which is in just 6 days... wow). How fun that you have been able to get all of the shopping done for his mission! And yes mom, we can definitely go to the westgate outlet mall when I get back. Thanks for telling me Jesse's pirate joke, that was funny! I'm going to tell it to my district at our district activity today.
Dad you asked which language I do my studies in. I was doing them in English for awhile because they want to you to learn first in your native language so you understand the doctrine, and then later they want you to study in the new language. This past week I have been trying my best to study in Spanish. I understand most of it. I'm getting nervous, especially about learning the language, because President told me I'll be training really soon (probably within the next 3 or 4 transfers), which means I have to be able to speak Spanish because the new missionary won't be able to yet! Aaahhh! So scary. We're already starting to see the flood of missionaries here in the Carlsbad mission. Generally each transfer we get 10-15 new missionaries. Last week we got 19 or 20 new missionaries, and next transfer we are getting more than 20, closer to 30 I think. So exciting!
This past Sunday I gave my first Spanish talk in sacrament meeting! In fact, I was asked to speak in both of the wards we cover! We work in Vista and in Fallbrook. Then to top that off, they asked Hna. Farr and I to give a musical number and give a talk at a baptism that night. What a day! I did alright, I guess; I got compliments on the one I gave in the Vista ward... the other one, I'm not so sure about haha, nobody said anything.
Last night we went to a Family Home Evening with Mayolo's family (he's the one that got baptized with his son last month). They invited us over to their house to show them how to do it, and when we got there, half of their branch was there too! In a one bedroom apartment! It was a fun surprise and they made us Mole (mole-eh... I don't know how it's spelled), and we all just had a good time and shared their first family home evening with them! It was so great. The spirit was so strong. I'm finding however, that Hispanics can be really dramatic, not necessarily in a bad way, but they are just very passionate people. So this FHE felt like we were living in a Spanish soap operah for like 2 hours. Everybody took turns saying things like "I'm so glad to be here with you. Thank you for taking our family in, and feeding us, and letting us be in this part of your life." and "each and every single one of you has a place in my heart. In this moment I feel like our house transformed to our house in Mexico, and that I'm here with all of my family. You all make me feel like I'm at home." and things like that haha. Seriously the whole entire night- man I love it here. :)
I hope you all had a great week! I'm sure this next one will be a very busy one getting Jake ready to leave on his mission. That is so exciting! Have a fun and great week together. I want to hear how Jake's setting apart goes and stuff like that.
Thanks for your letters and encouraging words :) they mean a lot.
I love and miss you all very much.
Love,
Hermana Inman
Hermana Inman
