We set a baptismal date with Sina, our investigator from Iran!! November 16th :). He came to church again and stayed for all three hours. We got him a Book of Mormon in Persian and his eyes lit up and he was so excited to read it in his own language! The ward has welcomed him with open arms and are so eager and excited for his baptism! They haven't had any baptisms since the beginning of the year and then 2 weeks ago Kris got baptized, then Sina will get baptized, and the elders in our ward have an investigator getting baptized the following week! Exciting things are happening over here in the Olivenhain ward. We've been trying to work with this part member family in our ward since we got here, but they've been so busy that we've only been able to meet with them once. The stake president talked to them on Sunday and then told us that they're all ready to go and would like to start taking the lessons again! :) His name is Claud and his wife Jill is a member. Claud actually went to general conference in Utah last weekend- he might as well be a member already. We're excited to start teaching him!
I got the chance to learn a little bit more about family history this past week as we were preparing to teach a recent convert about it. As I was looking through our family history on my account I was so excited to see so many pictures and names of our ancestors! It sounds so nerdy but family history is so cool! I was looking at a couple different names and their information and it was fun to see "last updated by toriecamilleinman" next to their name :). Way to go Torie! You are so awesome! I'm sure you've got a huge fan club waiting for you on the other side. I'm so proud of you for taking family names to the temple that you found and prepared yourself! That is so neat! You'll have to tell me how your talk in stake conference goes! I'm sure you'll do a fantastic job. Good job in your band festivals, too!
The primary program was yesterday; this ward has 180 primary kids. Can you believe that?! They blew me away. These youth are so strong and have truly been saved for these last days. They were so strong and powerful as they sang their primary songs and recited all 13 articles of faith (little sunbeams, even!). I don't think I've ever cried in a primary program before, but I came pretty close this time! I'd like to think it's because of the strong spirit, and not because sister missionaries tend to grow extra tear ducts on their missions.
The weather here has been SO NICE. We decided to do a car fast this past Wednesday and walk everywhere we could so we could talk to more people and save miles. The one day we decide to do that it pours down rain the entire day. It POURED. But we knocked doors and walked around anyway! It was actually pretty fun.
I'm so happy for Jake and his baptism and for all the wonderful things that are happening in his ward! He is such an awesome missionary! I'm also happy to hear that our other missionaries Dom and Alex are doing well :). I'm totally jealous but not even surprised that Jake's mission gets the iPads and that Jake gets to train on it. Lucky. That's so great that Garrett Brown is going on his mission!! Good for him! He'll do a good job. Yay for Richard Alldredge who just finished! He emailed me a few weeks ago and said "you're on a mission? since when?" haha I told him to give you that huge hug mom so I'm glad he did.
Happy Birthday Grandpa!
It sounds like that butterfly atrium was awesome! I'm glad Jesse is enjoying school and seminary. And thank you for looking into schools for me. That'd be cool to be Torie's roommate :) we'd have fun!
I love you all and miss you! Keep being so awesome.
