24 February 2014

Hola,

Buenos Dias! I hope all of your week went well. From what I have heard it seems like you have all been very busy! This last week we went to the temple! It was lovely! I am so grateful we are able to perform the saving ordinances for ourselves and for others! I hope all of us remain grateful for the joy of the temple!

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Anyway to start this week was great. Hermana Underwood and I have made a focus on the less-actives of our branch. Because of the contact we have made we got a special project to get updates on some of the sisters. This week we continued on the quest for those in our own area and those on the list! So Monday we went to see a less-active family we didn't know and the woman that opened the door said she had lived there for a 1 year and half. I was a little shocked that no one knew for that long. It wasn't information we loved, but it was good to be updated!

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Tuesday we had district meeting. I taught on how to get investigators to read the Book of Mormon. I just took it back to the basics of how are we using the Book of Mormon to make sure we are getting them interested and giving them tools to read it themselves. My time was cut short, but it was still good! In the afternoon we taught Graciela. She is a part-member family and so we go over regularly to just give love and support! She really wants her family to be part of it, but I think she is scared to do it also. We are trying to work more with her daughter.  We hope to little by little teach her whole family! I also had to drop one of my investigators on facebook. He was basically atheist and just didn't think that it matters in this life if we are on the right path or not. That he had his way of thinking and it didn't matter what others said. I was grateful to at least plant a seed!

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A random skill that this week I feel I have truly acquired is the ability to to de-meat a piece of chicken gracefully with a utensil. It may seem odd but it is true. In Hispanic culture it is very common to put whole pieces of chicken, bone and all in their soup (sopa) or any other meal they make. As a missionary you have to learn how to eat it with usually only a spoon, maybe a tortilla too! So now I am able to take the meat off a bone with just a utensil and not my fingers. The moment I truly realized it was when we were at a members home from the English ward and as she was serving us she said "oh I forgot to shred the chicken" and Sister Underwood and I just thought it is ok.  As I watched the Elders try and eat I realized that I now had a skill! Not that I am very proud of it but it is a interesting skill to have! So now you know!

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In the evening on Tuesday we had a Relief Society activity doing family history. It was fun to help all of the sisters create an account and see their tree start to come to life. The Spirit of Elijah is so real when we think about our ancestors. They are the angels around us and when we get to know them I believe that are closer to us!

On Wednesday we went to the temple. I remember the first time I went to the temple as a missionary and they said that we didn't have to wear our tags. I couldn't believe it. That badge meant a lot to me and now I just didn't wear it. This last trip I think I truly understood why. As a missionary we have a big role upon us. We are held to a higher law of obedience and work ethic and just many pressures that can tend to weigh us down. As a leader of other missionaries the weight sometimes doubles! When I entered the temple this last time I was able to just be myself and I truly felt freed from the world, even the world of missionaries. The temple helps us to focus on what is eternally important. The world outside doesn't matter. I felt so refreshed from all of the work as a missionary. I was still tired and all but I had that eternal perspective renewed! It was just wonderful! There aren't many words that can describe the feelings of the temple!.

Thursday we taught Santa. She is a single mom with all of her adult children living at home. She feels the power of Satan upon her and it is really up to her, as a new member, of how it will affect her. The nice thing is as missionaries we bring that power, that strength and that hope to keep enduring to the end! Then in the evening we went to see Manuel and Deisy. They are our only investigators right now. They were expecting someone so we just visited for a short time on those moments that matter most (the Mormon Message) and left them with the renewed commitment to pray. They invited us to come to dinner this week.  That will be nice to have some more time with them! Then we went to English class to do the thought. We were a little early so we waited and while we waited a fight broke out from the boys playing basketball. They tried to calm it down but it started up again. Because it was on church property Hermana Underwood and I decided to call 911. Luckily it didn't last too much longer than that, but it just made me so sad that someone would do that at our church building. They weren't members but it was still upsetting. We tried to see some more less-actives with no luck, but it was a good a day!

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Friday we had our lovely planning of course! With a long dinner and a meeting that kind of messed up our night but it went well.

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On Saturday, because of conflicting schedules, we couldn't do an exchange like I had wanted, so we did a Companionship study with the Sisters from Vacaville. It was exactly what we all needed and just a good thing for all of the Sisters to decompress and make new goals. The next thing we did was super cool.  Here is the background story! A woman in the English ward that we eat dinner with fund raises for certain needs in Nepal. One of the women that she works with is Maggie Doyne. She has an amazing story of being a regular 17 year old girl from New Jersey and now 10 years later owns an orphanage, school, and women's center and is the mother of 44 children. Because of what she has done in her life she received an award this weekend from the Dali lama. Here is where we come in. Because she knows the Sister in the ward, the Sister threw a fundraiser type thing for her and had her speak a little. It was a nice little luncheon where they sold scarfs and bracelets and things for these children in Nepal. It was lovely to hear her speak. Hermana Underwood was just waiting for her to say "and I'm a Mormon" just like the videos on mormon.org but sadly she didn't. She knows a bit about the Church and has a Book of Mormon, so we are hoping to have contact on facebook. I was so grateful to see what she has done with her life and it made me think a lot about my own! Anyway I was so grateful for the emphasis I have had in my life, through the church, on humanitarian work! The rest of our day was pretty average after an exciting start. We were able to have some kind of contact with all of the Sisters on the list they had given to us. It felt so good to get it done!

Sunday morning we reported and they were impressed and happy to hear the reports! Our miracle yesterday was that we finally were able to teach one of our less-actives during power hour. Right now they are far from the church but with the little steps of meeting with us we know they can progress. They obviously don't hate us because they let us in sometimes, but there is a lot of work to do. We just talked about how God loves us and how the gospel blesses families. We committed her to pray as a family to help them all grow together so it was great!

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All in all it was a pretty good week. It could have been a lot better but I am sure this week we will improve! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission. I never thought I would be here. I still don't believe it some days.   I know that it is worth every moment even if they are hard. I hope all of you are being little missionaries also. I promise you that it is all worth it even when it is hard or uncomfortable or out of our comfort zone because it is the work of salvation at stake!!!! Don't forget how important it is to share! Les quiero muchisimo! Ojala que puedan ser parte de la obra de salvacion! buenas suerte!

con amor,

Hermana Cornwall

Cornwall & Underwood - Companions

The Sisters of the Fairfield Zone

17 February 2014

On the down hill slope!

So I am officially past half-way crazy right? I cannot believe it! I am so grateful for my mission so far and all it has taught me and all it will continue to teach me. The funny thing is that it never really gets easier, The Lord just keeps throwing new challenges our way. We just keep overcoming them. They aren't even trials you can really explain or write down. They are those life lessons that help us to prepare for the world!

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So on Monday, we went to go contact a referral in the evening. He was referred to us by a member. I assumed that he knew something about our church but he really knew nothing. We kind of shocked him by knowing his name and address. He said his wife is very religious so he doesn't feel that he needs it right now.  He said we could stop by again if we really wanted to. Then we had a break-through lesson with Martha. She is finally realizing the eternal mindset she can have with a knowledge of the plan that God has for her and the knowledge of the atonement. It was awesome.

On Tuesday we a great district meeting. Then we went to do exchanges in Vacaville. This time I went with Sister Day, a new missionary. She was awesome! She did a great job leading out her area and being prepared. We taught a less-active lesson with a girl that understands the importance of it all but just struggles with a few things.  We were there to kind of just give her a support lesson. We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant and is was pretty authentic food so that was fun for me at least!

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On Wednesday we switched back.  Later in the afternoon I had a bunch of success on facebook. I got a referral from one of my facebook friends that she was trying to talk to more about the gospel, but she speaks Spanish and a little English and he only speaks a little English so she told me in Spanish if I could try and teach him in English. It was cool, so he is from India and I finally started talking to him. We didn't say much but I asked if he wanted to talk more and he said he wanted to learn more. I also had another lesson with Cody. Sometimes I think these teenage boys are just messing around but I hope that he will at least have a seed planted. We are still talking but there are quite a few points in our talks that are out of the blue so I am trying to teach him. Then in the evening we planned for a blitz with some of the English Elders in Cordelia. I have never planned a blitz before so it was fun to try and organize it all. We just had to split our areas and assign the companionship for the 2 hour period in which they would be blitzing the area! 

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On Thursday I taught Cody once again and also picked up an investigator of a girl I added a while ago.  She was online and so I started talking to her. She is in some sort of bible school right now so I am slowing teaching her about the restoration so we will see how it goes. Then we taught English class in the evening which is always fun. The women that come are very funny and enjoyable to teach.  We prepped some valentines treat bags for the missionaries in our zone to deliver for valentines day!

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Valentines was just a regular planning day for us. With a fun dinner at a member. She was a Spanish missionary in this mission (she is white) and she married someone from the area. So it is half Hispanic and half white and it adds up to a lot of fun. They are a young couple with a cute little baby! 

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On Saturday we had our blitz! It went really well. For the Elders and for us. We have few appointments to follow up on so we will see! Then we had a little leaders meeting to discuss the zone. The other Sister Training Leader and I had some concerns about the zone so we just decided to have a little chat in order to have some action taken. Then we had our lesson with the Partida family! They live in between some vineyards so it was an adventure! They were baptized a few years ago and have not been very active.  We are basically going thru everything again so we will see how it goes! Then we had a drop lesson with Juan. He was someone we taught on and off, but because of that we wanted to have an official lesson where he knew we were dropping him and he could call us if he wanted to learn more! It was sad, but the best thing for him. It was a really spiritual lesson and we hope he calls us! Then we ended the night with a great comp inventory. So I just love my companion Hermana Underwood! We get along really well! Almost too well. Our work suffers a little for it.  W are trying! I love her so much. Just sayin!

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Sunday I taught Aravind on facebook again! it was so funny to teach him so basically. Just because of his limited knowledge about Christianity, I just have to teach the principles really, really basic! It was a good lesson though and so he is officially my new investigator! Then I also started talking to a teenager here in Fairfield. He seems to be open to talk but pretty basic in Christian fundamentals. I taught 6 lessons on facebook this week! It was great! I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach everyone in the world, if the opportunity presents itself.

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Well I hope that all of you have a wonderful week! I am so grateful for this wonderful work of salvation. I hope you all understand what that really means! If you don't then I encourage you to find out!

Les quiero!

Hermana Cornwall

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10 February 2014

So this week was an amazing week, for a lot of the missionaries in the Santa Rosa mission. There was nothing huge, but we felt it. As some may know we fasted for rain this last Fast Sunday and boy, did it come this week. It has been raining almost non-stop since Wednesday. Luckily it isn't that bad of rain but it has been exciting. We have all felt the power of prayer! Then also Hermana Underwood and I had our prayers answered again with our work with Less-actives this week! So let me tell you about it!

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Monday we taught a lesson to Hermano Flores, a member in our ward. For some unknown reason he has decided to attend an English ward. We, not knowing that, and having not seen him at church for a few weeks stopped by to say hello. He was so happy to receive a visit from us and he informed us that he was going to church and so we just left them with a spiritual thought and it was just nice to give people some of that TLC that we all need.

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On Tuesday we had our meetings and things. It was my first time teaching. I wasn't really nervous but I think I was a little apprehensive that I was really helping other missionaries understand how to become better missionaries. I talked about the Book of Mormon being a cornerstone of what we teach others. I loved just interacting with them and combining it all together to make sense. It was a little weird to feel so apprehensive after so many years of theatre but I am sure I will get used to all a soon. In the evening we actually had a successful English class. People are actually showing up! It was great! 2 of them even came to our ward party this week! They are like members already! The purpose of our class is to find investigators so we have been trying and we found a few.

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Wednesday we tried to visit a less active and she didn't answer, so we left her a talk, an idea of Hermana Underwood's. Then we had a crazy almost 2 hour dinner. We are so grateful for the people that feed us, but sometimes it can get a little crazy.  So here is a my little speal for all of you. Missionaries technically only have an hour for dinner. If dinner takes longer then an hour it takes up time so our plans and lessons get all messed up.  My plea from a humble missionary is that no matter what it is please be conscientious of time! I know all of you don't have any problems with that, but that is my little speech that I can never make to the members I eat with! Also this was our first rainy day! Which is fun! Both Hermana Underwood and I love the rain so it was good.

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Thursday was our miracle day! The night before, after we planned for our day, Hermana Underwood prayed that all of the lessons we had planned would happen. As missionaries we plan to visit people a lot of the time, but a lot of them don't happen.   We prayed for it and hoped for it. We had 6 lessons planned. The first was with Santa O. She is a recent convert and going strong. She has been to the temple once to do baptisms for the dead and so we wanted to help her start to find her own names and take them to the temple. We talked to her about temples and family history. Then we had a lesson with Graciela a kind of inactive. She is the only member of the church in her family. We have never met her husband.  It has all just been really hard on her. SO to our surprise who should answer the door, but her Husband! We talked for a minute as we waited for her to come out and he said it was raining so he didn't have work. She didn't have much time, and neither did we, but we shared a video about the Book of Mormon, by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and her husband pretended to watch the soccer game, without sound.  He really watched our video and he was honestly curious about it all. We definitely planted a seed that I hope will help him on his path! We went to our appointment with Jose Cospin. He works most Sundays, but we had a powerful lesson on what really matters most in life. He tries, but I hope we also started the path of him being more dedicated to come to church every Sunday! Then we taught a less-active from the English ward that we had found accidentally. They were offended, but we hope that their heart can also be softened and they can receive the comfort and peace they need from the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Then after dinner we went a visited our investigators Deisy and Manuel with their new baby boy! We watched the Patterns of Light videos by Elder Bednar that talks about the Spirit and how we feel it. I think they were touched by how simple it is and how powerful prayer is also. Then we had our last and 6th lesson of the day with Ricardo and his girlfriend who is a non-member. We finally were able to have a more spiritual lesson with him, really talking about how Heavenly Father loves him so much! We committed him to start praying again.  We hope that he does it so that eventually he can feel the importance and power of prayer! Anyway, it was a great day! We couldn't believe that our humble prayer was answered! It was a powerful confirmation of the fact that when we have faith, it will happen! Sometimes it isn't always how we imagine it or when we imagine it, but it will happen!
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Then on Friday we had a ward party for Valentines day! It was fun. They had a little dance after and that was fun also. It was a great time for the branch to really just bond together! Also one of our former investigators texted us and said that she wanted to start meeting with us again after she talked to her dentist, who just happens to be the stake president! We are excited to see her again!

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On Saturday we also had a wonderful day with some great miracles. First in the pouring rain we visited some less-actives I had never met before. They live in a small home clumped with many other small homes off of a vineyard. They were home and we were able to share a short message and set up an appointment for next week! We are very excited to be able to help them come back, paso por paso! Then later in the evening we Heart Attacked some people, those that had helped with the party, the stake president and some Elders that need some cheering up! Then we went to see another Less-active I had never met before. Her name is Janeth. At first she was a little apprehensive and her husband said that she had been crying because a few days earlier she had found out that her sister in Nicaragua has cancer. She was really down. We shared a video about hope and what it meant to her and she seemed very interested in talking to us more by the end. Her husband doesn't speak much Spanish so i think she also liked the opportunity to speak in her native tongue. Then we also taught Martha, recent convert, about not being judgmental which was just perfect timing to help her become better! It was a wonderful day, and we were so happy to have helped so many! 

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Sunday after dinner we taught a lesson on family history to another Less-active family. It was good to just help them. They have a long road to go but it was wonderful to bring the spirit into their home. All in all we had 10 lessons with less-actives or recent converts! It was such a great week! We felt the love of all of those we can help in this work of salvation and just so you all know, miracles have not ceased. There are still in effect today.  All we need is faith to act on whatever the Lord tells us and a humble prayer and those things that help us to take one step closer to our Heavenly Father will happen and will one day help us to reach exaltation!

Well I have high hopes for this week as well! I hope all of you strive to do the work of salvation, whether it be family history work, inviting a non-member friend to learn more of even working with less-actives, lets do it and see the miracles!

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Tengan una buena semana!

Les quiero!

-Hermana Cornwall

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Turkeys in Sister Cornwall's front yard.

Sister Underwood - current companion

03 February 2014

Hola!

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Como estan? estoy muy bien! Hay mucho trabajo para hacer pero, yo se que puedo hacer todo con el poder de Dios!

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So this week was a good one. We had some good lessons and zone conference and my first STL [Sister Training Leader] exchange, a blitz and my first time translating!

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On Monday we taught Hermana Horta a recent convert! They are doing well. They have a few struggles with coming to church regularly but I know it will work out if they have trust in the Lord. Their son won't go to nursery and won't sit with them in class so they think the answer is switching off turns going to church every other week.  I sure hope that isn't the answer. She is almost at her year mark of being a member of the church so we wanted to talk about preparing to enter the temple. She is so excited to have an eternal family but there is still much to do before then!

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On Tuesday we had quite a few lessons. First we taught Santa the recent convert. We just simply read from the Book of Mormon with her to support her in her studies. Then we had an appointment with Dulce, a potential investigator. We taught her about the restoration and invited her to be baptized but when we tried to set up a new appointment she said she didn't have time to meet with us. I was a little sad, but we hope that we planted a good seed.  I taught Cody, my new investigator on facebook. We have been talking a lot about God and what he means in our life. He understands the importance of god, but not really God himself. Then in the evening we went to Cordelia. It is a part of our area. We went to go see Manuel and Deisy before she had her baby, but  they werent there. I assumed they were at the hospital. We texted them later in the week and she was at the hospital. SO we decided to explore our area a little more. The town is set up very uniquely - with mostly just houses and very little people. There is one area that has the stores and fast food restaurants but the rest is just businesses and housing. The houses are really nice though! It was kind of interesting to explore and figure things out!

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On Wednesday we had zone conference! It was great as always. I would describe it as a call to repentance that makes you feel good afterward. It was 2 zones -  Fairfield and Vacaville! The weird thing was we had a little pre-meeting for the Leaders. It was weird to have this new role. The nice thing is Hermana Andres is an STL in my zone also and this is her last transfer.  It is so nice to ask her for help on things. The focus was on having better district meetings and then we had a meeting with the 3 STLs and Sister Alba, which is weird, but still good. One of President Alba's conselors, President Bell spoke to us about using members. As missionaries we sometimes get too comfortable in members homes. He was just trying to help us remember that role. The theme of the rest of the meeting was the 4 cornerstones of the foundation of missionary work. Sister Alba talked about the chief cornerstone being Jesus Christ. President Alba talked about the first vision. Elder Carrillo (AP) talked about the Book of Mormon and the last cornerstone was done by Elder Eaton (AP) it being the priesthood. They were all very good and very basic too! I like it that way. Then President Alba talked a little bit more about the heart and that the way we can get to the hearts of the people is through family history.

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On a side note - mom asked about some ways that she can introduce family history to others. I know for me, before the mission the idea with bringing the gospel up to complete strangers in the grocery line or on an airplane or even to my friends seemed impossible and really, really scary. The point of family history is to be one of th options of things we bring up with people in order to share the gospel. At times family history doesn't share the church all at once but with time they see it. You can ask others "Oh that is an interesting name where does it come from?" or "Do you know where your ancestors are from?" or "Have you ever done family history before?" There are any number of ways to do it,  With time they will feel the spirit of Elijah that is promised that through knowing our ancestors we can feel the spirit and we can promise them that they will have it more in their lives if they learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is very simple and to me a lit easier way to talk to people!

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After zone conference I went on exchanges. The sisters I am over/that I exchange with serve in Vacaville so I stayed in Vacaville for my exchange with Sister Vanderniet. It was weird to lead the exchange and things but it was fun. Sister Vanderniet is an awesome missionary with a hard past.  Because of her decision to serve a mission she has a brilliant future. She serves in the singles ward. The cool thing was that by the end of the night almost all of the people that we contacted were potentials for them, and they all seemed truly interested. It was so cool to see the miracles of working hard and being out there getting it done.

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On Thursday, as an STL I have to do apartment inspections, Ipad checks, area book checks, and an hour of training. It is kind of exhausting, but also really fun too! We did some good work and then we exchanged back. In the evening we had a lesson with Isabel, the girlfriend of one of our less-actives. She gets it all so we just had a simple lesson about God being our Heavenly Father and we watched Earthly Father, Heavenly Father a Mormon message!

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On Friday we had our second correlation meeting. We are all still getting used to having one but it is nice to finally have a little more order to things.

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On Saturday we had a Blitz for the Cordelia Elders, which is always fun. We switch companions and then go out and visit people for them. We try to get as much work done as possible. It was great. Then some members gave us money for dinner. So Hermana Underwood and I bought some mexican food and had a good little chat while we ate! We had a Relief Society activity. It was on service and the temple president and his wife came to speak. They were the Benions if that seems familiar to anyone. 

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Sunday I translated for the first time. Sister Toolson is the wife of our first counselor who speaks Spanish. The thing is that Sister Toolson does not speak Spanish.  She tries her best and does it with a smile. I admire her very much for being a part of a branch that she doesn't even understand the sacrament prayers but she is awesome. She is also in the Relief Society presidency. SO it was her turn to teach the lesson and she asked us missionaries to help. It was so interesting to translate. Since English and Spanish are not interchangeable and I don't know all the words you kind of take and remake it! It was fun! Also It rained! I don't know if all of you knew, those who don't live in California, but we all fasted for rain this Sunday and in the morning of our fast it rained! It was nice. There wasn't too much but we are hoping and praying for more!

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This week was wonderful! There was much done and much more to do! It is a great feeling to be serving others and a great responsibility! I hope each of you have a wonderful week! Don't forget to save a few souls too!

Les quiero!

-Hermana Cornwall