19 August 2013

 Hola!

Well hello again from the northern area of California! It has been another wonderful week doing the work of salvation full time! My week has been one of many miracles, as always, that never cease to amaze me!

I realized I forgot to talk about last Sunday, but to keep it short, we had another meeting with our Stake President (it is starting to become an every transfer thing) and he is so involved in the work. He cares about us and it is nice to have someone take care of us when our Mission President sometimes seems to be so far away. Our Stake has a wonderful focus on the work of salvation and I am glad to be a part of it. In the evening we had a little lesson with the Roda children, just talking about a chapter in the Book of Mormon. They are an awesome family and I am so glad we get to be with them and strengthen them so often.

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Last Monday for p-day I finally got to play soccer again which was wonderful. It is definitely my de-stresser and it is fun to play the game I truly love. For dinner, a member took us out to a Mexican restaurant named Iguanas which was fun.  The funny thing was that we ordered in Spanish. I realized at that moment how grateful I was to still be in the US so that I didn't have to do that on a 24/7 basis. We went for a lesson with one of our younger teenagers named Bethany, but she thought it was the next week and she was hanging out with friends. We had some random contacts and it was good. Our evening kind of cleared up fast with people falling through so we just went to visit some people in our favorite trailer park. We talked to Jose who we wanted to pick up as an investigator.  He and his family are just super busy, so we still haven't.  It was nice to see him. We talked to Maria, one of his neighbors. We said a nice prayer with them. Then we talked to Viktor, a man who contacted us who wanted us to drive him home from an operation in Sacramento. He asked about our beliefs and it was nice to tell him the blessings from this church. Because of all of this outdoor fun I was attacked by the bugs. In two days of being outside and talking to people I got over 35 bug bites with 16 of them on one foot. It was a painful few days but there is no more itchiness now. 

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Tuesday was our first meeting as a new district. It was funny to have everything change but it was really great and fun to just be able to support one another in the individual work. We had a lesson with Martin and we committed him to a baptismal date! It was awesome!  His date is for the 14th of September and we are excited. We had a lesson with the kids of Gabriel and Maria because the parents were busy. We finished the 10 commandments from the week before and then the mother fed us enchiladas. They were AMAZING. I don't really know what was in them but they were sooooo good. The Mexican way to make enchiladas is you cover the tortilla in sauce (those small corn tortillas) and then cook it in a frying pan. Then while they are hot you fill them with cheese and/or meat and that is it. They were so delicious the bad thing was that then we went to our dinner. I was so full it was crazy.  But I made it through. Our next lesson fell through but we had this awesome contact with this little Asian family. Now that we have a missionary to speak to them we are excited. We had English class.  It was wonderful as always. It is so fun to teach them. 

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Wednesday we had a walking morning near our apartment to try and conserve miles.  It was great because we got our contacts really fast!  We had our dinner at 3:30 because the women that signed up was busy in the evening.  To get stuff done in Woodland we did our studies which turned out to be a tender mercy because we helped some other missionaries out just by being there! We had another chat with Pedro. I don't know if I mentioned him before, but he is a former investigator who knows the Bible.  He doesn't believe in organized religion, and thinks the end of the world is coming soon. He is very nice but Hermana Kaiser and I realized that we have pleasant talks with him but we never feel the Spirit. Every time we talk to him he asks us to question this religion that we have and it is always really painful and frustrating to try and explain something when he is so close to the truth. He committed to come to Church, but to spoil it, he bailed out before he got there. His talk really wore me out because it was Spiritless. We tried to make our 10th contact of the night and it turned out to be a less active from Sacramento who was picking up her daughter who just moved there and wanted to know where the Davis Chapel was! It was awesome! 

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Thursday we had a normal morning and went to check on one of our investigators that we didn't have time to visit earlier and it turned out that we taught her son, a former investigator. It was awesome! He asked all the right questions and we are excited for his potential. He is so ready and open and I really feel that we have all the answers that he needs. Because of still feeling weak from the talk before with Pedro and knowing that I needed to kick up a gear as a missionary in general I got a blessing from my District Leader. Oh, how I love the priesthood. It is awesome to feel it strengthen us! The nice thing was on the way home we felt prompted to visit this house and it turned out to be a pastor of another church who wanted to know why Mormons denied there is a Hell. I didn't feel prepared to answer his question but Sister Kaiser and I did the best we could. He told us of other Mormons who had left the Church because of this exact reason. It was quite an interesting talk.

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The next morning [Friday] I had to answer the question for myself what our view of Hell was. I wasn't worried and I knew I would find the answer if I tried, so of course I did. It was an awesome study but a little exhausting. That is the beauty of this gospel. It is the truth because it always has an answer !. There is always a way to go. Then, we went to our 83 uear old, less active Yolando. She is wheelchair bound and so kind. We cleaned her windows for her and in return she made us flautas (tauqitos). She doesn't even cook for herself and she made them for us from her wheelchair. She is amazing and we love her! We had a lesson with Gabriel and Maria. The end of the lesson was really just him saying that all churches have errors and problems so I will come to your church, but it is equal with all the rest. He also works on Sundays, so he can't really come to church. We have decided to drop them as investigators or at least for a while. Both of our appointments didn't work today.  For the second one we brought one of the members of the YSA ward who is interning from BYU. Because our lesson had fallen through and she had helped us before we took her out to ice cream. It was a little weird to be out in downton Davis, a college town, on a Friday night and not proselyte, but it was good! I got nutella ice cream and it was really good too!  
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On Saturday we took Roberto from Thursday to a baptism. Our brand new investigator committed and actually came to a baptism. He had to be driven by a member.  He loved it. His family is Catholic and so he thought it would be a little sprinkiling of water. It was so wonderful to have him just feel the spirit of it all. He works on Sundays.  We see so much potential in him. Then we saw Ada Uribe. She was awesome.  She is opening up more and more to the gospel. We hope to just keep her moving forward. She said she will come to church but she didn't.  Thats ok, because I think she likes meeting with us and we just hope it goes higher and higher! We saw the Rodas who decided that they needed to go to the Flea market on Sunday instead of church, but we were glad to see them.

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Needless to say no one came to church, but it was still a good Sunday. Can I just say that a Spanish branch is so different from an English Ward. The standard of conduct for the average member would appall some, but I love it and love them because they all sacrifice to come to church. For dinner we had Pizza from Little Caesars (another odd conduct of the branch), but we were grateful for it! We went to teach Wendy but she wasn't home so we taught her sister-in-law instead. She is a sweet teenager and we hope to see her desires grow in the gospel. We had another lesson fall through, but it was perfect because we got to go see Blance. She is this women that we met who wants to come to church. She had had a rough day and we were able to say a prayer with her and start our relationship on a more sure foundation.
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All in all the Lord is here in Davis, as he is everywhere, but the crazy thing is that he works through me. At times that can be a lot of pressure but most of the time it gives me the opportunity to see the miracles unfold. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I feel them everyday by my ability to do that work. I know that our loving Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for us. The central part of that Plan is Jesus Christ. He is our savior and also our brother. He works through prophets on the earth to lead and guide us to return back to him. He has also given us scriptures. We have the Book of Mormon to support the Bible and have answers to our questions so that when we return to the presence of God we will be prepared.
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Continue with your faith because it is always enough and the Lord will help you along your way. Keep up the work of salvation in any way you can because it is all that matters in this life!

Have a great week! Nos Vemos!
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Love

- Hermana Cornwall.

The Woodland Fair

Book covers Sister Cornwall made for girls she teaches