In the Head of Hannie: Monday, October 27, 2014

This week has been crazy. I feel like I cant remember the day to day activities. Good thing we have planners right?

MONDAY

This turned out to be a really bad day. Email were great but the rest was bad. We were trying to find a post office so Hna Hurley could mail some packages. We found it but it took forever and we only had about and our to shop for groceries.

It took a lot longer to get to the Walmart than we though it would. By the time we left Walmart it was already 6:00 (which is them time we should be proselyting) As we were driving home we realized that we were in East Sac (we live in North Sac) and had been shopping our side of our zone the whole time.

When we got back to the house we realized that we had locked the keys inside the house so we had to call the other hermanas to come let us in. But the time we got out to work it was already 7:30. During the time we had to wait Hna Hurley had a bit of a break down. ( Can you Believe that she was the first to cry and not me?)

At 8:00 we had a appointment with the Rodriguez family. We watched The Testaments with them and the spirit was so strong. That family is so great and wee see great things that are about to happen with them. We think that the dad will start coming back to church soon and that the oldest son with be more invested. We are so excited to work more with them.

TUESDAY

Not a lot happened on this day. We did have dinner with an English family. The Marriott's were just recently married and they are an older couple. The husband reminded me so much of Brian "Roger" Halverson that I had a hard time believing that they were not brothers. It made me miss Indiana a bit. I realized that the wife is me in 20 years. She said the same stupid jokes that I tell and we were strait up twins.

WEDNESDAY

We ate so much food today that I though I was going to throw up. We had lunch at the Villalobos and dinner at the Gonzales. Hna Villalobos make us lentil soup and a great pasta dish that was from Venezuela and then the Gonzales family made fried chicken and Alfredo.

We did a lot of tracking this day. We had a lot of potentials in one apartment complex so we went to work there. Half way though we realized that we were in the wrong complex. We wasted 1 hour of tracking. No wonder no one was in the right homes.

We take turns teaching an English class on Wednesdays with all the other missionaries. This week we went to observe how they teach. It was so much fun. There is one or two investigators that come and the rest on ladies from the church who are SO funny. They crack me up. We had a great time and i realized that It is OKAY that i don't speak Spanish because these ladies don't know how to speak English and they have been in America for years.

THURSDAY

We wanted to go and invite a lot of the people we had met to come to the ward Halloween party on Saturday. We stopped by a lot of less actives. A lot of them weren't home but that is okay. We stopped by the Ramirez house and non of them were home but the son. The son started talking to us and he said that he wanted to start coming to church and stuff like that. We left him with commitments to watch some of the Mormon messages. (when we returned on Sunday, he had! we were so stoked)

We had dinner at Terezina Perez house and she told us her conversion story and it was beautiful. She is awesome and such a trooper. She is 26 and there isn't really anyone that age in the ward. She is still dedicated and finds places to help where she can and makes friends with the older people. She is so amazing and cooks GREAT food. I didn't know how much I liked Mexican food until I had hers.

FRIDAY

It was Hno Rodriguezes birthday so we made him cookies and a card. When we showed up he was so excited. It was really funny. We gave him his cookies and card and had a short spiritual thought with them. The Rodriguez family lives super close to Daniel so we tried to stop by his house. His brother Pablo answered the door but said that Daniel wasn't home. We asked if him and his family would want to come to the Halloween party tomorrow and he said that he did. He also said that we could come back and teach time tomorrow if we wanted to. We were so excited. We had always felt like we should talk to Pablo when we were there but the opportunity never came up. We were so excited that he wanted us to return we did a happy dance in the middle of the Road.

SATUDAY

We went over to Hna Baltazars that morning to see if she needed help with making stuff for the Halloween party. She said she'd LOVE the help.

We had the party and it was a blast. Elder Rindlebacher danced and it was SO funny. He is usually so uptight and serious that it was so funny to see him dance. He was cracking the whole ward up.

SUNDAY

We had dinner at Linda Perez house and she made the best food. It was almost like tostado but she called them enchiladas. We helped her make it and it was a lot of fun. Hna Perez also came out with us to visit some people. She helped us make 2 return appointments. She reminds me of the Mexican version of Jennifer Smith. She is so motherly and honest it is crazy. She also offered to make us skirts. She is so sweet.

MONDAY

Linda Perez took us out to get fabric for our skirt. I picked it out and it came to be pretty cheap. $9.00 for two yards. It is going to be super cute. She went to sewing school and said she didn't even need a pattern. She made a girl Halloween costume and it turned out so cute. I'll send a picture when she finishes it.

We are going to play some games here at the church and then go grocery shopping.

QUESTIONS

What boxes have you gotten from me and how many cards?

I've gotten 3 cards and 1 box that had the dress in it and shirts, WHICH I LOVE, and the blazer and those ADORABLE Halloween things. It was so cute.

Did you get my apartment address because you can just send them to there.

What is the best thing that happened this week?

Our lesson with the Rodriguez family and the Ramirez family. I can see them progressing so much and I love them. The Rodriguez dad is inactive and the whole Ramirez family is inactive. Also, Lunch at the Villalobos. I love her so much. She is the Hispanic version of me.

Are you sleeping well?

Sleeping like a baby. Cant wait to get the Tshirt quilt. Ill be sleeping even better. And my first pillow case??

How many dinner appointments do you get a week?

Mostly every night. There are Hispanic people that love us, English people, and Hmong people that love us. So we eat well.

Are the members involved in the missionary work?

Our ward is really struggling right now. We are focused on helping them and a reactivating member since we are having a really hard time finding investigators. There are a few people who are really dedicated. We are also working on getting the youth involved.

Are you working with less actives?

A TON of less actives. We need more people to help and support so that is what were doing. We try to get into a less actives home at least once a day. We can already see so many blessing coming from that.

How are your shoes holding up?
Great. I love them. They are so awesome and comfortable.

SHOUT OUTS.

Mom

Dad

Ashley Vance