In the Head of Hannie: October 12, 2015

Leaving my Samoan girl!!

Tengo un tos ‏

Well I got a cough yesterday. I guess that is what I get for not getting a flu shot yet. I'm going to day, so don't worry. This is the first time I've been sick sick in like a year and 2 months. That's crazy. Haha Beniciones from the Lord. So this is how this last week went.

Monday.

We got a call from Sister Palmer we were moving stat. It took us all afternoon but I'm glad to be out of that garbage pit. It was so gross. Plus now we have a functioning shower! What a blessing, I can get clean now! I'm not a funky monkey anymore. Because we spent all day moving we missed out two appointments that we had that night. We were a little disappointed but we tried to see them anyways and we just got return appointments for different nights. We are now living with Sister Dimpter. Crazy story, her son Elder James Dimpter served in the Louisville Kentucky Mission and he served in the Madison Ward of the New Albany Indiana Stake. He also thinks Larry Porter, the Stake President, is the coolest guy in the world. Isn't that crazy? He knows dad. I'm sure we don't remember him but he remembers us. What a small world. Anyways, Sister Dimpter is single and she is amazing at doing missionary work. She works hard core with the less actives. She has over 35 people she has befriended in her missionary efforts. She keeps us motivated sometimes.

Tuesday.

Was a day of eating. We had a few lesson that were in the morning but all of them fell through. We looked for some new investigators that we could add and also some less active members. I was pretty unsuccessful. Then we had to go grocery's shopping because we didn't get to do that on Monday because we were moving. Then we ran home and dropped our food off and then after that we went to an appointment in Newman. The lady is a returning less active and she was like "I made you food" Well the bad thing was that we were going to be having dinner in like 5 minutes. So we ate her food and then after that we went do dinner. We are teaching this ladies son who is 8 so he doesn't count as an investigator. But he just started coming to church recently and he is going to get baptized soon. His names is Moses and we are basically best friends. He loves Mario and I love Mario, only when it makes me his best friend. haha We taught him the restoration and it was really well. He loved it and thought we were cool and he actually know a lot for never going to primary.

Wednesday.

We went to dinner with Hna Rosas and we ate some spicy food. She didn't mean to make it spicy but she did. Even my native companions were dying so it wasn't just my weak sauce white genes. But we ate chicharron and it wasn't that good. Hna Ku always told me I'd love it and that she'd make it for me but she never did, and I'm glad she didn't. It is a super chewy pork dish and it was G-ROSS. After her we went to see a lady who is less active. She just had baby and he is SUPER cute. We asked her if we could start coming over to teach her family the lessons and she said YES! WE taught her the restoration that night and it was a little rocky. We need some practice in making sure we distribute the time equally between the three of us. Also, there were a LOT of awkward silence gaps. We are getting better though. I'm learning to be quite until one of them speaks...sometimes that's a few minutes...

Something else that has been happening is we are tying to seethe less actives and a lot of them say that they were never baptized. There was this lady who said the elders always stop by looking for her but she hasn't ever stepped foot into our church. That has happened twice. I'm not sure if the people here in Crows Landing are just a little crazy or if it is true. I guess we will find out.

Thursday.

WE had the BEST dinner with our Branch President and his family. They are so amazing. Sister Martinez doesn't speak Spanish at all but she is learning because she is in the Relief Society Presidency. We walk into her house and she says "SISTER! I'm trying to be a good missionary and I think I'm going to be having someone come over for dinner who isn't a member. Hopefully it all works out right!" She invited her ex-son-in-law over for dinner. It was so kind and he wants to feed us at there house every time we come over. He wasn't going to stay around for the spiritual thought but he did and Sister Martinez was just crying she was so happy. We talked about prophets and the general conference. He was getting ready to leave and she was crying and he said "What's wrong" She said "Nothing, it's called the spirit. I'm just so happy you are here. If you ever want to meet with these ladies call me and I can set it up." It was a tender experience and I'm glad she felt the power of missionary work.

Friday.

We had a lesson with a lady named Silvia. She had forgotten about our appointment and had fallen asleep. The whole lesson she was nodding off. The good news is she accepted a baptism date. But we didn't count it because she had not clue what she was committing herself to. It was a really funny lesson. Then we got to know our Elders Quorum president. He is the sweetest man in the world. He is do sad that our ward is down to 20 members. He is going through dialysis and isn't able to what he used to. He said he wants to come out with us soon though. He is the only member in his family and he is so sweet. he always says "they'll come around in their own time. and the more I have you over, the more exposure they get." He is the cutest man. The sister training leaders decided to make a surprise exchanges with us. It was quite the fun night. I got to spend it with Hna Carpenter and we got to catch up with each other. It was quite a nice time.

Saturday.

I realized that we need to spend more time outside the car and make an effort to talk to everyone. Hna Carpenter reminded me of that.

Sunday.

We went to church and then had a crazy long chat. It was quite the evening. We have some goals though that we will all be working on and hopefully that will help somethings to become better. There have just been a few things that were off and now we are back on again. I'm excited to see where this week takes us.

I love you all so much. I hope you have a great week and you make good choices and read your scriptures and say your prayers.

Love,

Hermana Porter.