It's not Buenos Aries, but I love sunny little Spokane Valley!

Thank you so much for the emails and kind, uplifting words.  I don't think you will ever know the strength and faith that they bring to me on the mission. So I'm not sure where to start, but we'll go with yesterday since it was a crazy, INCREDIBLE day. 

First of all, we had the Spanish Branch at 9:00 and it was so wonderful because Manuel came to church again! Agustin picked him and drove him since he has a broken foot, and everyone was so kind and welcoming.  I seriously LOVE the Spanish branch so much.  Before church it's just like a big love fest where everyone's hugging and kissing as if they haven't seen each other in years.  It's the closest feeling to a family that I've ever experienced in a ward, and they really take care of each other.  After Sacrament, we ran off to drive back to our English area for our English ward at 11:00 (that's how every Sunday works), leaving Manuel in the capable hands of our members. 

On the way there, we got a text from two of our Spanish investigators, Marco and Carlos saying that they were coming to the English ward!  I've never mentioned them because they haven't been progressing very much and it's hard to get in contact with them. So we were literally blown away to find out that they were coming to church.  We've been working on that for months, and they would never commit!  But lo and behold, there they were in the foyer 20 minutes early, and we were beyond excited.  (And we have no idea how they knew about the English ward. Next goal is to get them to the Spanish Branch where they can actually understand!) 

The members of the Bowdish (english) ward were incredible and anyone who has ever learned a word of Spanish came up to talk with them and welcome them.  I gave a talk in Sacrament, so Sister Ruiz poor thing was left to translate on the back row for an hour straight. AND a family that we have been teaching came to church as well!  The mom's name is Alicia and she has four beautiful little kids.  They stayed the full three hours and absolutely LOVED it.  So you'll probably be hearing alot more about them, they're one of those "golden families." Alicia is just so open and is kind of similar to Steve in the way that she just accepts and loves everything we teach her about the Gospel.

I can't describe how much I love Sister Ruiz and how much she has blessed my life as a missionary. She is an incredible teacher and never tires of my ceaseless questions.  She is kind and extremely loving, and even though our senses of humor are very different, we've managed to figure each other out and just have the greatest time together.  Laughter is aboslutely necessary for a missionary. :)

Anyways, gotta run, but life is great!  The work here is literally charging forward at full speed and EVERYONE around us getting excited about it.  Members, less-active members, investigators.  Heavenly Father really is at work in Spokane Valley, and it's so fun to be a part of it.