Love From Spokane!

Hi dear family!

Thank you for the emails as always, they make me so happy and I feel so lucky to have such awesome family members who write me! So the low-down for this next transfer: First of all, I'm staying here in Spokane Valley!  I am so happy about that because I'll get to watch all of our wonderful investigators continue to progress.  But the sad news is that Sister Ruiz is leaving me!  I have come to love that girl so much, and we were just getting to a point were we really worked well together in teaching and understand all of each other's quirks.  But isn't that how life is?  Just as you get used to things or get good at something,  Heavenly Father lets it get switched up a little so that we can KEEP improving.  On that note, I am VERY excited about my new companion.  I will meet her tomorrow, but I have heard wonderful things about her so far.  Her name is Sister Alverez and she is from Utah.  I guess she was raised in a Spanish speaking home, so she speaks perfect Spanish and English.  Apparently she is the sweetest, nicest sister and I'm really excited to learn from her and also hopefully improve my Spanish a little!

Life here has been wonderful.  And I think I need to explain some of our investigators a little since all of my stories have been a little confusing and mixed up.  So first of all, Mom, to answer your question, Carlos and Eric have been really hard to get a hold of and Annie as well.  So they aren't really progressing at this point, but we will keep trying and who knows!  Amazing things could happen. So the people who are kind of the center of my world right now are Manuel (who is getting baptized this Saturday!) and Alicia and her kids. 

Manuel was the miracle investigator who called us up one day to ask about "a book like the Bible."  We had that first lesson with him, he wanted to get baptized, and it has been a whirlwind of teaching and learning ever since!  I cannot describe how much I love this man.  He is a tiny guy from Mexico, working in the U.S. to provide for his wife and five daughters who live back in Mexico, and he has the sweetest, most loveable way about him.  And I have never seen someone with such a thirst for learning in my entire life. We'll be talking about something, and I'll let something slip like mentioning the Doctrine and Covenants, and he is on it like a shot.  "What's the Doctrine and Covenants?  Where can I get it? It's more revelation?  I want to read it!"  Then one day he called us up and was like, "Why didn't you tell me about the Liahona?!  I need to order this!" And we were thinking, how the devil did he find out about the Liahona??  He wants to get his hands on anything from the church and he loves reading about the modern prophets, not to mention his love for the Book of Mormon. 

And THEN, one day we were talking with him about sharing the gospel with his friends and family (we're always always asking for referals) and he was like, "well I only have my one friend who told me he isn't interested, but I'll keep working on it." Then at our next lesson he brings this brand new friend who he just met and now he's asking for copies of the Book of Mormon to give to his "new friends!"  He is a great example of someone like Enos who, having discovered the joy of the gospel, wants nothing more than to share it with everyone around him. 

Then there's Alicia and her four beautiful kids, and they are truly a miracle in our lives.  Because Alicia grew up in Utah, the whole LDS culture is familiar to her, but she knew nothing about our beliefs.  So when the Elders knocked on her door two weeks ago, it was just totally natural for her to learn more, and she accepts everything with the faith of a child.  She really wants her and her kids to be baptized, but she's apprehensive about setting a date because she really wants to be ready.  I think we take it for granted as members of the church that there is ALOT of information to take in.  There are simple truths that we have grown up with like "God and Jesus are two different people" that most of the world knows nothing about!  So we are having FHE and lessons at members homes trying to teach them everything we can, and I have no doubt that they will be baptized very soon.  Heavenly Father has been preparing Alilcia for this long before we ever came into the picture.   

Today I went fear busting again with the new group of missionaries, and it was AWESOME! We went back to the big beautiful park where I spent my first day in the field and the same place where we met Avery and talked about "Rainbown Parades." :)  My new missionary was so timid and shy, but it was wonderful to go out and just talk with everyone, from homeless people to crazy people to clowns to nice little moms to hippies from Vancouver Island. Now THEY were cool.  We met this couple in the park who were just chillin by their bikes and had just spent two weeks biking from Vancouver, sleeping in sleeping bags and eating on the road.  They were really down to earth and we talked for a long time about their atheist beliefs and our beliefs. I love being a missionary because you get to meet so many cool people!!

Well, I've gotta run, but that's life here in the Spokane Valley.  I love being a missionary more than I could have imagined, and I love sharing this gospel of happiness with the world!  Jesus Christ loves these people so much and I get to see that love and the light of Christ that truly is in them every day of my life.  It's the best thing ever. Love you so much fam!