Disneylandia

Hello familia! I got some great e-mails this week, so thank you all for those! Hooray! Irvine and I are doing great. Let’s see, what happened this week?
First of all, last week playing soccer with the zone I collided with another elder’s leg and I got a big hematoma on my leg. Really, it was huge, S. Moore said it looked like another knee. Ouch. The “growth” is now gone, but my whole shin is bruised. Nylons are good for covering up some things. I testify of shin guards.
Well, let’s see, first off, Stephanie. We’ve been seeing a lot of her lately. She called us last Tuesday and said she was just having a really bad day and wondered if she could get a blessing. Of course! So some elders in our district came to the church and gave her a blessing and we just talked for a little while. I think it really helped and I thought it was so interesting, that for someone who isn’t quite sure yet about the church, she had faith in a priesthood blessing. After we taught her on Friday, she had a meeting with some of the members in her church. She does it every week. This week’s topic was her. They had another pastor come who supposedly knows a lot about our church, to all try to help her see that she needs to be careful. I think they confused her a little, because she says she feels comfortable with both what they say, and what we say. She’s now been exposed to a lot of deeper doctrine that we wouldn’t have taught her ourselves, but we just tried to briefly explain them, and when we did, she accepted it. She’s said that the plan of salvation is so perfect and that everything makes sense. She’s getting answers left and right and I think she knows it, but change is hard and it makes her nervous to commit without her family. I don’t know. She’s becoming too content and she basically wants to take the things we teach her and keep learning, but be able to stay at her church so it doesn’t disrupt anything. But she can’t keep doing that!
We’re trying to get in to teach some inactive, part member families currently, and it seems to be going well. They’re all letting us in and seem to trust us, so that’s good. Like Pete and Dana. Dana is a convert and married the guy who was the missionary who “converted” her. I don’t know what happened, but after 10 years they got divorced. They were married in the temple, and I think she was active for years. Now she is pretty inactive and living with a guy who she’s been engaged to for the past 2 years. Pete is really amazing and would do anything for Dana, and I think she’s the reason why they’re not married-she’s still stuck on this ex-husband who doesn’t seem to be a great guy at all. It’s hard because Pete really enjoys the lessons and prays and I think wants to come to church, but Dana always has some reason that she can’t come. She knows she needs to be a better example, but she’s not making it a priority. So we need to figure out how to help him progress even when she’s not.



The whole week was just really busy. It seems like we’re always running somewhere to visit someone. We didn’t even get in a lot of knocking time last week, and I don’t think we’ll have much this week either. Probably next week, at the beginning of the next transfer, we will be knocking doors a lot again. Not the most effective (referrals are better!) but it seems to be how we do find investigators here. It’s S. Moore’s last week, so today she is at Disneyland. Our last p-day the departing missionaries get to go. So she’s with some sisters there and I am on exchanges back at my old apartment for the day. But my old companions live somewhere else now, so I’m hanging out with one of the girls I used to live with, and the Tongan sisters-including S. Chriswell. It’s fun to be around her again. She’s crazy. My six month anniversary is this Thursday, and S. Moore’s last district meeting, so we will have a combined party! And I will burn an elder’s tie! Yes! I have no idea who my companion will be next week, but it will be great, right? I’ve learned a lot from S. Moore, and even though she’s leaving me in an area where everyone is in love with her and sad to see her go, the next sister and I will be able to do things that she couldn’t do. That’s what I try to keep reminding myself of anyway!
What else? Not much. We’re keeping busy and I’m doing really good. Thanks for the e-mails and packages and everything! Love you all!