Hello familia! Well, how was everyone's week?
We had a great week this last week! Vanessa Delgado and her son Andrew were baptized yesterday!!! She is super strong and amazing. She bore her testimony at the end and it was so good. The ward was really great at supporting her and being there, as well as her friends that she works with that are members. The support is always good and important. One guy sang a solo, and right after wards, Vanessa, her brother, and Andrew, started clapping. That was great. I love when people are new in the church! Vanessa also requested "Battle Hymn of the Republic" for the closing song. That's just great. End with a patrioticish feeling!
Now we just need to find some more people to set some baptismal dates with! This week we really have to focus on tracting and finding and talking to all of the part member families.
Last Thursday we had a district tract. All of the elders in our district came to our North Hills area (where not much is happening) and each took a different street and tracted for an hour. They each got us one name of someone we can check on, ironically some of them turned out to be very inactive members. That's okay. They all have non member friends! I know we'll be able to get the work going there; it just takes constant hard work!
Things are still going really well with S. Patten and S. Fatkin and I. S. Patten knows a lot of random church facts which comes from serving at Temple Square. So that's fun, because she brings a new viewpoint to the companionship. I'm sad though that S. Fatkin is leaving in two weeks. Super weird. She was my first companion when I came out, and now I'm her last companion as she leaves. I guess there was something we still needed to learn from each other. I've definitely learned a lot from her, she's amazing!
I finally feel like I'm getting to know the wards a little bit, it's just taking some time. That's okay.
I don't think we're doing anything special for the fourth of July. We're not allowed to go to really any ward activities or anything, besides our stake is doing the activity in the morning, and we can't move our study time. And fireworks are too late to watch. Well, maybe we'll go outside our apartment and try to see them from the high school. We'll think of something patriotic to do.
Today for p-day we and our district all went on a bike ride. It was sooo much fun. We borrowed these fancy bikes from these hard core bike riders in our ward and we went on a 7 mile ride. It was a pretty good one. Right in the beginning I tried to jump this curb thing, without really thinking that I might not be able to do it, and I did a good fall. I'm told I got some air, so at least I have that. And as long as the bike's good, I'm good. Though I got a bloody elbow and hand. Maybe I'll send a picture! It was just really fun and I'm sure we'll all feel it tomorrow. I have a really great district, all very nice elders.
Just so you get a little idea of our mission and how it's doing, this is a little from the e-mail our President sends us each week:
"It turns out that there were 10 baptisms this weekend. This gives the mission a total of 38 so far this transfer, with two more weekends to go. There is much work to do in order to achieve our standard of excellence of 57 for the transfer. For the same period in 2008 there were 27. As of the end of June, there have been 222 baptisms. Keep in mind that this total includes one weekend in March with 20 baptisms and two other weekends of 17 baptisms. The year-to-date total of 222 compares to 267 for the entire year of 2008. You are doing so well, yet there is so far to go. It is wonderful to stretch ourselves in the Lord’s service! Again I ask: If the Lord can bless our mission with 10 baptisms in one great weekend, why not 20? And if 20, why not 40? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Certainly not! All that is needed is worthy missionaries who have the faith to believe they can find the Lord’s lost sheep, and who are willing to work for the blessings that await. Our goal now is to reach 19 more baptisms (let’s just say at least 20 to make it a round number) over the next two weeks. The Lord could do that for us in just one week. He has done it for us before. Why not reach 20 each of the next two weeks? Our aim is to consistently meet or beat our standard of excellence each transfer. When we do so, the bar will be raised to greater heights. Thanks to each of you for your honest and humble efforts for the Lord and His children. Onward and upward."
So everything's wonderful and amazing and I'm happy doing this work and I appreciate all of the prayers and love and support from all of you! I hope that everything is going amazingly in all of your lives and that you're all happy too!
Love,
Emily
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