Jose Set a Date 3-20-2012

Hola familia!

 

     This week has been pretty good! The highlight being that Jose has finally decided on a date to get baptized! He wants to get baptized this coming saturday and is excited about it. The problem is now that we need to go talk to his wife which is a little scary because she told him recently that if he got baptized he will be dead to her. We feel good about it though so we have high hopes. So we need lots of prayers and lots of faith. We hope to be able to visit as many people as possible this week and have a many people at church as possible this week at church (my last week). One of the members this past sunday brought his daughter in-law to church this week which was a miracle becuase before she never wanted to listen to us or anything. So hopefully we'll be able to get an appointment with her this week.

    I'm e-mailing from Chicago today! I think I mentioned before that I got special permission to come because I never got to serve by the city. So We're really excited to be here. We're not sure what we're going to do yet but we're just going to have fun that's all I know. And don't worry I will take pictures. I've already taken 1 or 2. :)

    Yes I also got accepted into the University of Washington! It's really a miracle because the application process was so crazy and I had to do everything in such limited amounts of time. I have until May 1st to let them know.

    Yesterday I had my last zone conference. It was really good and they made me and Hermana Reyes (who was my companion for a week at the MTC) give our "departing" testimonies. It was so weird. I have lots of moments where it hits me that I'm almost done. Mixed feelings fro sure. I'm still a missionary though for now and I'm going to love every last minutes that I have. Today in personal study I read a verse in 3 Nephi 5:13 that' I've loved a lot on my mission and I was think about it a lot today. It says "Behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they may have eternal life". i really love that verse because It's so true and it describes being a missionary so well. I love being able to say that I am a disciple of Jesus Christ called of him to declare his word. It really helps put this work into perspective as well. How important it is and why we do it. Remembering that true purpose of what we're doing. It helps keep me focused on that purpose. I love being a missionary. 1 strong week left!

     Thanks for you e-mails this week and for all of the support you've giving me on my mission. I will be forever grateful for it! I love you all!

 

Hermana West

Maria Pena Date Set 3-12-2012

Hola Familia!

      This week has been really warm! Well not like summer warm but in the 50's and 60's. Wednesday might break the 70's. It feels so nice. Today it's raining though...but at lesat it's warm. There might be thunderstorms later.  Last Thursday we were able to set a baptismal date as a goal with Maria Peña who I was teaching for a while when I first got to the area but then we dropped her for a while. She says she really wants to know if it's true but there is still a lack of actual "action" on her part (i.e. reading and coming to church). Hopefully having this goal will motivate her. We had a really good lesson yesterday with Fransisco and his family. His son came out and started asking us all these random questions like if a person who makes money doing bad things but donates money to good causes and believes in God is good or bad. Typical teenager questions. I felt the spirit as we started explaining the importance of repentance and changing to become more like Christ. In that moment I thought wow we are really declaring repentance right now and it's awesome. Fransisco seems to be pretty interested still. It's just a matter of if he's actually willing to do something.
    Yesterday a family made food for us and there was so much meat! They gave Hna. Stuart this huge bone with tons of meat on it it was hilarious. Last preparation day we got permission to meet my old companion Hna Delis for lunch. It was really fun. I took a picture. We ate at this one place that was really good. I got a hamburger and the other three got salads. It made me feel like I was unhealthy or something. 
    I'm having a hard time remembering what happened this week. It's all just a blur to me. Time is just going that fast. I feel like I do right around finals time at school. There's so much to do that it's overwhelming and so little time to do it. Next week My preparation day will be on Tuesday because our zone meeting is on Monday. My last one! ahhhhh. We're probably going to go to the city on Tuesday also. So I'm excited.

Love you!

Hermana West