Cold, a dog, and monkey Oh My!!

QUERIDA FAMILIA!!!!

Oh I love you guys so much!

It is so fun to see pictures and get emails from you every week! I'm so excited for the package!!! I'll look out for it everyday! Gosh, it sounds like you guys have been so busy and there's so many new exciting things going on in our ward with mission calls! We are going to be such a powerhouse when it comes to missionaries! WHERE IN THE WORLD IS KALEB GOING??? It's killing me! Ashy said she wasn't allowed to tell me because they were sending me a letter or something, so hopefully it comes soon! I can't believe we are going to have all three of us out at the same time! We went from no missionaries to three!

Well, this week has been pretty cold! Yesterday we didn't have church because of the weather. It was cancelled! I have never heard of that, but then again I guess that would never happen in Boulder. It was such a bummer because we had like 4 investigators who were suppose to be coming with us :( We weren't even allowed to go anywhere yesterday until around four when we got permission because the roads were finally plowed. Although it's been quite cold, it has been a good week. I love this area! Seriously every single day is a new adventure! Never did I ever think I would feed a monkey (that only happens at the zoo and in Africa!), but as we were teaching Megan and Scott (our new investigators), we heard this squealing and they asked if we wanted to meet their pet monkey. SAY WHAT! Who even knows if that's legal! hahaha Scott and Megan are great! He's 19 and she's 17. It's neat to teach people around our age, but hard at the same time because you want to gain a relationship of trust and at the same time we can't become too buddy buddy because we need to focus on our purpose. They both have had a bit of a crazy history (but honestly, I haven't met a single person here who hasn't). We are hoping to be able to meet and teach them more this week.

 On Wednesday, I went on exchanges (this is when we switch companions for the day). So, Hna. Altier and I worked in her area for the day. It was such a neat day! We first taught a lady named Suhair. She's from Iraq and is Muslim. Her English is very limited, so we had to teach very simply and used a lot of pictures. She seriously has the biggest heart and is so sweet. Her son, who's 8, was screaming in the other room as we were  teaching. She kept apologizing and explained to us that he has autism. It was so neat because I was able to talk about Aubs and how the gospel has helped our family. It was just one of those moments where I knew I was supposed to be there. The next house we went to was this kid named Roabie. Roabie grew up in UGANDA :) Another one of those moments! We talked a lot about it and I tried to remember some Lugandan! It was so fun! I know these weren't mere coincidences that I was suppose to do exchanges on that day with those specific appointments that she had planned! God's hand really is in this work.... every step of the way! 

The most exciting news this week is that we have someone who has accepted to be baptized on April 13th!!! We are so so excited for him! His name is Victor and his wife (June) is a member of our ward. They have only been married for a few months and they are new to this area and our ward. They had us over for dinner last week and as we were talking we could just tell that he was so prepared and ready! So, two days ago we went over and taught him the first lesson and invited him to baptized and he said, "YES I WILL", not just yes! HE IS GETTING BAPTIZED! He is such an incredible person. He is paralyzed on his left side from a stroke but he is so positive and so faithful. He is reading the Book of Mormon everyday and just LOVES the scriptures. We are going to try to teach him multiple times this week because I have noticed the longer we wait in between appointments, the more Satan works on these people (especially when they have committed to a baptismal date). We also just found another really solid lady named Brianna. She has two kids and is just so prepared. We are going to visit her tonight! I'm so excited about her! We have some pretty promising investigators right now so this week should be wonderful, with a lot of work! PRAY FOR THEM PLEASE!

On a more spiritual note, something I have really learned this week and I'm continuing to learn is that I need to have more faith. Sometimes when I meet people, I automatically think about all the things they would need to change to accept the gospel and I almost doubt that this would be something they would ever accept. As Hna. Thorne and I were talking about this this week, she reminded me about a scripture that talks about when Christ said that he wasn't called here to call the righteous to repentance, but the sinners. (Or something like that, I'm sure I just butchered it!). I have thought a lot about this. I feel like sometimes I think about how much easier it would be to find those that are already living pretty "righteously", and although we do find some of them sometimes (our "golden" investigators), this message is also for those who need to be healed. I have been learning to never give up on someone’s ability to change. The hardest thing to do here is when we have to decide that someone is not progressing and we have to drop him or her. We do this through prayer of course, but it is still so hard to let people go because we know of the power and truth of this message. But, being here, I am actually quite surprised at how many people are being prepared. Hna. Thorne and I have been really praying to find those that he has prepared and I know that they are here. Anyway, it has been a good, hard, long, cold week, but I am doing great here! LES AMO MUCHO MUCHO!!!!!

1. Here I am in one of our members cars going to their house for dinner. She has no seats so we just sat on the floor.

2. Me and mi companera just sitting on the floor having a good time in the car.

3. This is the Netherlands. They are from our ward. They are hilarious! (They have the car that has no seats) She called us Sugar and Baby the entire time. He told us he is a cousin with Michael Jackson! Who knows, he kinda looks like the family! Hahaha

4. Here we are feeding the monkey! SAY WHAT!!!! They have a pet monkey!!!!

5. This is MACO! 

6. It has been FREEZING! This is our guard dog Arnold. He just kept following us ALL day. It got awkward when we would go up and knock on people's door because they would think he was ours. Finally, he decided to follow someone else since we were gone for an hour in an appointment.

  

7. Me and Han. Thorne tracting in the snow because the roads were too wet so we weren't allowed to use our car!

Love her!

8. SO SO SO COLD!