Letters from Lauren

You never realize how much the gospel has blessed your life till you go on a mission. Seriously. They are blessings which you can't describe, but I will simply describe it as a lasting happiness, a better quality of life. The best news of the week is that we have a baptismal date! With Victoria and she's come to church two weeks in a row. She loves it, and we love her. She really is the miracle find of my mission. Just as a refresher, we found Victoria my second day out in the field, and her home was the very first home where someone answered the door (the second overall knock). Victoria's testimony has grown, she has seen the power of prayer bless her life, she has literally felt the presence of the Holy Ghost guide her, and she is so sure that baptism is the next step she needs to take. One day when we went to visit Victoria, her eyes watered with tears as we expressed our love for her and the love Heavenly Father felt for her. She bore a simple testimony to us of how her life had changed since we had started teaching her. During this visit she moved a toy off of the couch and later explained that she felt something wonderful wash over her and felt as if someone else wanted to join our conversation so she moved the toy so that the Holy Ghost would have a place to sit. Another miracle that we've seen while teaching Victoria is that we have seen a difference in the behavior of her twin boys. They are calmer now, and they recognize us, and sit in on our lessons. At church, one of the twins had no problem leaving his mother to go to nursery, the other didn't want to leave, but, he was quiet during our entire gospel principles class. In Sunday school, Veronica was attentive and would whisper to us phrases like, "I remember when you taught me that?" or "That was my question! Remember when I asked you that?" The question posed by Elder Mallard as he was teaching was, "Can a person repent before baptism?" Victoria raised her hand and shared that she had started the repentance process, but she knew that there was one thing missing, the feeling of being forgiven and that was something she was going to receive when she was baptized. Her testimony and sharing that caused another investigator to bear his testimony about the same subject. It was so great. Victoria didn't stay for all of church because her husband picked her up right after Sunday School. We're hoping that when her husband sees the changes in her life, he'll want to start being taught the lessons. We're all praying hard for him. We also invited him to the ward's Halloween party this Friday, so we're hoping they will make an appearance. I love this work and I love you all! Love your hermanita, Hermana Flores :)

I don't remember if I sent this picture last time, but I definitely kept the tradition alive and had a Post Priesthood session Pizza Party with my companions!

It was Elder Mallard's birthday last Pday and so we gave him a robe we found in our apartment, a smiley face yo-yo we found at the carwash, and a pb&j sandwich, his fave.

                                                                 Where the planning session magic happens. :)

Elder Ho Ching and Elder Weeks (they're the English speaking areas for our area and live in the same complex) made us cookies and brought us cupcakes one night.

The next day we found this note ding-dong-ditched on our door.

Found this the other day as we were knocking, kind of put a smile on my face.