Who's Who.

Tragedy struck on Wednesday. We went to the temple, the opposite of tragic. BUT, my camera broke. So, I'm currently borrowing pictures from my district. On the bright side, it is still under canon limited warranty, so in about a week or two I should get it back fully repaired & ready to go. Per request of my mother, I decided to send today, a list of the investigators we are working with, and their stories. (I feel like I'm the narrator from Law & Order SVU. "& these are their stories....") Granted, keep in mind, the names of these people have been changed. :)

1. Elizabeth M.

 Part member Family. Hno is a member, he was baptized when he was a young boy in Honduras. Elder Hatch taught her for about 5 months in one of his prveious areas. She has desires to get baptized, but can't because her and Hno aren't married and they need to obtain some kind of paperwork/ identification through the Mexican consulate in order for this to happen. For some reason they won't come to church. We've heard every excuse there is. I have grown to LOVE this family so much, but it breaks my heart that they aren't partaking of chruch attendance blessings. Hna Tonga and I went to their home yesterday to try and make them a pancake breakfast before church, but to no success.

2. Julia C.

Referral. Last last transfer, Hna Canova and I were on exchanges with Sis Wenzel and right before we walked into an appt, we got a phone call from an 801 number. I instantly recognized it as a Utah phone number. It turned out to be Julia's cousin, Juan. He told us how he had found this # in a LDM (Libro De Mormon) in his cousin's house, and he had bourne his testimony to her. Julia's dad recently (just this past transfer) passed away from cancer. It's been a little difficult to teach her. However, this past week she finally prayed in front of us! She hasn't felt comfortable enough up to now to pray in front of us. She had lost her phone & Hna Tonga and I shared experiences of how prayer has helped us find things in the past. So, sure enough she prayed and the next day she texted us to say she had found her phone after about a week of it being lost. Julia needs to read the LDM to know that it's true, and that's what we're working on.

3. Roxy T.

In high school. Younger sister of a menos activo, Lisa. One day we went for a lesson with lisa, she wasn't there so we asked Roxy if we could come in so we could write a note for Lisa. We ended up talking to her, and we've taught her once since then. We're really trying to take the young women with us to lessons.

4. Marisol C.

We met her while knocking Sullivan in the rain. She immediately let us in, said she hadn't seen us in a while, and we were a little confused. Marisol confused us with hermanas from another church. We had a lesson with her, and she accepted a return appointment. The second time we taught her, she was all ears, and she was fixated on every word we said. Marisol absorbed what we taught her about prophets. I wasn't there for the next appt because of exchanges. but, Hna Tonga told me that Marisol read the entire Restoration pamphelt and that she said about the LDM, "I have to read this book!" We only get to meet with her once a week, and this Friday she had to cancel.

5. Juan C.

We met him this week during Hour of Power (every thursday, we got to the house of a member's home, share a message about faith, and then knock doors from 6-7. Hence "hour of power") We spent a good 45 minutes talking to him. When we talked to him about the Book of Mormon he said, "I always wondered if Christ went other places." He loved what we talked about and accepted a return appt. Although, he did give us a disclaimer. He said, "I'm telling you right now, don't invite me to church. Don't invite me to do things. I'm Catholic. I'll die Catholic." He also however said, "If God tells me to join another church, I'll join another church" so.....

:)

& that's who we're working with right now.

This week we also had interviews with President, and I learned so much from talking with Sister Crawford. As I've said in previous letters, pretty much all of our area is menos activo, and it makes me so sad to know that people aren't coming to church and being upliffted by the spirit there. Sometimes I deal with this guilty conscience type feeling when I think, "how do I balance teaching and finding new people, but also strengthening the less actives." Sis Crawford reminded me this week, a soul is worht the same in the eyes of God. Our father in Heaven will be just as happy if you help people regain their testimonies or help them learn of the message of the restoration." My mind was at peace after that.

Hna Tonga and I had the best weekly planning session this week. We planned outside, the sun was out, and for some reason being outside helped me to truly focus on the work. Sometimes, I get really distracted when I'm in our apartment, but being outisde helped my focus tremendously. Hna Tonga and I took advice from Sister Crawford and decided we're making breakfast for people, and visiting them before church. We also want to start having dinners with the members living in our own area, so this Sunday we asked for a blank dinner calendar for next next week, and we're filling it up on our own. We've also tried to brainstorm ways we can serve individuals, and ways that we can help them feel needed. Case in point, we let a menos activo Hna take us out to a Chinese buffet for lunch last week and we have another Hna who is giving Hna Tonga private spanish lessons. :]

Let's just say we're putting as much creativity as possible into our area.

With love,

Hna Flores