Week 12

She's been out for three months...

Well another week has passed! Today marks 4 weeks in Long Beach! I can hardly believe it! I know I say this all the time but where does the time go? You truly have to live in the moment or you will miss everything. Sorry the letters didn't come til yesterday. I put them in the mail on Wednesday. They must have been off with the holiday. Anyway I am doing so great! It has been a pretty good week. Thursday was fall cleaning. It was a lot of work! They gave us 3 hours and we didn't even finish. We had to wash all the walls and floors, the fridge and freezer, the oven, the inside and outside of the cupboards. I'm sure we smelled like cleaning for the rest of the day. We didn't go out until 5 that night. We had district meeting and then weekly planning and then cleaning. Mucho tiempo en nuestro casa! We taught the plan of salvation to Mireya and her kids and Samuel. The kids were pretty excited about the visual aid I had made. They asked a lot of questions and they are bright kids. They could explain the whole thing by the end of the lesson. They came to church on Sunday but didn't enjoy it very much. The primary program is next Sunday so they were practicing in primary and it was pretty boring for them. I hope that it didn't scare them away but we will see. We are teaching them again this week so hopefully all will go well. We taught a less active family by playing Jenga. They had never seen the game before and were a little stressed everytime they pulled a block out. It was pretty entertaining. We taught them that the little things make a difference in how firm our foundation is. Reading the scriptures, praying and going to church help us build a strong foundation. If we have a strong foundation we won't fall as easily when the hard times come. We shared Helaman 5:12. I have a testimony of the small things and know that we gain power and strength everyday to help us through the daily temptations we receive. It makes a bigger difference than we know. The change is subtle whether it is for the good or bad. We don't realize the strength we are building or not building until the storm hits. It is better to be firm in our testimony so they we don't fall. We also met with another less active family who fed us lunch. They had already eaten and had a meal prepared for more than 2 and were constantly telling us to just keep eating. They sent us home with leftovers and told us not to be shy. Me especially. I just wasn't very hungry and I feel bad taking all the food home. I look like a person who is never fed. On Sunday we had dinner with a member who almost fixed hamburgers and fries but received revelation to have steak and baked potatoes. I don't know what I am going to do when it really happens. I am always so nervous but luckily it isn't a popular missionary meal. Don't worry I won't eat it until I get the ok that the diet is over. So in district meeting the other day we did a role play where we had to practice resolving doubts. My companion had the doubt of why we needed more scripture. She just kept going so I finally said, We are not perfect so we need the word of God. The elders said thanks and then shared some scriptures with us in 2 Nephi 28:30 and 29:6-10. It was pretty funny because sister Colwell was like, whose side are you on? At the end of Elder Salmon's slam he turned to his companion Elder Anderson and all he said was Es Verdad(It's true). We were all laughing. Elder Anderson came to the field 2 days after me but did his MTC training over a year ago so his spanish is rusty. I thought I had it bad. I don't complain anymore. I am glad that we can just laugh. The elders had told us of when they had contacted someone a couple of weeks ago and this lady said she didn't need anymore than the bible. That's why this story is so funny. Sorry if isn't as funny to you. The rest of the week we have come across those scriptures so many times. Every time we just laugh and we know that we need more than just the bible. I didn't have any public spanglish prayers this week but it did come up when we were at the wilson's for lunch on Saturday. It seems I will never live it down. All is well, good good times. We met a lady knocking the other day. Her name is Rosa. She had actually called in that morning to the Referral center to order a Finding Faith in Jesus Christ DVD. We hadn't even received the referral yet. We taught her yesterday and she had many questions. She asked about baptism and I had a picture of the LA temple and so she asked if she could go there. It was great to teach someone who had so much interest and was involved in the lesson. When we would ask herquestions she would answer and remember what we were talking about. She truly understood. We are going back on Thursday and are hopeful that she will be a solid investigator. Gary continues to progress. We are teaching one of his neighbors this week. He is already a missionary. He has learned that when he is talking about the church that he doesn't say mormon but latter day saint. The other day I called him to set up an appointment and he said "I'm just reading in Macaroni(moroni) and he has some recipes I am interested in". He is so funny. He should be receiving the preisthood soon which he is very excited for. We were telling him about the MTC and the teaching evaluation center and he was very excited. He said how many missionaries do I get? He wants to come to Salt Lake one day and I told him of all the places we could go and the things we could do. He is excited to go to the temple. It is so great to see his love and desire grow. He is a great example to me. Well it is time to go but know that I love all of you and miss you so much! I am loving being a missionary and being able to touch the lives of these sweet people! You are in my prayers always! Love you!Hermana Mickelsen