Week 14

* Sorry its taken me so long to get it up this week.

Hello family! I hope you are all doing well. I am doing well. I made it through my first transfer! I can't believe it has already been 6 weeks. The time is just flying! We got our transfer calls on Saturday and I am staying here in the Long Beach 4th ward with Hermana Colwell! She is very excited because now she for sure gets to experience the arrival of little Brooklyn! I can't believe that is already November! I am so glad that Halloween is over. It is not my favorite Holiday. We just went around to members houses and shared little thoughts with them. We felt that was safer than knocking and more effective than battling with the trick or treaters. It was fun. Thursday night we had some great food! The Vamanrov family(they are from Tonga) made us shrimp for Australia and mussels from New Zeland. It was so good! My companion hates seafood and we got to the door and I smelled fish and just laughed. She ate it and put on a good game face but the entire time she was dying. After we finished eating she almost threw up in the car ride over to the Kavea's. She was the only one that didn't like it. The elders loved it and so did I. We also had Korean food this week. Sister Rome is from South Korea and made us chow mein and egg rolls and it was so good! It was a good week for member meals. We don't get many so we love it when we do have them. Mom thanks for your great letter and talk! You made me cry. I didn't realize that you talked about me, I thought you just gave a little blurb. We had a great lesson with Gary's friend Kiso. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he came to church. Gary is so great! He just wants everyone to know what he knows. The gospel has truly changed his life. He told us that he went to a party on Halloween with some of his old cop friends and that he didn't smoke or drink and didn't know what to do with himself. His friends commented on how happy and different he seemed. They asked if he had found something good and he said that he had. He is a great example to me. He gets mad if we forget to give him a big reading assignment because he just wants to keep learning. We went President Sexton's house last night to babysit sister Hart again. Sister Orton was having dinner with the Sexton's. It is always a great opportunity to be at his house and feel of his love. He is such a great man and I just love listening to him. We have zone conference next week and I can hardly wait! We went knocking the other night and a spanish lady answered the door and it was my door. Usually I let Hermana Colwell take over but this time I just did it. I messed up a little but she understood me. Then when I said all I could Hermana Colwell took over. I was so proud! It keeps getting easier. The other day we did all of companion study in Spanish and it felt great. Teaching is getting a little easier and I am starting to follow conversations better. They still talk pretty fast and if I get stuck on a word they are on a different subject by the time I figure it out. Hermana Colwell started reading outloud to me so I can translate by listening and it gives me a headache but I can do it. The other day at dinner with the elders we were talking about a Book of Mormon that I had marked. It has a bunch of scriptures from preach my gospel and is color coordinated and lesson coordinated. I was telling Elder Salmon that I don't use the book of mormon in my lessons but I was talking about that particular book of mormon. He was like don't remember the district meeting where we talked about using the scriptures in our lessons. My response was remember how you do it all in spanish? I can't understand half of it. We all just laughed. Elder Anderson was grateful to know that I don't understand all of the lessons either. I'm getting there poco a poco. So on Sunday we were at church waiting forit to start and Hermana Colwell was transferring pictures on her camera and accidentally erased 6 months of her mission pics. So sad. She was so sad and is still sad. I'm glad that I send my home so I have a back up copy. I hope that never happens to me. I finished reading in the D&C which was a big milestone for me! I learned a lot and just love reading the scriptures! There is always so much to learn and I just love it! I think we are going up to Signal Hill today to take a picture of Catalina Island. It rained pretty good this week so the sky is pretty clear. It will be the first time that I will be able to see the ocean and Catalina. President said yesterday that the first 2 members on the island received the preisthood. So great! They have a little branch over there and the elders were the only ones who had the preisthood. It is so great that the church is being established on that little island. Hermana Colwell said that's great now the hermana's can go over there. President just laughed and said that maybe the next president would put hermana's over there. We are now down to 8 hermanas. One left today and one came today. I don't know if there are any more scheduled to come. There are 4 that will be leaving in the next few transfers. Crazy. Well the church is true and I am so grateful to be on a mission. I know it is going to go by quickly, it already is. I am so grateful for my great family and all of their love and support! You are the best and I look forward to hearing from you always! Love Hermana Mickelsen