Week 44

June 9, 2009

Hello family!I hope that this letter finds you all doing well! I am doing great! I love being a missionary! My new companion is great! Her name is Sister Fifita and she is from Long Beach. She lives not far from my first area. Her uncle was the ward mission leader and her sister came out and helped us teach lessons when I was with Sister Colwell. It is a small world. I think she is tired of telling everyone her story. It's different than most stories. Everyone is surprised when they hear she is from Long Beach. She is a great girl. She has such a great attitude and is so grateful for this "mini Mission". She is so fun. This week has been pretty busy. We didn't have any investigators at church on Sunday. I was shocked but all is well. We taught Sabrina and Tony on Thursday night. We talked about baptism again and I asked her if she thought about it. She thinks about it often and I asked if we could set a date. She said we could when her dad could baptize her. So this week our focus will be preparing Tony for the priesthood. I am so excited. I know that the Lord is blessing us here in the work. We taught Edgardo and Jorge last night. We had to change their date because they haven't been to church yet. They keep sleeping in. I asked them what we needed to do to get them to church. I told them I would call them in the morning to make sure they were up and that we would have a ride to pick them up. They said that would work. We are doing the same for Young Men's tonight. We have another appointment with them Thursday. They are opening up more and starting to show more interest. They are quiet boys. I have faith that they will continue to progress. I asked them if they wanted to be baptized and they said yes. Edgardo asked me what a temple was and if he could go there one day. I told him yes and that he could go inside after he was baptized. He was excited about that. We didn't have the opportunity to teach Angela and Astrid. They are pretty busy right now. Angela works weird hours and is in LA so she doesn't get home until late. Astrid is busy finishing up school. We should be able to spend more time with them when school is out. Same with Natasha and Sabrina. We have an appointment with Angela tomorrow but I don't know that we will be back in time. We are going to LA for the doctor and we will hit rush hour on the way back. Who knows what will happen. I am really excited about all of the work that is going on here. It really is miraculous. There haven't been many baptisms here, especially in the first and second wards. A man that we have been working with is going to move on from the missionary lessons and start temple prep. He will be going to the temple shortly. He is a remarkable man and has made great changes in his life. The gospel is truly a blessing to all those who internalize it. I am constantly amazed at the love our Father in Heaven has. The more we give the more we receive. The blessings are more than we can hope for. The gospel is true and it will never change. We will always reap the blessings as we are obedient and strive to be the best that we can be. I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week! Take care and always remember how much you matter! No one can ever change your infinite worth, not even you. You will always be of worth in the site of God. Love Hermana Mickelsen