Week 49

July 14, 2009
Well the good news is I get to keep Sister Haycock for a transfer! I am so excited! I don't think I could have switched up again. We are staying here in Fountain Valley but we are no longer serving in the Second Ward. However we are living in the second ward. I was so sad to say goodbye on Sunday. We went to our meetings there and Bishop was praising us and telling us how great we were. It killed me. I gave our report and then said that we were leaving. He said that he didn't get a vote and I said neither did we. There were people in every ward that I didn't want to leave. I am grateful that we have 2 wards and that I only had to leave one. We are working hard here. We taught 31 lessons last week! It keeps getting higher every week. I love it. I come home exhausted. We have had a great week teaching Angela. She is a great lady. This is the first week that we have truly been able to teach her a full lesson. She is progressing and I hope that the elders will take good care of her. I pleaded with the 2nd ward to keep on working with her. We taught her in Spanish. We had planned to teach her a first lesson but ended up teaching a second because she had questions about it. Sister Haycock hadn't prepared for it so I taught the whole lesson and then she testified every once and awhile. It was great. The next time we went over Sister Haycock taught more. She did so good! It reminded me of my first lesson in spanish. It is a scary thing. The gift of tongues is amazing. I would be so lost without the spirit. There is no way that I could do any of this without the spirit. We were walking the other day around the park and we met a lady named Amanda. We got her address and set up an appointment to teach her a lesson. We gave her our number but she didn't have a number. As we left and continued on I realized that she lived in apartments and we didn't have an apartment number. The only number she gave us was 102. Well the day of the appointment came and I didn't know what to do. I just prayed all day that we would be able to find her. We went to the street and there was a building numbered 10200. I said we will just knock this apartment until we find her. We knocked every door. We found maybe 3 people at home. On the last door I pleaded that we would find her. Someone answered the door but it wasn't her. I told the lady who we were and that we were looking for a lady named Amanda. She said she lived downstairs and gave us the apartment. I was completely in awe. We went down and left her a note. We didn't have time to meet up with her again before we got transferred but I know that the Lord guided us to find her. All I had was a good guess, logic to lead me. The spirit is the one that truly guided us to her door. It was definitely an answer to fervent prayer and a strength to my testimony. I haven't ever really felt guided in knocking. Now I know for certain and not just from stories that God does lead us to those who need us. Sunday was a teary day for me. I realized that it was one year ago that I had my farewell. There just happened to be a farewell in the first ward. As they were speaking and talking about the different feelings they had experienced and experiencing it brought to the surface all that I felt in that moment. They sang Called to Serve and I just cried. Luckily it wasn't too obvious. I felt it more than anything. I can't believe how far I have come in this short year. It was humbling to recognize that it is closing quickly. If I had planned my own way I would have missed out on this remarkable experience. Well we had another surprise in transfers. We thought that Sister Choi and Sister Hart would be training. Sister Choi is but her greenie Sister Riches is the other trainer. Sister Choi is going to Whittier and Sister Riches is staying but picking up another ward as well. I am sad I won't see Sister Choi all of the time. I have really enjoyed being around her. Now we will just have to write. Maybe one day we will get to be companions. So I was talking to Elder Murphy and getting some last minute transfer questions answered. He is no longer our district leader which I am super sad about. I commented that I have had a lot district leaders and he said" You have had a lot of everything". I said ya I guess that is true. Someone has to do it. It was pretty funny. I wouldn't have it any other way. Every change that has happened has had purpose and I have learned every time. I am grateful that God is in charge. He knows how to make my mission the best mission. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all so much! Thanks for all that you do! Love you!Love Hermana Mickelsen