Buenas!
Hna Barnes and I are both staying in
NoHo for another transfer! I'm so excited that we get to stay together
for another six weeks. Today is our 11 month mark as missionaries (we
came out together), and we'll also get to hit our 12 month together.
Happy day!
Last Monday was an exciting day. When we got to the
checkout at the grocery store we found out that all of the stores in our
area (maybe even in all of LA since I think it's a city ordinance but
I'm not sure...) have stopped providing bags for their customers... You
can buy paper bags for .10 per bag, but who wants to do that! I had
forgotten my reusable bags, but we were not about to buy paper bags, so
after we checked out we just packed all the food back into the shopping
cart individually, then packed it into the trunk, and then took it home.
You'd think we'd be reasonable once we got it home and go get bags or
something, but we were both determined to not have to take more than one
trip up the stairs. So we didn't! I don't have any pictures of the
actual carrying, but I'll include one of how much food we got upstairs
without any bags and all in one trip! 
On Monday
we also found out that we have an electric mixer in our apartment! I
was so excited because I've been using a fork to mix things all this
time. We also had a zone activity to celebrate beating our baptism goal
for December. I made a cake (thus needing the mixer), and we had a giant
flower fight. It was SO much fun, especially once the hermanas ganged
up on the elders. :)
Okay, now done with the silly stuff. This has truly
been a week of miracles for us. I've been pretty sick this whole week,
and Hna Barnes also had some sick days, but we've still seen SO many
miracles! At the beginning of the week we had our goal to talk with 500
people this week. In the end we only talked to 250 people, but we saw so
many miracles come from it. Truly this week has taught me how to talk
with literally everyone we see. I've learned that miracles come when you
just go out and work even if you don't feel the best. I've learned
better how to balance teaching and finding and our hermanas. We had at
least four new investigators this week come from "one last door" or
"we've got to talk to him/her" as we're on our way back to the car to
head home.
We were able to use the bikes two days this week, and I
loved being able to stop and talk to absolutely everyone on the way. We
were pushing it a little bit to get home by 9 on Monday
night, but we managed it. I thought my legs were going to fall off
though. I can't believe how out of shape I've gotten after just 5 weeks
off bike!
I'm almost out of time, but I'll share one last miracle, and a funny story as well. On Tuesday
night we went to our cita with a menos active, and he wasn't there. We
tried contacting his building and the one next to it, and no one was
interested. :( Finally we were heading back to the car to head home for
the night, but on our way we saw a woman in a parking lot of some stores
on the corner. Creepy missionaries that we are we followed her so that
we could talk to her. As we talked with her and invited her to hear our
message she said that she had time right then and invited us back to her
house. We walked back with her to the same building we'd just knocked,
went in, she invited her husband to listen without us asking her to, and
we taught the first lesson. They were both so open and prepared for our
message! It was truly a miracle for us, and a testimony that you really
do have to TALK TO EVERYONE!
The funny story is from last night. We had a really long Sunday
with church meetings, studies, citas and a baptism, and hadn't really
had any proselyting time. We were headed home for dinner and to finish
studies at about 7 after the baptism. We both just really felt like we
needed to go work for a while instead though, so we drove up to one of
our investigators who we haven't been able to find for a while. He
wasn't home. However, by this point I really, really needed to use the
restroom. There's something about me and being sick that makes me have
to go more often than normal. (Maybe it has something to do with
drinking twice as much water as usual...) Luckily we had an antiguo
(previous investigator) family in the same apartment complex so we went
up to knock on their door. As we came up the stairs Hna Barnes saw them
all jump off the couch and run around the corner to hide from us. We
knocked anyway, and their little boy came and opened the door. We were
very grateful that his parents don't speak or understand very much
English because he proceeded to explain that they were all hiding from
us so that we would go away because they "didn't want to do it anymore".
Luckily we already knew that, and I just needed to use the restroom.
The mom came out after that and let me use her restroom. We had a nice
little chat and then left. Hna Barnes and I really got a good laugh out
of that though. Who but missionaries deals with people hiding around
corners to avoid talking with them. :)
I love you all! I love this gospel! I LOVE being a missionary!!!
Love,
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