August 7, 2012

Hi everyone,

 

I'm seriously getting horrible at writing everyone back and updating on whats been going on. I've been super busy with so many trainings and just doing missionary work as you all know. My companion and I have been working really hard in our area because as you all know it was dead. Now that it's towards the end of transfers...yes, transfers are coming up next week, and the area is picking up. This always happens! Towards the end of transfers, things get better.

Last week on Monday, I had training ALL day! It was ridiculous! Training from 9 am - 11 am. Then at 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. choir practice for the musical fireside. Then at 4-5:30 p.m. another training and this one was for the temple open house here in Brigham. Then at 6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. we had another training/sleepover at the mission home. It was great and so much fun! After the training, it was when the fun began! We played a game a bit similar to UNO but it's so much better and we played Old Maid. Sister Hiers made us smores, it's an idea she found on pinterest. We played charades and oh man, it was sooo much fun! We laughed so much and my stomach hurt from laughing. We all bonded and it was great!

Hermana Faasavalu (my comp) and I started teaching this couple named Stivi and Carlos, they aren't married. First we were just teaching Stivi because she was more interested than Carlos was. We taught her the Restoration and we gave her a Book of Mormon. For our 2nd appointment, we asked her if she got the opportunity to read and she said she has. She said she really likes the Book of Mormon and it makes sense. She had read 10 pages. My companion and I were really impressed. We knew right then that Stivi was "golden". We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she really liked our lesson. She did not doubt the Plan of Salvation. For our 3rd appointment, we decided to teach about faith. We put on a video, "Finding Faith on Christ". While the movie was playing, Stivi's 1 year old boy was puking because he had the flu or something like that. Then Carlos showed up and kept asking us questions. The questions that he asked us made us think he was going to be bashful. So our lesson wasn't going very well! The video was over finally! Then Carlos asked us questions about the Word of Wisdom, Tithing, Temples, what we wear to church, etc. Oh and he asked us if we were kind of like nuns. haha Oh man, never been asked that question. Then Carlos started telling us that ever since we've been coming over to meet with Stivi, he's seen a change in her and he can feel the Spirit when we come over. He said he'll do anything to change and have a better relationship with Stivi. When he said that, it really surprised me! They both want to come to church. They want to have over for dinner on Thursday and on Saturday have us over for their BBQ. Then on Monday, we are going to temple square with them because they want us to come with them. I talked to President Hiers (mission president) and talked to him about going to temple square. He said we could go and supports whatever we decide to do. :) So on Monday, we'll be at temple square. I'm SUPER excited! :D So the lesson with them turned out GREAT! Yesterday, we had district meeting. We played knockout and a couple other games with water balloons. After district meeting, we were on our way to Wingers for lunch and we got a text from Stivi asking if we were over the age of 18. At first I thought they wanted us to buy beer or something or probably try to hook us up with one of Carlos' friends. hahaha Then we get another text message from Stivi asking us if we could be witnesses because her and Carlos have decided to get married. I had to read the text message 2 times because I couldn't believe it. It's something Hermana Faasavalu and I have been praying about it because in order for them to get baptized, they have to get married first! I tried calling Stivi to see if they were at the court house and we just decided to go to the court house and there's like 3 court houses in Brigham. We went to one of them and they weren't there. We tried another one and we finally found them. We were 2 minutes late so we barley missed it! They had already gotten married! I'm just glad they got married! That was one miracle we had yesterday! It was great! I was so happy for them!

Today we have a training from 4 - 8. It's for the temple open house. It starts next week! It's so exciting! I know I've said that about 10,000 times but I'm only speaking truth. haha About 400,000 or more people are coming! Hope to see a lot of you there! Love you all and miss you!

-Hermana Marin