Another busy week...

Well, it was another busy week. I just got back from going to the San Diego Temple for p-day. When I was getting out of the car I heard my name and turned around and there was Bro. Faust! He said Catherine had just run inside to drop off something for me, so I ran in and said hello to her. That was so fun to see them. They said they really enjoyed the tour (they came last night, but I was out in my area).

Ok, so I had some pretty amazing experiences this week. I copied a few pages from my journal that I am just going to send home so I don't have to write it all out, but I will give a quick summary here.

Last tuesday (p-day) we went to our area in the evening and were pretty discouraged because Magda and Jorge had canceled and we had had a member all lined up to go with us and everything. We decided to go visit Cleo, who we had found a few days earlier, but hadn't been able to contact since. We knocked on her door several times with no answer, and just when we were about to leave a man walked over ... turned out it was her husband, so he let us in. Turns out that she had just had a baby the week before and was nursing her, so she hadn't answered the door. haha. I'd say that is a decent reason. So we taught them about the Book of Mormon, and they (especially Daniel, the husband) were just loving it. He had tons of questions and was really enthusiastic about everything. We've had another appointment with them and things are going well.

Last week we had a district meeting, which President Donaldson attended, so that was exciting. We are trying to change things and work a lot more with members, so he was there to help us out with that. Instead of just bringing random members we want to find a member who will become the person's shepherd all the way to the temple.

One day when I came into the battalion I saw my buddy Courtney Tucker, who is from California. She was in my freshman hall and will be leaving shortly for a mission in argentina, so that was fun to see her!

Last thursday during weekly planning Hna Mortensen and I decided to make a board game that taught the gospel principles from the book of mormon so that we had a subtle way to teach them to the Jimenez daughters. haha. we are so sneaky. We played it with them and it went pretty well. Their little sister who is 8 just got home from living with their other sister, and she wants to get baptized, so we are hoping that encourages the other girls.

Friday morning we took a group photo at the battalion. I'll need to get my hands on a copy for you. It was pretty funny, the director had a very artistic vision in which he wanted all of us girls climbing practically on the roof for the photo. It drew a lot of attention and we had several old men stop and take our picture. haha. (maybe it will pop up on the website, it's something like historicmormonbatallion.net...i don't know, google it)

On Saturday we had an AMAZING lesson with Magdalena and Jorge. We brought our ward mission leader and his wife with us and they were PERFECT. The wife was telling magda all about how she received so many blessings for being obedient and how their marriage has been so blessed by the gospel. It was great. We shared the story of Nephi building the boat and talked about trusting in the lord. She agreed to pray about getting married, so we'll see. She was definitely getting emotional by the end though, so I think she is softening toward the idea. We invited Jorge and the 2 sons to come to church (Magda couldn't come because she works at a hotel), and they said maybe, (aka no). We showed up at their house the next morning to remind them to come and they didn't answer ( so again, we figured no). We went to church and I had to lead the music again and Hna M played the piano. After Sunday school Hno Morales (the ward mission leader who had come with us) came up to me and said, or I thought he asked if Jorge had come. (statements and questions sound the same in spanish). I said no, then he said, no he DID come. Turns out he was there with his sons and they sat by the Morales family. Yay for members helping. haha. They stayed for sacrament meeting and then left, so we didn't see them. haha. We visited them after church and they said they enjoyed it, so that was cool.

The other day I gave a tour at the batallion to a bunch of people, including this old couple. Everyone in the tour was a nonmember, so we were really talking up the book of Mormon and sacrifice and faith at the end. Afterwords he came up to me and said that we (I gave the tour with sis. Adams) had just helped him finish his next sermon...Turns out he is a minister for a different church. I guess he was going to talk about Abraham and wanted to make it more relatable, and the battalion story was perfect he thought. So somewhere in some church people are going to be hearing about the Mormon battalion's faith. haha.

Yesterday we had another great experience, which I will copy from my journal and send home. But basically we had visited this former, Adan (or Adam in English) and he had said we could come back. We came back and he had forgotten, so he set up a different time. We went yesterday at 6 and he was like, shoot, my girlfriend, eve...jk, Marta, isn't here yet, so we couldn't go in. He called marta and i guess she had decided to go visit her mother and wouldn't be coming. He was way upset because he had been cooking us dinner. He was like, when you tell someone you are going to be somewhere, you need to be there! we agreed whole heartedly. haha. Anyways, so we just stood in the hallway and explained the BOM. Then he brought us chairs and we sat there and read from it with him. He loved it. he is GOLDEN. He even brought us a flashlight and then told us to keep it because he knew we were out walking at night sometimes. haha. It was a great lesson and we have another one set up for later in the week.

Also, yesterday we visited Adriana again...last time she had said she didn't believe in God anymore since her car accident. We stopped by and talked to her and told her about the personal progress program and gave her the book and told her to start on faith. We even got her to pray somehow at the end, so that was GREAT.

Basically, things are going really well. It has even started to cool off just a tad. The San Diego temple is beautiful, but it is covered with scaffolding right now, so I will get a picture of it next time.

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!! I'm glad your trips were so fun! I hope you send pictures soon!!!!!!

love,

hna Livingston

Another week in San Diego

Well family, it's been another week here in San Diego. It's very strange, the time goes by super fast, but at the same time super slow. I can't believe it's already p-day, but every day seems to last for at least 100 hours. haha. strange huh?

I am glad to hear you got my photo. We take souvenir photos with this huge old camera (with a digital camera inside) and give them to everyone and they can email it to themselves, so I had hna lee take a photo of me last week. Maybe I'll send one in each of my outfits. I meant to bring my camera today and load some pics of the battalion, but I forgot it, so I will have to do it next week. (turns out I found my memory card reader dad...sorry).

I still have not received my mail for the week, so if you told me something super awesome in a letter, I don't know about it yet, but I will soon.

So last p-day Hna Mortensen, Hna Johnson, Hna Lee and I went to some outlet mall right by the border. Yes, that would be the Mexican border. As we were leaving there was a sign to get on the freeway that said something to the extent of "mexico only, no United States return." Obviously we did not take that freeway. haha.

This week was pretty great. We had zone conference on Wed, which was AMAZING. Pres. Donaldson somehow just knows everything about everything I guess, so that's cool. I'll have to copy some of my notes or something and send them home so you can all learn some secrets about the gospel. haha. But zone conference lasted from 9-4, and some ladies made lasagna for us, so that was awesome. The only sad thing about zone conference was that we had to change our schedule at the Mormon battalion so that we could be there, thus I was NOT at the battalion when the Terry family came through (Maggie and company). The next morning there was a note sitting at the front desk for me from Maggie, so if you are reading this Maggie - I'm sorry I was not there to give you a tour, but I hope you took the tour anyways so that you have an idea of what I experience about 3 times a day everyday. haha. But thanks for the note : )

Basically the focus of zone conference was about how we can invite people better. haha. We talked a lot about how to best teach the law of chastity, the word of wisdom, keeping the sabbath day holy and things like that. It was cool, he taught us to just teach simply the doctrine and then ask good questions that get the investigator to tell us what things they should and should not do to keep that commandment. We kind of got to try it out with Magdalena and Jorge, but they had already been taught chastity before, so they already knew what was acceptable and whatnot. I will tell more about them in a minute, no worries.

The past few days it has been SO HOT. Whoever told me that it would be 70 degrees everyday lied. It has been in the high 90's lately, and no one has air conditioning, so when we go inside people's apartments, it is always hotter than it is outside. haha. Oh well, life goes on. Soon it will be winter, and I hear it only gets down to the 40's, but I guess I'll just have to see for myself.

Mom, thanks for the new journal! I started it this week. It came JUST in time. : ) And thanks for the alarm clock and cards and stamps and cd's too. Speaking of music, dad, if you haven't already gotten something for me to listen to music with, just don't worry about it. There's not much time. Instead, you could just send me a couple of cd's with a mix of awesome efy songs or something that I can play in the car.

So in the mornings for exercise, we have started learning karate. Yes, you read that right. It was not my idea, but I have this thing called a companion. haha. Since we have to be together and she wanted to learn karate from one of the elders who is a black belt and offered to teach us, i also get to learn karate. haha. I'm sure it's hilarious to watch.

The other day at the battalion, I gave a tour with Sis. Lee (she was in the MTC with me, but in a different district...she's in one of the pics I sent home I think). But we gave a tour to two people from Spain. !!!!! yay. They spoke with the "theta" and said "guay" for cool and everything. It was great. They didn't know much about Mormons, so we basically taught them the first lesson after the tour because they were asking tons of questions. They did ask if Mormons had a lot of women, ahhaha. I don't think the pioneer dresses help us explain that one. But we just told them no. haha. Unfortunately they didn't refer themselves, but hopefully we planted a seed and they will run into some missionaries and tell them they came here and then get baptized. haha

I also have a tour with sis Lee to a group of Mexicans right after that. There is this one part at the end of the tour where the soldiers and the mexicans are having a fiesta together and some mexican men give some of the soldiers peppers to try, and they taste them and nod their heads like they like them for a second and then their faces change because the peppers are actually super hot. anyways, people will sometimes chuckle a little bit at it, but boy, did the mexican people think it was HILARIOUS. they were all roaring with laughter. It was pretty funny.

I also gave another tour to a family from Arizona. They were kind of funny throughout the whole tour, just saying funny things and whatnot. At the end, we have these comment cards we give out (really referral cards) and the man just wrote "beautiful interpretive experience"...you would think I had done an interpretive dance for them or something. haha (but I didn't).

Ok, now onto more important things. Magdalena and Jorge. We visited them twice this week. The first time we played this prayer game that Hna Mortensen made. It's a board game where you learn about praying (I may have mentioned it already because we played it with the jimenez family). But the kids loved it (they have a 9 year old and 13 year old boy). We talked a lot about prayer and what not, but we didn't bring up marriage, even though the last time they said they would pray to know if they should be married. Later in the week (sat I think) we went back again. A family was supposed to come with us, but they canceled at the last minute, so we had to change our plans. We played this commandment matching game (like memory...with pictures and words of the different commandments listed in preach my gospel) One of them is the law of chastity, so that was our way in to bringing up if they had thought mroe about getting married. We played the game and the kids loved it so much, we played again. Then we asked them if they had prayed about getting married and they said no. GAHHHHHHHHH. frustration. But we talked a lot more about it, and explained the doctrine behind why God wants people to get married...that the power to procreate is sacred because the power of creation is the power to be a God. They seemed to understand a little more at the end. It was a really good discussion. jorge is definitely on board, but Magda is still not sure. We are going back tonight with a family though and we are going to talk about trusting in the lord, so hopefully that will help. They are such a good family, and they read in the BOM together and pray together, so they are almost there. pray for them please!!

We've been visiting this less active family, the Torres, and we went one day and the husband, Luis, had just found a laptop in the trash with a broken screen, so he had it set up to the monitor of their computer, but there was a password to log on and the computer was in English, so we tried to help interpret what it was saying to help him get rid of the password, but we weren't too helpful. haha. my computer Spanish is a little lacking i guess. But they invited us to their daughter's 3rd bday the next day, so we went to that and ate the most delicious carnita tacos. Mexican food is really good here.

Right after the birthday party (we were just there to say hi and eat a little) we went to visit the Jimenez family. Sofia fed us enchiladas, the best ones I've ever had. Then we just read from teh Bom with her because her daughters weren't there. She just barely started learning to read, but she is pretty good already. She has to sound everything out though, but she can understand pretty well when she does that.

On sunday Jorge had said he would come to church with his boys, but they didn't come. That was sad, so we visited them later to ask why they didn't go and it turns out one of the sons was sick...or at least that's what he said. We spent most of sunday just looking for new investigators. We had a few return appointments, but when we went yesterday, most of them weren't there.

Last sunday Adriana (a 16 year old less active recent convert) was in a car accident with her mom. We tried to visit the week, but could never get a hold of her, so we just went by on sunday to see her. She is doing fine physically, but she seems to be in a pretty dark place. She said she doesn't believe in God anymore because of the car crash, so that is super unfortunate. We talked to her for awhile about prayer and tried to tell her that God loves her, but she wouldn't listen, so that was really frustrating. She's only been baptized for about 3 months. We're going to give her some time and then maybe try to visit her again later.

Remember Jose/jose/Rosalba? well we hadn't been able to find them again since that magical time when we taught them about the BOM. Well, we finally at least made contact with Jose 2 yesterday. He said to come back thursday, so hopefully they are actually there then. haha

So there is this donut place we drive by a lot, and the sign says Donut Star and Chinese Food. This has been a point of discussion between me and sis Mortensen for some time now. Why would they sell donuts and chinese food together? yesterday, we didn't bring lunch with us, so we decided to stop and get a donut partway through the day for a snack. Sure enough, they really did sell both chinese food and donuts. hahaha. random huh?

Well that's about it for this week. It was super slow yesterday at the MoBat, so I mostly just read "our search for happiness" it's pretty cool I would recommend it.

I hope everything is jsut grand in VA/WA/OR/UT!!!! hahaha You are all over the place this week!

I love you all!

love,

hna livingston

Another busy week...

Well, it has been another busy week. I get the impression that every week will be a busy week. haha. Unfortunately I have not gotten my mail yet for the week, so I don't know if I got the things that Mom mentioned in her email, and if anyone asked me/told me anything, I obviously don't know about it yet, so I won't be responding to it here. Just so you know I'm not just being rude. haha

Ok, so early on in the week we met with a woman, Otilia, who we found when we were knocking on a door looking for someone else, she agreed to let us come back and teach her about the book of mormon, so we did. She seemed pretty interested, but sometimes it is hard to tell if people are interested or just nice. But she was pretty chatty and seemed to want to at least read some of the BoM, so that's good.

I don't remember if I told you about Angel last week, but we met him the same day as Otilia while we were walking. he was out washing his car and we offered to help and then talked about Christ. We came back this week and brought finding faith in Christ with us, so we watched that. He seemed to really like it, but once again, maybe he's just nice. He's probably about 16 years old. He reminds me of Matthew, but Hispanic. We haven't been able to contact him since the time we watched the movie though, so we'll just have to keep trying.

So this week at the Mormon Battalion, I gave my first tour all by myself. It went well, so that is a relief. We don't have to talk a ton during the tour though, because mostly it is movies that play. We talk in the intro and then in 2 of the 4 rooms we have to talk a bit. In the last room we can pretty much talk about whatever we want, and it's really the only place where we can be a missionary. haha. So on this tour I talked about how if we trust in God and turn our lives over to him, he will fight our battles for us. We may still have to "cross the desert" like the battalion did, but they didn't have to fight, and neither did we. Then I mentioned how much harder life would be if you DID have to fight the battles AND cross the desert, and suggested that people refer a friend to learn more about this faith the battalion had.

On Friday night we had a ward activity that our district planned. It was supposed to start at 6, but typical of latin culture, we couldn't start until about 6:40, not because we weren't ready, but because there was no one there before then. haha. We watched the movie " how rare a possession" about the BOM and that italian guy who finds a copy without a cover and loves it. It went well, the members enjoyed it, but they forgot to bring nonmemeber friends. haha. oh well.

Lately I have been reading the BoM again (in english) and marking some different things in different colors (just in one of the blue copies). the mission president suggested that we mark references to Christ, his words, his attributes, and doctrine, all in different colors. It has been cool to do and to see how often Christ is mentioned and even quoted. I would recommend it for your next reading.

I don't know if I mentioned this family before, but my second day here we visited a less active member, Sofia Jimenez, who is the only member of her fam (she's the mom). Anyways, we decided that we want to baptize her children, so we have been visiting them tons. One time we visited them and played a board game about prayer, which used scriptures from the bom and bible. Her kids are christian, but were uninterested in attending our church, though we had invited them several times. We went back again on saturday and just the 2 girls were there (vicky, 16, and Rogilia, 18). They were watching the movie "remember me" with Robert Pattinson (aka edward from Twilight) in it. I had seen the movie before, so we talked a little bit about it and about twilight and whatnot. Then their mom got there so we invited her to church again, but she said maybe. We had an appointment to come back sunday night though, so we did. And the two girls were there again just chillin listening to music with youtube, so we joined them and waited for the mom. Hna Mortensen found some of our church music on youtube, which we made them listen to. Then the mom came and we kept chatting. Then we said we had a game we wanted to play, so the girls said they would play too and we were about to start playing, when they asked something about the BOM and about why we have prophets. and we were like, well, and we explained why we need prophets -- to help guide us on the earth. Then they asked more about the BOM and we were like, well we can answer that, but it might take a little bit. So we actually just started teaching the first lesson. : ) we're so sneaky. They were pretty interested in it. One of them had to leave just after we taught about joseph smith, so we said we would come back to finish. But first they asked us some questions about modesty and what we thought about it (modesty seems to be a pretty big issue in the latino culture) and then they asked if we thought it was bad to say mean things about other people, we said yes. They told us that their older sister does bad things and says that they are dead to her, so they don't like her much. We told them to pray for her, and they said they would think about it. They are super sweet girls though, and we are going to go back later this week...tomorrow I think.

On sunday I gave my first spanish tour all by myself. It went decently well, but I hadn't been planning on giving one, we just couldn't find any other spanish speakers when they needed the tour, so I did it. I didn't know some of the words for the outfitting room though, like ammunition and stuff like that, but oh well. The two kids spoke english, so it all worked out. This cute old man who was on the tour told me afterwards taht Brigham young was the first prophet, and i said I thought it was joseph smith, but he said no, J.S. restored Christ's church and then BY was the prophet. haha. It was kind of funny.

Yesterday we had a great experience. We went to visit a couple, Magdelena and Jorge, who we had visited once before. The sisters before us had been teaching them. They are basically ready for baptism. We talked a lot about what they want in their life...they said to change and to help their kids be successful. A+. haha. So we talked about how they could achieve that. we read most of 2 nephi 31, about how Christ was baptized, so we need to be baptized. they totally got it. Jorge even explained to us how the trinity being one being makes no sense. haha. they are golden. But when we invited them to be baptized, we could tell they wanted to, but jorge looked at Magdelena and she said that they weren't married, and the other sisters had said they had to be married first. we said that was right and she said that she did not want to get married because her father had been super abusive and so she is afraid of marriage. They have been together 13 years though, and Jorge is the sweetest man, so we don't see why she wouldn't want to just marry him. They are already a family. We asked if she thought God would want her to get married and she said that she knows they are living in sin, but she just doesn't want to. We finally just asked her to pray to know if she should get married, she agreed. So hopefully that goes well and they will get married so that they can get baptized. Pray for them please!!!!

Something funny...on sunday, we were there early because we had to give some other sisters a ride to their church. Hna Mortensen was playing the music for sacrament meeting and a counselor in the bishopric asked me if I would lead the music. Sure enough, I did. hahahahahahahahaha. I was thinking, I just hope we don't sing come come ye saints, because that one is so strange to lead since it changes time so much. Sure enough, it was the closing song. haha. It was pretty funny to me because leading the music is the worst. I always feel soooo ridiculous. hahah. oh well. sacrifice brings blessings right?

Yesterday morning in the first of the 5 tours I gave, I was giving this one with sis. Evans, and there were 2 couples. After the intro, one couple just got up and left, but we just kept going with the other couple. Then in the 2 room, they were like, oh, we have to be somewhere in 7 minutes, so they left too. Kind of funny. hahaha. In my 3rd tour, there was a woman who had bought a copy of the BOM in a thrift store and wanted to know more about it. IT was a cool tour, and she was my first referral that I've gotten on my own.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. The work is good, but man, is it tiring. I hope everything is great with all of you. I don't think I will have time to write you each a letter this week. sorry! But know I love each of you!!!!!!!

love,

hna livingston

Hola Familia‏

Ok family,

So I arrived in San Diego. The weather is definitely nice. It's a little hot in the middle of the day though, especially if you are walking for 12 hours and you forgot to wear sunscreen...woops. haha. That may or may not have happened yesterday.

I'll start at the beginning. So I arrived on tuesday morning, we stayed at the mission home all day and the pres. taught us a TON of great stuff. He is a way cool guy and knows so much about the gospel. He used to be the one who trained the leadership in the church, so I guess he knows what he's talking about. haha. It was a long day, but a good day. They even let us take a nap. YAY! haha. That night we stayed with some sisters because there were too many of us to stay at the mission home.

The next morning was transfers. My new companion is Hna Mortensen. She is from St. George and is super nice. She has been here for well over a year...I think she has 2 transfers left, so she definitely knows what's up. She was in her last area for a year and now we are white washing into a new area (aka we are both new to it.) My area is in the city heights area, it is on the ghetto side, but we usually have a car, so it's no big deal. There are tons of spanish speakers though, which is great.

We live in an apartment right next door to the mormon battalion historic site, which is nice. I wouldn't want to walk too far in a pioneer dress. haha.

So we work either from 9-3 or 3-9 at the mormon batallion everyday, including sunday and most p-days. (we rotate on p-days) On sundays there are 3 shifts, so we're here from 12-4. The other times we are in our area.

The pioneer dresses. I will try to send a photo soon. They aren't as bad as I initially thought. They lowered the necklines on mine a tad, so I at least am not choking anymore. They are definitely still a little tight through the waist though. haha. There's no room to grow, that's for sure.

The battalion is an interesting place. The tour is pretty interactive, mostly told through film, and we are there to guide them along. We even have to talk to some photos that talk to us. That's a little awkward when there are no kids in the group. haha. But it's good. I haven't given a tour by myself yet, but I've already given many with other missionaries.

So since we are both new to the area we had to find all new investigators because the other missionaries didn't leave any for us. So we have mostly been visiting less active families and getting to know the ward and then doing some contacting. We have also been visiting former investigators.

Yesterday we were on foot all day. (we get about 1 day a week off from the battalion). So we were dropped off in our area around 11 and then were picked up at 9 that night. This was when I got sunburned. haha. oh well. But it was a really good day. We were walking all over and no one was there who said they would be, but then we started talking to random people and tons of them (like 5) said we could come back. Our aproach was to talk about their ancestors and how we have an ancient record about them (the book of mormon) and how God made promises with their ancestors that apply to them and we want to share it with them. It seems to be a good approach because it catches their interest.

We went to visit one former investigator, Rosalba, and when we knocked her husband, Jose, answered. He said they were catholic, so we told him about the record and he invited us in. We taught him about the BoM and then his bro in law walked by and he was like, hey you need to come hear this, so he came and sat down (Jose 2) ahah. So we started over and explained about it a little bit and then we read the 1st chapter all together. It was great. The spirit was there and they seemed super interested. Jose 1 kept telling his kids to turn down the computer and to be quiet so he could hear, which I think is a positive sign. At the end we asked them to read the next chapter and they invited us to come back in thursday, so we'll see how that goes. Afterwords Hna Mortensen was like, that has never happened to me before, it was soooo cool.

It's great because the first chapter of the bom really addresses almost all of the points in the first lesson...Lehi needs direction, so he prays and Christ and the apostles appear -- a pillar of light, brighter than the sun-- it talks about apostasy and Christ gives lehi a book in the dream and he reads it. Basically it's really similar to the Joseph smith story, so I think it will set it up nicely for that. Cool huh? Anyways, we were way excited about it.

Basically, the mission is great so far. I really like it, but it is also Sooooooo tireing. I am always exhausted, but that's ok. At least I know I'm working, right?

It's great to finally really be using my spanish. I was surprised at how well I could understand people overall. And I can generally respond with whatever it is I want to say. Life is good. haha.

Well, I think that's about it for now. A lot more has happened, but that's a good taste of my life.

I hope everything is well out in good ol VA. Have a great last little bit of summer! I miss you all and love you!!!!

love,

hna livingston

Sister Livingston is in San Diego...

Greetings from the California San Diego Mission!

Your daughter, Sister Livingston has safely arrived in the mission field. We are delighted to have her serving with us among the wonderful people of Southern California. In addition to the tremendous weather and scenery, we have remarkable missionary opportunities.

Thank you for sending such a wonderful missionary to our mission. We are confident that with your prayers and her hard work that she will have a rich experience here in San Diego that will bless both her and those she teaches.

I have attached a couple of pictures that were taken this afternoon at the Mission Home.

God bless you for your sacrifice in sending us your daughter to labor among some of Heavenly Father's choicest spirits.

Lee Donaldson

Last e-mail from the MTC

Well, seeing as it has only been 2 days since I last emailed you, not too much has happened over here. I started visitor center training, which is slightly more boring than i might have thought. We have a class of about 31 or so, 5 of which are going to the mormon batallion and 2 going to winter quarters. The rest are all off to temple square. only the mormon batallion-ers have been here 9 weeks already, the rest have only been here 3, so some things feel a little redundant for us, but the temple square girls seem really into it.

Our teachers are way nice. they both served in visitor centers - one in Idaho falls and one in winter quarters. it's fun to hear about their experiences. Plus they constantly tell us that visitor center missions are the best. We shall see about that shortly. Neither of them had to wear a pioneer dress. In fact ONLY the mormon batallion sisters wear pioneer dresses. Of ALL the missions in the world, i was called to the single mission in which we wear pioneer dresses. A bit ironic. haha. i'm sure it will be fun though once we get past the weight of the dresses and how tight they are. : )

The first day of VC training we mostly just spent forever introducing ourselves because there are so many of us. then we learned about how to use pictures in our teaching. That night Hna C and i went back to our old district room and there was no one there so we just sat in our old chairs. Hno Pope walked by and saw us, so he joined us and we just chatted about how much more fun our old district was than VC training. then Hno Ah Sue joined in and we had a jolly good time.

Yesterday we learned about using brochures and media and we talked about introducing the Christus, which is not something I will need to do, but still cool. They have this special room for us to use with a bunch of kiosks and a cardboard cutout of the Christus and things like that. It's kind of funny. During class though, Hna C and I had to leave for a bit for the enhancement class. aka a make up class. We had heard that they gave you free make up so we went ahead and signed up. The women were about half an hour late in coming though, so we just hung out and waited. They finally came and sure enough gave us a bag of free make up after applying some. They claim the bag of make up to be worth $200, but I have my doubts. haha. Still, it was cool, and a nice break from class. hehe

Last night we had our first VC practice. we hung up pictures and brought in the christus and volunteers came in to visit our 'visitor center'. We taught twice, once to a 'non member' and once to a member. It went well overall, but me and hna c have been trained to get people baptized, so we found ourselves pushing that instead of the referral card the first time. oops. haha. we did better the second time, but still no one gave us a referral. We are supposed to be collecting real referrals because we are going to be calling them for real in the RC tomorrow.

All of our elders were gone by Wed except for Elder Corbitt, so we ate meals with him and whatnot, but he left this morning for Spain. Last night we went and sang 'hasta ver' with him, which was precious. Too bad there is no one left to sing it for us on Monday. oh well.

tomorrow (sat) is the day we go to temple square to practice our skills. that should be fun, i've heard good things about it. We'll leave around 3 and come back at 8. It will be nice to get out of the mTC for a few hours. i am way excited to leave tuesday morning!!!!!! It has been a great experience, but now that all of our district is gone, we just want to get out. As for my travel plans, i leave on Tuesday Aug 3 at 8:44 am and arrive in SD at 9:36 am. I have to be at the travel office by 5, which means I will get to the SLC airport around 6 and i will call home shortly thereafter. please ANSWER THE PHONE WHEN I CALL!!!!!!!!! thank you. I will be flying on delta, if you were wondering.

Well, i think that's about it. i hope things are great at home! It sounds like people are having a good summer.

i love you!

love,

hna livingston