Well, my fifth transfer is nearly over and I hit my halfway point last week and my 9 month this week. Crazy stuff. Somehow it always seems to be either the day before sunday, sunday, or tuesday. haha. The other days don't seem to happen.

Well, this was an exciting week. I was on exchanges last thursday with sis. Adams, who came out with me. We were in my area, which is sometimes a little stressful because you want the other person to have a positive experience and you don't want to mess anything up without your companion there. haha. We were at the battalion that morning, and things were relatively busy, but nothing too exciting happened. After the battalion we headed out to my area and went to see Norgia first (the one whose apartment smells terrible). She asked us to come back at 6 instead, so we said we would. Then we tried to see Eric, but he wasn't home. I was thinking at this point, oh great, no one will be home and sis. adams will think this is a terrible area. But then we decided to try a former, named Lourdes, who is from the area we took over from the elders. I had visited her once before back in october on a blitz for elder gardner/krasovec's area and she had said she wanted the elders to come back because seh had been taking the lessons when she lived in Utah before. So anyways, we went to see her and she let us right in and even remembered me from october. She said the elders had never come. We talked with her about faith and eternal families. We had another lesson with her yesterday, and from everything I know from those 3 visits and her teaching record it sounds like they (her and her husband) were almost baptized at one point, but they aren't married. THe first time I came she said she didnt' want to get married, but she didn't mention it these last two times, so we will see. So that was really exciting last thursday though, because we added a new investigator.

From there we wen to a donut shop called "san diego's finest donuts." I have had my eye on this place for a good 6 months. That is a pretty big claim to make...FINEST donuts, so I felt that I needed to try it out. ALso, Blanca had been sad the week before about her boyfriend being deported right before valentine's day, so we decided to go get some donuts to bring with us as a v-day present for blanca during our lesson (she lives a block from the donut place). So we got 6 donuts and then headed over to blanca's. She was up with her cousin, so we went up to her apartment and gave her the donut and she was all excited about it. Then about 5 seconds later someone knocked on the door and blanca answered it and it was her boyfriend (but his name was different from her boyfriend before, so I'm guessing she got a new boyfriend? I haven't been able to ask her yet cause he was there and I didn't want to be rude). Anyways, so all 4 of us (including the bf) went down to blanca's apartment for our lesson. We had decided to read 1 nefi 4, when nefi cuts of laban's head...I thought that that story might captivate blanca, plus we could use it to teach follow the commandments from God. So we asked blanca to pray, and she didn't want to, so we asked the boy friend if he ever prayed and he said he hadn't in months. So naturally we asked him if he would like to pray. He said sure. We explained how to pray and he said a great prayer. haha. Then we started reading the chapter. Everytime we asked blanca a question about it she would stare at us blankly and then herboyfriend would answer perfectly! haha. IT was way funny. Halfway through the chapter Blanca's cousin called and said she needed her help upstairs, so we went up with her and her bf and finished the chapter there. Then we made him take a donut too. (he refused the first 4 times we offered him one). I"m pretty sure he just didn't know how to react to us. haha. But he's way nice and hopefully he's there again sometime.

After that we went back to Norgia's. This was one of the more hilarious experiences of my mission. I really wish I had a video tape of teh whole experience because I don't think words can adequately describe it. So Norgia's husband was home, his name is William. He is white and to say the least, he is a little rough around the edges. I wish I had a photo of them...but he is really skinny and has kind of bug-eyes and like a 4 day beard or something. Ok, so we brought the restoration on VHS because last time their dvd player didn't work, but their VCR does. Of course between our last visit and thursday they had gotten a DVR system, so this mean the VCR was no longer hooked up to the TV. William in a very exhasperated manner, tried to rehook up the VCR. THis took a good 10 minutes. He had to crawl under the desk the TV was on, and he got stuck several times. There was a stream of swear words coming out from under the desk for most of this experience. WHile he was back there the DVR suddenly started to fall, so Norgia and I both lunghed for it and luckily saved it before it fell on him. I really wish you could have seen it. He just kept yelling out "NORGIA" every few seconds, even though there was really nothign she could do to help him behind the TV. Eventually he got the sound working, but no picture, so he kept trying. After awhile he gave up (Sis adams and I had already told him about 15 times to not worry about it, we would just read instead). haha.So finally he gets out from under the desk (NOrgia had to help pull him out because he was stuck). THen he tries turning on the tv and realizes that the dvr isn't working now. At this point I was a little concerned since I felt partially responsible for having brought a VHS. haha. So this time he has NOrgia crawl under the desk and he just keeps telling her to hand him the "plug in". Now, I have no idea what he meant by plug in. Well, I do know because I saw it, but norgia didn't know either, so she kept handing him different cords and then he would turn to us and say something like, "I speak to her in simple english and he doesn't even understand me". I didn't tell him that I didn't understand either. Finally they got it all figured out and the dvr was working again and eventually the phone was working again. He even managed to fix the static problem they were having before...blessing in disguise. haha.

So finally we start reading the first chapter of the BOM with norgia. It went well, that is until william jumped in to the conversation. I don't think he even speaks spanish, so i'm not really sure how he started into the conversation. But he started talking about the end of the world and then about a lot of other things including how alaska was bombed in WWII. Then he started talking about how he doesn't make racial comments, he just speaks the way his culture raised him. He said that in his culture he would call sis adams and I "Sweetheart and Hun" out of respect. ...awkward... haha. Then he mentioned that he had mormon family members. he was respectful of it for the most part, until he brought up polygamy. haha. Then norgia started getting all confused and worried and finally we managed to just jump in and say we had to leave and say a prayer first. (we really did have to leave becaue we had an appointment at 7:30 and it was like 7:27).

So we literally ran from there to Daniel's (luckily just down the street) and the Tadeo family was there waiting for us. THey came with us to the appointment. We got in and taught the word of wisdom. I was a little worried about teaching it because we had only been planning on Hno Tadeo coming, but since his wife and kids came that meant that cleo stayed and listened too, which was good, but I wasn't sure if word of wisdom would be the right thing to teach, but we just went with it. After a few stressful moments we got going and things turned out just fine. The tadeos both have a strong testimony of giving up coffee, which turend out to be the one thing Daniel had concerns about. CLeo was all for giving up coffee and living the word of wisdom, which was awesome. Daniel agreed to try his best to live it, so that was great.

It was a long day, but man, we managed to have some serious success. haha. We've seen Daniel a few times since then and he is doing pretty good at living it. He came to church on sunday and even brought his son, Isaac, with him. And during sunday school a woman asked a question about the difference between the gospel before and the restored gospel. He raised his hand and explained that restoration means to bring back to its original form so it is the same. haha. He is so ready to get baptized, which by the way he is supposed to get baptized on sunday, so pray for him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday night we had a ward activity about temples and there was a good turn out. Daniel came to that too and liked it a lot. He seems to be fitting in with the ward pretty well.

We also ate with the garcia family, who is awesome! They have YW that are 15, 16, and 17. Mitzy, the 16 year old is hilarious. She's one of those really tough on the outside people who always makes sarcastic comments, but we brought her with us to a lesson yesterday and she was awesome. We are gonig to start bringing her with us to teach blanca, so hopefully she can help her see how commandments are helpful.

Saturday we had a full day, but a family was getting sealed who sis. Johnson and Story had taught (the Robles family from the district 2 dvds if you ever get to seee the PMG dvds filmed in San Diego). So we covered their shift for an hour at the battalion. During that hour Greg's friend Jared came with is wife and her family, so I started their tour for them, but I had to leave after the first part. But that was fun to see him all grown up and married.

We did some planning on sat and then we were going to go to a dinner appointment with the Tadeo family at 5. we went to the battalion about about 4:40 to get our keys and right as we walked in Griselda Tadeo and her kids were there at the battalion about to take a tour. Clearly she had forgotten about our dinner appointment. No big deal though, we just went to in n out. : )

Sunday as you know the Wheatleys came to the battalion and I gave them a tour along with several other people. THey seemed to enjoy it and it was way fun to see them and hear a little update on their family.

yesterday was Luis Torres' birthday, so I used the pans mom sent me to bake him a cake. We brought it over and gave it to linda, Luis was at work, and she was really excited about it because she said she had wanted to get him a cake but didn't want to walk to the store, haha, so hopefully it tasted ok. It was chocolate with funfetti frosting. Perfect for someone turning 28 or so.haha. I even put one candle in it.

Last night we had a lesson with a potential named sandra. We watched the restoration with her and she really liked it. SHe had a lot of questions about baptism and said she would start reading the BOM. She has a husband and two daughters, 11 and 13, so I think there is a lot of potential with that family.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. Transfers are a week from tomorrow, so that will be exciting to see what happens. Sometimes I think I will get transfered and other times I don't, so we will see, but I have been in the same place for 5 transfers, which is the longest out of our district, so we will see what happens. haha. I love the ward though, so I would be very happy to stay.

I hope that you are all having an awesome week and aren't freezing to death. It's been sunny for the most part this week, but it rained a couple days. I have nthing to complain about though.

Love you!!!

love,

hna livingston