Sarah and Ryan visit the Mormon Battalion!!!

another week!

Well, another week is gone and I am well into the second week of my 6th transfer. You are probably wondering if stayed in barrio 20....the answer is yes. haha. Hna De La Cruz and I are still there together. We were one of two companionships who didn't change at the mormon battalion. Everyone else was either transferred or changed companions or something. THere are 5 new sisters at the battalion, which is weird - they all seem nice, but it's mostly just strange to have the other 8 sisters be gone.

So last tuesday we had a very busy evening. Daniel came to the mormon battalion for a lesson in which we followed up on some commandments and then watched the joseph smith movie. Well, at least we turned it on for him and then ran home and changed into our pioneer dresses to give a tour to blanca. haha. That is what we call multi tasking. haha. Blanca ended up arriving a little late, so daniel's movie ended up ending right as we needed to start the tour. So I started the tour and then ran back to pray with him and sis D while Blanca and Lupita and hna Aragon and her kids were in the first room of the tour watching the movie part. THen daniel left and we were back to finish the tour. THe tour was fun; i have a couple photos to send from it. We made everyone dress up. haha. Blanca seemed to really enjoy it. (She is 16 by the way, megan had asked how old she was in her email).

Wednesday morning was transfers, which was exciting. Then after that all of the sisters who are training (5 of them) had to go to a meeting. THere is a new pilot program happening with a new way that missionaries are being trained. They are going to switch over to it completely in august. It revolves around teaching missionaries in the MTC these 8 principles from preach my gospel about being a good missionary and teaching well. THen when they come out to their mission their trainer deaches them the doctrine of the lessons in chapter 3. It seems to be going well for the missionaries that have been involved. THere are lots of crazy things happening out in the mission field these days. We are trying to get more efficient so that we can speed up the work.

Later on Wednesday, Gaby Morales (a member who is like 21) came out with us. SHe called us to ask if she could come, so obviously we said yes. haha. No one who we tried to see was home though, so that was sad. As I was driving Gaby suddenly said that she remembered visiting this one girl, Yesenia, almost a year ago with some other missionaries. SHe said yesenia had gotten baptized and come to church for 2 weeks and then disappeared. She gave me directions of where to drive to try to find her. She remembered that she lived down an alley by a 711, so we got out and started wandering down the alleys (don't worry mom, this was at like 2 in the afternoon- haha). SHe couldn't find the right complex though. I remembered having talked to the missionary, sis Thomas, who was there before me once a few weeks ago and she had asked me if anyone was visiting a girl, and I couldn't remember her name, but it sounded like the same girl, so I called sis Thomas that night and it was the same girl and sis Thomas said she had been thinking about her tons lately. She managed to help me find the address, so we are going to go visit her soon with Gaby and hopefully we can find her. But it was just cool how that all played out.

That night we saw the torres family, who don't seem to be doing so well. THey don't really seem to have the desire to do anything to change, but we just keep going hoping that if we keep giving them the opportunity, one day they will take it.

On thursday sis D had a meeting to go to since she is our group leader at the battalion. I went with sis Monarrez for part of the morning since her companion had to go to the same meeting. We went to her area, but our first appointment canceled. THere is this mexican restaurant that sis monorrez is always telling me about, so we decided to drop by there for lunch as a back up. It's called las quatro milpas, and it was soooo good. haha. I ate a bowl of beans with chorizo and rice that came with fresh made tortillas. Some of the best mexican food I have had on my mission, which is saying a lot. After that we went to see an investigator and we opened the gate to get to the house. There were two dogs asleep on the ground, so we quietly made our way to the door. Too bad when sis monarrez knocked it woke the dogs up and they attacked us. Well, they didn't actually attack us in the sense that I felt like I was going to die, but I felt like maybe my purse was going to die as they kept jumping on me and I was using that as a defense mechanism. Sis monarrez grabbed the laundry basket on the borch and jumped behind it leaving me out in the cold. haha. I'm sure it was a really funny sight though, the two of us screaming with these two dogs jumping all over us, but we kept knocking on the door. haha. SHe didn't come though, but we managed to make it safely out of the gated area. haha. oh dogs.

That afternoon hna d and I had a lesson with sis veracruz. SHe is basically ready to be baptized, she just wont admit that to herself. SHe says that when she does get baptized she wants her son to do it, so her son is visiting this weekend, so we tried to help her set a date for while he's here, but she wouldn't. we still have hope though that he will help her decide to get baptized this weekend. Pray for her!!!

Sunday was a little disappointing for the most part. Daniel didn't come, which means he can't get baptized on sunday. We are hoping that he will get baptized next sunday, so pray for him too!!! Luis (a less active) came and brought his less active friend and his friends nephew, so that was exciting.

SUnday night was sure exciting. I was sitting in the back at the mormon battalion enjoying a mango when elder brenchly came back and told me someone from my ward was here to see me. I was rather confused, but went up to the front, and there was sarah and ryan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited to see them! I gave them a tour - to just the two of them, so that was really fun. They said their wedding was perfect and they both looked so happy. It was fun to hear how much she loved her mission and everything too.

Monday morning we had MTE, a missionary training thing with president, so that was awesome. I'll have to send you some of my notes. He talked a lot about the exodus, when the people followed moses out of egypt and how that is what our investigators are doing. He talked about how this gospel is all about deliverance. NOw As i read the book of mormon i can see it everywhere. IT's way cool.

Last night elder roque and elder lynnemeyer (2 elders I came out with who are now companions) came into the battalion with some less actives for a tour. I gave them the tour and at the end elder roque (who is from peru) gave me 3 referrals, but he didn't have the address for his 2 friends, so I had to call his mom to get them. I called her last night after they left and she was soooooooo excited to talk to me. haha. It was a way awesome experience to talk to her though and to hear how proud she is of her two sons who are serving missions right now. It was also awesome though, because I was thinking how if 9 months ago someone had told me to call peru and talk to someone I would have thought I couldn't do it, but I managed to call her and have a good 20 minute conversation or so and understand everything just fine. It was awesome.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. I hope that everyone is having a great week! I love you all!!!

love

hna livingston

nine months down!

Well, 9 months down and less than 9 to go. Really just 8 and a couple weeks left. The time is just flying by.

This week I went to the courthouse in old town to clean twice. For some reason no one else hardly ever will do it, but it is always worth a few laughs. There are lots of funny people who come to see old town. The first time I went, I went with sis. Monarrez. While we were cleaning behind the glass part we could hear a group of 2nd graders or so coming in, so naturally we froze, pretending to be statues. The kids walked through and one girl said "wow, they could almost be real!" Then we moved and she screamed. haha. I can cross that off the bucket list now. haha. In all honesty I do always want to go behind the glass at museums, so thta was pretty exciting. The second time I went to the courthouse was yesterday. I went with Sis. Johnson - it was her last day in the mission field. She and 7 other girls from the battalion left to go home this morning. Anyways, there were ton of foreigners who came through and took our photo. We had to run back to the battalion to get more brochures and on our way back we ran into a group of men from some foreign country who had already taken our picture. THey wanted another photo in front of a covered wagon, so we obliged them. One of the men put his arms around both of us though, so that was kind of awkward.ALso, it was super bright outside, so I'm sure I just looked like I was crying in the picture. haha. I wish that somehow I could get copies of all of these pictures I have with random strangers.

Ok, so you are probably all wondering if Daniel got baptized. Maybe I should have started with that. He did not get baptized, but don't worry, he will. Last week we still needed to teach him chastity, the ten commandments, and tithing, so we were planning on teaching them all on wednesday, but when we called it turned out that he was in the hospital. So obviously we didn't get to teach him. He has been having a lot of stomach pain for the last month or so? I turns out that he has an ulcer or something. I don't speak medical spanish very well, so I don't really know the details of it. So we went to teach him on friday, and taught him everything we needed to and he accepted it all fine. We asked if he still wanted to get baptized on sunday and he said if he felt well enough he would. We told him to invite cleo, so he did right then. I think that cleo thought he was telling her to get baptized WITH him, so she said no. haha. Then we explained that we just wanted her to come see the baptism and support him and she said she would think about. SHe said she respects his decision and respects our religion and thinks of us as friends, but is not interested in learning more or anything. One day though, I'm sure she will be. Well, Daniel ended up not feeling well and during his baptismal interview, he told elder lewis that he wanted to wait to be baptized, but he also told him that he is sure that this is the one true church on the earth, so that is awesome. I am very confident that he will be baptized within the next few weeks. He still needs to come to church at least one more time before he gets baptized, so everything ended up working out great, because he didn't feel good on sunday, so he didn't come to church, so he could't have been baptized anyways, so I was glad to know the day before that he wasn' going to get baptized so that we weren't stressing out the whole day.

We had a couple lessons with blanca this week. In the first one she told us that she had just gotten kicked out of school, so we were glad to be there to talk with her. Apparently she was going to the wrong high school or something? SO the counselor told her she had to switch, but the other school won't let her come till next week. During that visit we just talked about prayer. I had made her a prayer rock, because she never prays, so I gave it to her. I'm pretty sure it didn't help because she said the next time that her grandma put it in a plant. haha. ANyways, after we finished talking, old blanca made us come eat some tacos, and of course they were the spiciest things in the world. I am 99% positive I will not have taste buds by the time I get home. haha. I don't know if you know how the whole mexican eating chile works, but basically when their kids are little they start feeding them chile, slowly getting hotter and hotter until they are accustomed to it. haha. So they always ask us if we eat chile, and I say no, and so does sis. De La Cruz, but they feed it to us anyways. haha. Also during that appointment, Blanca told us that she has a crush on one of the guys from church, so we will definitely try to use that to our advantage. haha.

The other lesson we had with blanca a YW came with us, Lupita. SHe is super cute. She told Blanca why she lives the word of wisdom and all the commandments and it was really good. Blanca said she would try to not drink coffee for a month, but after that she would drink it again, so we still have some work to do with her. But she is supposed to come to the battalion tonight, so that will be awesome.

We had a really good lesson with Eric this week. It lasted at least an hour and a half. He hasn't been coming to church lately, so we talked to him about it. Somehow we got onto the topic of baptisms for the dead and he told us that he knew there was at least one person who was waiting for him to be baptized for them: Gary Burteer. I paused there and thought, that's weird, I know that name, yup...the guy in remember the titans who gets paralyzed. haha. He told us that when he saw that movie when he saw Gary get hit by the car he said that the spirit told him he needed to get baptized for him, then he was confused when he didn't die. So when he died at the end he knew he did need to get baptized for him. Eric is such a funny guy. I hope that he is able to get baptized for him one day. He also told us how he is still with his girlfriend, who he said he was going to break up with. He said that she is jealous of us. haha. One time I guess he left hanging out with her to come to a lesson with us, so she is jealous. He said, don't worry, I told her you are ugly and have to wear long skirts. hahahahaaa. So we told him to bring her to the mormon battalion so she could see us in the pioneer dresses. haha. He is so funny. At the end of the lesson we asked him to pray. He said no, so we just kept waiting with our arms folded and our eyes closed. He kept saying no everytime we asked. We waited at least 20 minutes (not a joke, I looked at my watch) for him to pray. (not in complete silence, we would say something and then keep waiting). Finally he said he would pray if we went outside (some of his family was in the living room), so we went outside, and he started crying. He is such a softie. But he said he couldn't pray. We told him he could. He said that he would, but he would pray after we left. We agreed because we needed to leave. I reminded him of how I felt the time he was in the hospital and how I knew that God loved him and wanted to hear from him. Then I finally agreed to pray. He didn't come to church again on sunday, so I hope he went in Tijuana.

Things have been good at the Battalion. THis week I gave a tour to 45 people. (that is a HUGE tour). People were smashed together, but it was a family reunion, so they all wanted to be in the same tour. It was fine because at least they knew each other.

On Sunday night we had a fireside in our ward, which was awesome. Two men who served missions spoke and then one woman who was baptized 5 years or so ago. It was really good. It was on missionary work. In the middle all of the missionaries/people who had served missi (not that many) sang called to serve, which has 4 verses in spanish, btw. It was a good fireside. Luis and his little brother, Jose (who is not a member) came. (Luis is less active). SO that was awesome.

Yesterday was the last day for 8 of the sisters at the battalion, so we had a little gathering last night to say good bye. It was really fun. It's sad to see them leave, but we are getting 5 new sisters tomorrow, so things will be ok. haha. It's so fun to serve at the battalion and get to know all of these sisters so well.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. THis is the start of my 6th transfer, so we will see tomorrow if I stay in Barrio 20. I kind of think I will, but who knows. haha.

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!! I want to hear all about sarah's wedding and see lots of photos!!!!!

love

hna livingston