Well, another wee come and gone. I hear there is going to be a wedding pretty soon! Very exciting.
So last tuesday for preparation day we went up to la jolla cove and saw some seals chilling on the beach. It was pretty fun. I will include some photos. That night we were at the mormon battalion.
On Wednesday we just weekly planned all morning and then were at the mormon battalion in the evening. I gave a tour with Hna Stevens to a super cute family with adorable children. One of the little boys who was dressing up as a soldier when I asked him what else he needed said he needed a gun, "but not a real gun." Super adorable. Serving at the battalion has just increased my hope that I will have cute well behaved children. haha.
Thursday we had MTE (missionary training exchanges) which is basically just like a combined zone conference over two days. I learned a ton about the atonement and how important baptism is. I am going to copy some of my notes and send them home. I know I always say that, but this time I am really going to do it. President Donaldson talked a lot about how people literally have no access to the atonement without the priesthood and especially baptism. He just put things into perspective to give us a real urgency for the work.
Right after MTE we just had an hour or so in our area before we had to go to the battalion, so we were hoping to have some miracles and we did, but not the kind I was hoping for exactly. We tried to see about 3 different people, none of which were home, and then I randomly thought of Luis, a less active (not Linda's husband, a different one). We figured we might as well go by since no one else was home. We got up to the gate, which was locked and I saw Luis' little brother Jose (who is not a member - luis is the only member in his family) outside wandering in the gated area. He let us in and explained that he was locked out of the apartment (he is 9). I said I would call Luis, so I did, about 4 times before he finally woke up and came to the door. Poor Jose had been locked out for over an hour since he got home from school! So I'd say it was a miracle we came by and helped him get in. Also, Luis would have slept through part of work if we had come by much later, so it all worked out.
That afternoon at the mormon battalion I had a special visitor: Erin McNeil!!! She and Ryan were on vacation with her kids and she came to the battalion and I was able to give them a tour. It was so fun to see them and to catch up a little bit. We talked for quite a while out in gold panning about how much our missions meant to us. She is the best.
On Friday we had MTE again in the morning and president mostly focused on the importance of the ward council. He said that he was focusing on this not because we had any power to change the ward council, but because one day soon each of us would be sitting on a ward council and he wanted us to know how the brethren intended it to work. He also went over some awesome doctrine about how Christ descended below all things. Just a preview - the spot where Christ was baptized is the lowest fresh water in all the world. He literally did descend below all things. His whole life was a type and shadow for the gospel he has asked us to follow. It was some pretty mind blowing stuff, but all tied in to the simplicity of the gospel.
That evening we didn't have a ton of success, in that most of our appointments canceled (really all of them except our dinner appointment). The dinner appointment was with the Silva family. He is in the bishopric and is from Cuba. He made us fried platanos (bananas) from cuba, so that was fun to try. They were really good. We talked to him about Cuba and how he found the church and everything. He told us to pray that cuba would be opened soon for missionaries so that his family can hear the gospel. It was a pretty funny dinner appointment, mostly because Hno Silva has a very thick cuban accent, which makes him challenging to understand. They drop all "s's" and just have a different rythm of speaking. But he is a way funny guy and I really enjoyed chatting with him.
On Saturday we had an appointment with Manuel, but he canceled, which was sad because we had a member ready to go with us and everything. Then we went to see Yadira and she dropped us. She said she found another church. From there we tried a couple other people who weren't home. Not the most successful morning, so we decided to try contacting a referral from the Mendoza family. We went, but Hna Mendoza didn't know the name of the adults in the family. The daughter is friends with her daughter and had mentioned once that her mom used to go to the temple (they had a picture in their house), so that made for a super awkward doorstep scene.
We knocked and I asked if they knew the mendozas when a man came to the door. He thought I was looking for the mendozas. I explained that I knew them and they thought that he and his family would like the dvd finding faith in christ. He said that they already read the bible a ton, so I just suggested that we could come by and watch this movie with them sometime. He agreed and we set up a time for next week, so it ended up working out.
That evening we were at the battalion. The first tour I did had a couple who looked nearly homeless and a mormon family. It started out terrible because my clicker wasn't working to start the pictures talking, so that threw me off. Finally it all started, but it just wasn't off to a great start. The rest of the tour went fine though. At the end I was talking to the family in gold panning (the couple left super fast) and it turns out that the man was the head of all training at the MTC, especially for visitor centers. haha. He took a picture of me and said that he was going to tell all of the visitor center sisters in the MTC all about the tour. haha. Hopefully he doesn't mention the beginning part. It's just funny because you never know who is on your tour. haha.
Hna German called me while I was outside and said that she was on her way to the mormon battalion!!! We had invited her, but I didn't think she would really come, but she did. She came with her son, Jeffrey, and a man who is her neighbor. I gave the tour to Hna German and the man in spanish and Hna Stevens did the tour for Jeffrey and some other people in english. It went super well. Hna Germand LOVED the tour. She took a million photos and kept saying she was going to put them on facebook. At the end of the tour she referred her sister and her neice and the man referred himself - and he lives in our are!!!!!!!! We've been needing some new investigators, so that was pretty much a miracle. I talked to him for a bit after and he said he loved the tour and has family who are mormons and has been to salt lake before. So awesome.
On sunday none of our less actives, recent converts, or investigators came to church. Well, actually one less active family did, los garduno. They came so that they could bless their new baby, so that was exciting. But Daniel and Cleo didn't come (I called them after and they were in Tijuana because a family member was visiting there just for the day). Church was good though. After church I saw we had a message from Manuel's uncle, Jose. He was asking if we had services later in the day. I called him back and he said they wanted to come to church, but they worked till 12, so I told them about 2 other spanish branches that meet at 1 and he said they might go next week. I asked if they were home and they said yes, so we went to see them righ then and just brought Hna Zarate with us. The lesson was pretty intense. Mostly Jose just LOVES to talk and he LOVES the bible and he has heard a lot about mormons and Joseph Smith. I think I explained about 7 times that the BOM is not the bible, but he just wasn't gettng it. We tried to watch the restoration, but their playstation wouldn't play the dvd. In the end I just told them that they just had to read the BOM to see if it was true, so they said they would. It's hard because Manuel is on a ver different level than his uncle, so it's hard to teach them both tgether because the uncle overpowers Manuel completely. We are going to have to figure out a way to teach em separately, because manuel is awesome, but his uncle wants to learn (or at least just wants to talk to us a lot). BUt it was a good lesson overall.
That night I gave an awesome tour at the battalion with Sis Adams. IT was just one man from the marshall islands. He converted in 1980 - one of the first converts in the marshall islands he said. He loved the tour so much. At the end we were asking for a referral and found out that he had just moved san diego 9 months ago to help his sister out, so he lived with her. He said he hasn't seen missionaries yet and he doesn't know where the church is, so he has just been attending another church. I got his address and it is in my area (but english) so I gave him the phone number for the english elders and told him where the church is.
On Monday we tried to see about a hundred people who weren't home. Then we had an FHE with a family (Elia and Cesar are the parents). They were a battalion referral back in August and were taught by elders for a while. I taught her a few times to help the elders out when a man couldn't go with them and her husband was't home. They love the church but because several elders were transferred right in a row they kind of got forgotten. I talked to the elders and seeing them and they said they thought that would be good since I already knew them, so we went last week and set up the FHE for this week. It went super well. We baked brownies to bring and Cesar and Griselda Tadeo came with us. We talked about gratitude and prayer and then played this board game about prayer that sis mortensen made forever ago. The kids all LOVED it. Cesar wasn't there, but we were still able to add 3 investigators from it - elia and the two oldest daughters. It was so excellent. I have high hopes for this family, plus Daniel and Cleo would be great fellowshippers, so I am excited to teach them.
Well, that's about it for this week. Things are going well overall. I hope things are excellent at home!!!!! I love you all!!
love
hna livingston
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