July 19

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you enjoy the gift I sent you and find it useful for Spain. : )

Well, you are probably wondering where I am serving now since we had transfers last week. Barrio 20. Yup. I stayed. haha. This transfer I will complete a calendar year in the ward. So excellent. It's a good thing I really like the ward. haha. Hopefully I just never leave.

We had a pretty great week. On tuesday night we had a good lesson with Alicia. We taught the plan of salvation and afterward she said that se really appreciated our listening to her, so that was good. She at least likes us. Now we just need her to progress in the gospel. After that we taught Amelia and her kids. We focused mostly on the kids. We played a board game about prayer that sis. Mortensen made forever ago. They really enjoyed it. The older son is 8 and we are hoping he will want to get baptized and that will soften Amelia's heart.

Wednesday mornind we had transfers. Sis Stevens and I were asked to give the tour to the new missionaries during transfer meeting - aka we were not transferred. I didn't think we would be because we train new missionaries for 2 transfers now with the pilot program. After that we were at the temple most of the day. I talked to an awesome woman from India, who was hindu. She told me more about hinduism and I told her about mormons. By the end of our discussion she asked if she could have a copy of the book of mormon, so I am sending her one. Later on we had a cute asian couple visiting from China come to visit. We talked to them for a while and they were way excited about learning about the church. We gave them the address for the church and hopefully they will go. After we talked to them they left to walk around the temple and then came back and asked to take a picture with us, so I got one on my camera too. SO cute.

After that we had a lesson with Ivan. It went really well. He showed us the notes he had taken at church and then we taught the plan of salvation and invited him to be baptized and he accepted for the 24th. Unfortunately he may not be able to get baptized that day because we have since discovered that he has an order for his arrest because of domestic violence....so we will see how that goes. He's a really nice guy and he seems to have changed a lot ever since his wife left him, so hopefully he will still be able to get baptized soon.

After that we went by norgia's, but she asked us to come back the next day because she was just making dinner. We tried a couple other people who weren't home and then went to a meeting to plan standards night for the youth. It sounds like it is going to be way cool. It is tomorrow night and we are doing it on modesty and language - "keep it modest, keep it clean" is the theme. We are going to have the YW do a fashion show, which will even involve them modeling a wedding dress. Way intense. Should be fun.

Thursday morning we had our interviews with Pres. Clayton. It was more just get to know you than anything else. After that we weekly planned some and then went to teach Norgia. When we got there we were nearly blown away because her apartment was clean. Maybe not as clean as mom likes the house, but just about. For her standards we were shocked. There was nothing on the floor, no food left out, the table was clear and had been cleaned off and she had all of the kids toys in a bag. Isa and George were sitting quietly at the table eating yogurt and when they finished Norgia made them throw the trash away. It was amazing. The best part was she had carefully hung the picture of Christ we had given her on the center of the wall. So amazing.

We had a nice discussion of the proclamation to the world about the family. We talked about church too. She really enjoyed church on sunday and said she would come again. I feel confident that she will want to be baptized soon, but we don't want to push her.

After that we taught sis. Veracruz. It was a good lesson overall. We were pretty bold. It was very directed by the spirit because sis. stevens and I learned a lot from what we were teaching. Hopefully sis veracruz learned some things too. We talked about abraham sacrificin Isaac. He had to take isaac all the way of the mountain and have him laying on the altar before God stopped him and provided a way. The abrahamic covenant is a covenant of willingness and action. God made sure that Abraham was willing before he stopped him. It's the same with us. We are baptized to show that we are willing to follow Jesus Christ. Then God provides a way for us to do that - he gives us the holy ghost. It was a good lesson. Then we asked her what she understood about the importance of authority and obviously she didn't undertsand it, so we explained again - very clearly. We told her that there is no way for anyone to progress beyond faith and repentance without the pristhood and that is only found in one church and she can know that for herself through prayer and the book of mormon. We think we have figured out her issue. Her admitting that this chruch has the priesthood admits that every other church doesn't and she doesn't seem to want to do that for some reason. Anyways it was a good lesson still.

We had dinner with the Valladarez family that night and Hna Valladarez said that next time she would teach us how to make enchiladas, so that is great news for everyone in this family. haha. If you are nice to me maybe I will share the knowledge when I get home. Maybe. haha.

After that we had a lesson with a potential named Carlos. I'm not sure how long he is going to last. If you ask me he is much more interested in the sister missionaries than the gospel. But we are willing to give him a chance. We are going to bring sis rivas with us next time so she can just really be frank with him. We had a little miracle when we went to teach him though. He is hna german's neighbor, that's how we found him (at the carne asada on the 4th of july). When we went over a bunch of the neighbors were outside including Jeffrey, hna german's son. We had a run in with him recently in which we told him if he ever watned to know if God was really there for him he could pray and God would answer (he goes to a church called the rock and believes God doesn't speak anymore). Well, he told us that he was reading in the bible and came across the story of Saul's conversion in which he had a vision. Then he said that that story proved him wrong and he would read one book from the book of mormon that each of us could pick. I pickd 1 nefi and hna S picked Alma. Hopefully he actually reads it because it will blow his mind.

Then we went to see Blanca and Jessica. Blanca was feeling under the weather, so we just shared a quick quote from the ensign about how Christ felt all of our pains and sufferings. I love Blanca and Jessica so much. They are both just the greatest. I am positive that they will eventually be baptized, but it may not be for a few years.

Friday we just had district meeting and then tried to see Olivia, but she wasn't there, so we went to see Cleo. She gave us a referral for her friend Monica and told us more about her, so we are going to see her next week hopefully. She also invited us to a baby shower she was going to have the next day. That evening we were at the battalion.

I gave one hilarious tour for some elders who came in and their investigator. Their investigator was maybe slightly off his rocker - so during the tour he started trying on all of the boots we have in the outfitting room until he found some that fit and then he paced around the room saying how much he loved them. These boots are maybe made of wood and plastic - not very comfortable. Anyways, I was laughing so hard I could hardly give the tour. haha.

Saturday we were at the battalion in the morning and right afterward we went to Cleo's babyshower. We met several of her neighbors there and they were all asking her questions about her religion, which was the point of us going, so that was great. They also gave us these cute passifyer necklaces to wear.

After that we went to teach alicia , but she was just on her way out to fix her cell phone, so we set up another time to come. Then we had coordination. I talked to los morales for a bit about how to help hna sapon. You may have noticed that she has disappeared from my emails -that is because she has disappeared all together pretty much. No one can get ahold of her. Apparently she has been taking her daughters to the catholic church because they dohn't want to come. I think they associate their father's being deported with their mom joining the church because they happened at the same time. But we keep trying to find them, so hopefully we will eventually.

Sunday none of our investigators came to church except sis. Veracruz, so that was sad. After church the other sisters had a baptism, which we helped out wtih. Then we were at the battalion for the evening. Things have been pretty crowded at teh battalion ever since summer started, so it was busy yet again.

Well, once again I hope that megan has a great birthday!!!! Also, I would like to hear some more details on Harry Potter 7.5....the big question is has daniel radcliffe finally figured out this whole acting thing??? haha jk. He is great.

Anyways, I hope that you all have an excellent week. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love

hna livingston