August 23rd

Well, it finally happened. I was transferred on wednesday. There were definitely some tears that flowed when I called Hno Morales to tell him. I called Daniel too, but he didn't answer, so I just left a message. I heard he was pretty devastated. Hna Stevens stayed to take over the area, so she will do a good job. And Hna Lee, my good buddy, was moved from spring valley (where she had been just 6 weeks less than me in Barrio 20) to take my place. Luckily I trust her. I should be able to go back for some baptisms soon - we got Jessica with a date right before I left.

So I am now serving in the La Mesa 3rd branch - La rama tercera de la mesa. It's a spanish branch that Hna De La Cruz opened before she came to be with me, so that is ironic. I have been to a few activities there and a lot of the members came there from Barrio 20, so at least there were some familiar faces on Sunday. It couldn't be more different from Barrio 20 though. It is TINY! And it's like looking for hispanics in suburbs full of white people. City heights was pretty getto, so this is a change. It's one of those branches where they have white people who speak spanish called in as the leadership, so that is definitely a change from Barrio 20.

My new companion is Hna Lewis. Ironically, she was in my BYU ward when I got my mission call. Her sister was my relief society president, so that is a funny connection. She has been out 3 transfers and is a great missionary. She and I are currently serving as the sister trainers at the Mormon Battalion Historic Site, so that means we are the director's assistants kind of and do the schuedule and exchanges and things like that. Should be a good time.

I had a cool realization during the week. I was reading in John 21 and came across verse 15 where Christ asks peter if he loves him more than these. I realized that God was asking me the same question. He had let me stay in Barrio 20 so long so that I could love the people so much. Then he was asking me if I love him more than I love "these" - the people in Barrio 20. Then his command to peter is "feed my lambs." I realized that if God wants me to feed the lambs of la mesa, i will do it. Even if it means I have to leave behind my lambs in barrio 20 for sis Lee and Stevens to take care of. Already we have seen some miracles in La Mesa and I can tell that this is going to be a good transfer and I am needed there with Hna Lewis.

So Wednesday morning I moved my stuff out of my apartment and across the street to the La Mesa apartment. Then we went to an appointment with a woman named Hna Roman. Her son is a recent convert and the sisters have been teaching her for a bit. SHe had a date before, but didn't go through with it. We taught her about the gospel and invited her to be baptized. She agreed and we set the date for the 27th, which is saturday. She came to church on sunday and we saw her again last night and it seems like she is going to go through with it. Hopefully her son, ivan, will baptize her. He is nervous about it because he has never baptized anyone before.

That night we were at the battalion (luckily that part of my life stayed the same). I gave a tour to an awesome family originally from Peru. I talked to them after for a while. I thought they were members, but as I talked to the husband I learned that she was baptized as a little girl and went less active. They moved to the states and her sister got baptized not too long ago and then came to the battalion and referred them. Now they are all taking the lessons and he is thinking about getting baptized. So awesome. The third tour I gave that night was also a spanish tour. It was a man and his parents from mexico (the man lives in san diego though). He LOVED the tour. I guess he is a history teacher and he loved how it was presented, so he referred himself. I love giving spanish tours. Mostly I just love spanish period.

On thursday we were at the temple. It was pretty busy; we talked to a lot of people. Two recent converts, Hno Chavez and Ivan, came to the temple and we taught them about baptisms for the dead. They both agreed to do baptisms at the branch activity in september.

That evening I went to teh battalion with Sis Christensen's companion so that she could go with Sis Lewis to the temple to do a session with a returning less active. They had it planned before the transfer. I met the woman though and it was cool because it turns out I already knew her - Hna Lock. Hna De La Cruz had been the one to reactivate her and her family so she had told me all about her and then I met her at Vanesa's baptism (where I played the violin, so everyone remembers me for that).

Friday things were pretty slow at the battalion, but I still gave a few tours. After that we weekly planned and then headed to our area. We went from person to person and no one was home the whole night, so that was disappointing. On the way home I had the idea to call Ivan (the Ivan I taught in Barrio 20, not the recent convert in la mesa), so I got his number from the other sisters and called him. I did this because he had told me the last time I saw him that he was moving to la mesa to live with his brother. I called and he answered and said he wanted to come to church on sunday. I said that was great and if he wanted he could go to Barrio 20 still, but I had been transferred and was in la mesa and if he wanted her could go there. He said he would come to la mesa because it was closer. So that was a little miracle.

Saturday morning we were at the battalion again and things were pretty busy. Then in our area we had district meeting first. My district is pretty different because before it was always just the missionaries in my ward, but now it is the missionaries from 3 wards. The district leader, Elder Fuji, is from japan and gave some good insights to the word revelation based on the character in japanese. It seemed very related to the temple. Pretty cool.

After that we taught a woman named Isabela. She is from Guatemala and it's the second time she has been taught. She has two little boys who are not shy at all. One of them played with my hair while we taught. That was ok except he had sticky fingers. haha. It wa a good lesson though. We just talked about the book of mormon, but she seems really interested. The only problem is she works on sunday.

After that we stopped by another woman named Hna Iparea. She has been taught for like 10 years, so we jus taught sabbath day and invited her to quit her job and find a new one. She said she would, but if she doesn't we are dropping her. Being on the mission so long had got me a little fed up with teaching people who aren't ready. I just don't have enough time left to be willing to do that. Before we left we asked if there were any hispanics in the apartment complex. She said the people in #6 spoke spanish. So as we left I told Hna Lewis that we were going to knock on #6's door and ask for a name that we would make up. She suggested Maria, but I said that was a little too common and it might be her name, so we knocked and I asked for Claudia. She said she didn't live there, and we said, oh sorry - we were just coming to share a message about Christ with her and what was her name. She said it was Maria. I couldn't speak for fear of laughing, so luckily Hna Lewis jumped in. haha. We offered to come back another time and share the message with them instead and she said that would be fine.

Next, we went to see Hna Alvarez, a less active. She engaged us in a very long conversation about pit bulls that we then brought back to the gospel. She has been less active for 30 years or so, so we are going to teach her the restoration later in the week and invite her to come back to church.

Sunday was a little strange. The branch was just so small...maybe 30 people? Barrio 20 had over a hundred that attended.It was good though. we had 3 investigators there and then Ivan (from before) came too!!! So that was awesome. After church we weekly planned and then had a lesson with the neice and nephew of Hna Garcia from the branch. Oscar and Isabel - we taught them the plan of salvation. he is a returning less active and she is an investigator. We asked her to be baptized and she was nearly jumping off her seat asking when she could, so that was awesome. She has a date for the 10th so he can get the priesthood first. Then we ate delicious tacos with them and headed over to the mormon battalion.

At the battalion I gave a tour to Elder Evan's )the director) mom. She was adorable and loved the tour. she is 87 and one of teh tiniest people ever. Also she knew Grandma and grandpa, so that is fun.

Monday we had a good day in the area. We talked to some potential and found some new ones. We went to a former's house named Reina and taught her on the doorstep. She said we could come back. Then we asked if there were any spanish speakers on the street and she said yes, 3 houses down. We were planning on knocking and asking for a name, but when we walked up everyone was out ont he porch and we were caught off guard, so it was the most awkward street contacting ever done in the history of the earth, but somehow she took pitty on us and said she would listen right then. her name is Julie and she had tons of questions and we taught her outside. She said she has read the BOM int he mariot hotel before and it interested in learning more about directly from the source. Awesome. So taht was pretty much a miracle.

After that we tried to se a few other people and then had an FHE with Hna Lock and Vanesa (returning less active and recent convert). We ate dinner and then taught the plan of salvation. It was really good. Vanesa remembers my playing the violin at her baptism.

So the work continues on. I hope that you are all doing well. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love,

hna livingston

August 16, 2011

Well, it seems that another transfer has come and gone. We have transfter meeting tomorrow, so you will have to wait until next week to find out what happens.

Tuesday night we went to see Hna German, but she was on her way to the store, so we went with her and chatted during the walk there. I don't think she will progress anytime soon, but she is always giving us the names of her friends to visit, so we keep going back.

After that we taught amelia about keeping the sabbath day holy. It was a long and slightly frustrating lesson becuase she knows she needs to come to church, but she still doesn't want to because of whatever horrible thing happened in her previous church. We were pretty bold with her, so hopefully the spirit will work on her and she will be able to make up her mind to come to church.

Wenesday we had a good lesson with Olivia. We taught the gospel and she seemed really interested. At the end she prayed and in her prayer she said that she thought that what we had said about baptism by immersion made sense (she is catholic). After that we had district meeting and then tried to see a bunch of different people, but no one was home. We were at the battalion in the evening and it was pretty busy, so we gave lots of tours.

Thursday I was on exchanges with Hna Adams, so I was in Logan Heights for the day. We had a good time. At first no one was home, but then we managed to find a couple of people to teach - we even added two new investigators for them. We also had lunch at las quatro milpas, which was so delicious as always. We also visited one of their members who took us to her neighbor's house and we talked to them abou the BoM right there on the porch with her there. It was pretty cool. That night we were at the templw, which was fun. It just happened to be baptism night for my ward, so it was fun to see a bunch of the youth there. I have grown really close with some of the Young Women. We managed to get a couple of referrals from some really cool people. One was a vietnamese couple that seemed really interested and the other was two young teenage girls who had tons of questions and wanted a book of mormon, so that was exciting.

Friday we went to help a returnin less active's daughter get ready for prom. Her dad is the elders' investigator and she is less active too. her mom found out that sis steven does hair, so she asked us to help out. It was way fun, because we got to chat with the daughter, who is a little rebelious and the ward has had a hard time getting close to her, so it was great. Hna Stevens did her hair while I watched/talked with Marilyn (the daughter).

After that we taught Olivia the restoration. The lesson went really well. She seemed to really like what we were teaching, though it was all new information for her. We definitely had high hopes for Olivia after the lesson though.

Next, we went to teach Norgia. We were there for about an hour, and in that time we probably got to teach for about 10 minutes over all. The kids/William kept interrupting us every 2 seconds because they were hungry or the tv wasn't working and whatnot. We set goals with Norgia to help her quit smoking, so hopefully she will be able to so that she can get baptized.

After that we picked up california burritos, which we brought to the temple to eat. We had been fasting for sis Veracruz because Hna Stevens had had a good lesson with her while on exchanges and she was going to pray that night to find out if she could get baptized. We got to the temple and Hna Stevens called her and she said that she had prayed and felt like she didn't need to get baptized right now and didn't need us to come over anymore....definitely not the outcome we had been hoping for. The only good thing tha came from it was that we got to eat delicious burritos at the temple. I'm pretty sad that she is using her agency this way, but oh well. We definitely were bold and did our best. We are going to try to go by one more time though because I am not satisfied with ending things like that after so long.

We had a really nice experience at the temple with a man who brought his 2 nonmember sisters to the temple. They had just come from a funeral for his father in law and we showed them the mormon message by elder nelson about the temple. He started crying and the spirit was there really strongly. We testified of the book of mormon and eternal families and the sisters both said they would like a book of mormon at the end. I almost always have amazing experiences while serving at the temple. I love it.

Saturday morning we just studied/weekly planned/prepared for sharing time, which we taught on sunday. Then we were at the mormon battalion in the evening. I gave a spanish tour to some really nice families and then I met Matthew's old seminary teacher (sis hales??). I gave a couple other tours that night so some fun people, so that was good.

Sunday was an interesting day. I had a neat experience during the sacrament of just thinking about how the sacrament really does bring us closer to the savior. After the sacrament they released Hno Ameneyro from the bishopric, which I was way sad about. I love Hno Ameneyro. He is the one who always supports the missionaries becuase we don't always have the support of the bishop. It was weird to see him get released after having served with him for over a year. The ameneyro family is amazing. They have gone through so much this last year. Neither of them had a job for aa good 6 months. I don't even know how they survived. I just love the people in this ward.

After sacrament meeting, we headed over to the primary. We had been told we were just teaching sharing time, but we got there and they asked us to do the music time too. Of course we said we would. Hna Stevens played the piano and I led the music. Unfortunately the kids didn't know the songs very well, so I ended up singing several solos. You can all imagine how I felt about that. haha. Sharing time went super well. We were teaching about modesty, so we made 5 paper dolls out of poster board with some outfits for each of them. We had the kids help us dress them to go to the beach, to play soccer, to go to church, and to serve a mission. The kids loved it. It was way fun. Plus we gave them candy, so we are their favorites now. haha.

That night we were at the battalion. I gave several tours, including a spanish one for some elders who brought their investigators.

Monday we had a full day in our area. We had high hopes for the day, but that quickly turned once we got there. We went to teach olivia first. She answered the door and gave us back her book of mormon with all the pamphlets and said "no me convence." - it doesn't convince me. And that was it. ....................... What? Either her husband was not happy she was learning or she was antied. I can think of no other explanation.

After that we tried norgia, but she was busy, so we tried to see a referral, but she was busy. We took some cookies to los Ameneyro to thank them for their service and help. We chatted with her for a bit and had a nice conversation about the people she visit taught and things like that. We thanked her and her husband for all they did and then we just talked about how important the gospel was. She said she was trying to get one of her neighbors prepared for us to teach, but she wanted to give them a little more time. We asked if she knew anyone else, and she gave us the name and address of her brother, who we contacted later that night and we have an appointment to come back.

After that we tried to see some other people who weren't home. Then we tried a potential that we contacted in the street. We got there just as the mom was getting home - like we ran into her at the porch. She was busy right then, but we made an appointment to come back.

After that we went to see Jessica (Blanca's sister). We had a great lesson about the plan of salvation. I don't know if you remember, but their mom died when they were young and their dad was recently paralyzed. We taught about eternal families and then invited her to be baptized and she said yes. So she has a date for the 4th, but she doesn't think her dad will let her, so she wants us to talk to him (she's just 13). She is the sweetest though. I hope he lets her. I not, she'll get baptized one day for sure.

We tried to visit a bunch of former investigators after that, which is basically like knocking doors. No one was home or interested. Then we went to see Daniel and Cleo, who did not come to church on sunday because daniel was working. We shared the story from Elder Ballard about looking for gold and talked about how to reach their goal to go to the temple, they needed to read their scriptures and pray everyday and come to church on sundays. They agreed. Then we took some super cute pictures of fatima who was eating an helote (corn on the cob with mayo and cheese and chile). Their family is still awesome as ever. Daniel told me I wasn't getting transferred, but we will see. haha.

Well, that's about it for the week. Hopefully we will find some new investigators soon who are a little more prepared. haha.

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love,

Hna Livingston

August 9, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope it was excellent.

Well last tuesday nothing really eventful happened besides 2 black men within an hour telling sis. stevens that she looked like a princess. Other than that no one was home the whole night!

Wednesday morning was pretty eventful. We headed to our area in the morning and while we were driving Daniel called and asked if we could meet him at the hospital because Cleo had just been taken there in an ambulance and he needed help with translation. Of course we zipped over to the hospital and a very nice security guard helped us to find them. It turns out that Cleo had been home and had not felt good and threw up a lot and then collapsed and couldn't move at all for a few minutes, so her daughter got a neighbor who called the ambulance. Anyways, she is fine now, but we stayed in the hospital with them for about an hour - mostly just trying to keep Cleo entertained once she got some life and color back in her.

After that we headed to an appointment with Olga, a 67 year old woman we've started teaching. We brought Hna Alvorado with us - mostly because she is old and we thought they would relate. Turns out they did. They spent the first 10 minutes talking about their swollen ankles. haha. We kind of taught the restoration, but mostly hna Alvarado taught it very straight - forwardly and we backed her up. She told Olga that the catholic church was not the place to be in a nutshell. Olga is catholic. It was a good lesson though. We invited her to be baptized on the 21 and she said yes as long as she could back out if she wanted to - so that's not a super strong yes, but we'll take it for now. haha.

We tried to see a couple other people who weren't home, so we ended up going to mcdonalds to do some weekly planning, because it was a little to hot to weekly plan in the car. That was an interesting experience. haha. I don't know if I would ever choose to spend more than 10 minutes inside of mcdonalds, but oh well.

We had a great lesson with Manuel after that. Hna Zarate came with us and good thing she did becuase she pretty much saved the lesson. We were reading in the BOM with him, but he really wasn't understanding a lot. he's a little thick. She stopped and started asking him some things about Christ and we quickly discovered that he knew hardly anything about Jesus Christ, so we quickly changed the lesson and just talked about Christ and how we can follow him. We talked about baptism and he wants to get baptized, but he works every sunday, so he can't come to church, so we need to figure something out for that. We spent about 5 minutes at the end convincing him to say the prayer, and he finally did, so that was excellent.

Thursday morning Hna Stevens and I did the devotional, which was a smash hit because we quoted fiddler on the roof and talked about how we are all fiddlers on the roof but can have an anchor of faith in our life. We were at the battalion in the morning, but things were surprisingly slow.

We tried to see a few people who weren't home at first (that seems to be a theme for this week) and then we dropped by Cleo to see how she was doing. We shared a little thought with her and encouraged them to come to church this week. She said they were definitely coming because now they know what happens if they don't come. haha. She said first daniel got sick and now me, so I think we'll just go before it gets to the kids. haha. Fatima is walking now (the baby) so that is adorable. I have known her pretty much her whole life minus one week. haha.

While we were with Cleo she said that she had some chocolate flour that she didn't know how to use and asked if we wanted it. We didn't know what she was talking about until she showed us -- brownie mixes. haha. She said she tried to make one and it didn't work. I asked what she added and she said just milk. So we said that was probably why it didn't work and then she gave us the other 4 brownie mixes and said she'd rather us just make them and bring some next time we came. haha.

We taught Alicia after that, so it was a slightly strange lesson as always. We taught the restoration again and learned while we were teaching it that she had lost her memory at one point - so that may be why she is a little difficult to teach. But at the end she prayed and kept saying how grateful she was for the 2 angels that came to visit her and teach more about God. So sweet.

Next we dropped by the primary president to see how we could help because we want to work more closely with the ward council. After discussing a few things she said that she wanted us to teach sharing time this coming sunday - so that will be interesting. The topic is modesty. haha. I'll let you know how it goes.

Friday we had district meeting and then had lunch with the Garcia family. I have to say that they are definitely one of my favorite families in the ward. We ate KFC with Lupita and Fidel. We are trying very hard to convince Fidel to serve a mission. He is my age. He and about 4 other boys in the ward are all close to our age and are not on missions yet, so we have made it a goal to work with them. It's also just fun to talk to Lupita and Fidel because they are hilarious.

On Saturday I was on exchanges with Hna Mendoza, so that was fun. We were at the battalion in the morning and then in my area that night. First we went to an 8 year old's baptism in the ward and then went to see Olga, but she wasn't home. We decided to go pick up Hna Zarate next and just be a little early, but on our way there Hna Mendoza pointed out a less active from her branch who lives in my area, so we quickly went to visit her and do a hand off, so we will visit her now. It worked out perfectly and she seems really nice. The only reason she stopped going was because it was too early for her daughter to go to, but ours is at 11, so hopefully she will start coming.

We picked up hna zarate and headed over to see manuel. We got there and he had just left apparently, so we tried calling Jose, but he said he was about to leave. He always calls me princess when I call him, so I wasn't that disappointed that he wasn't home. We tried seeing Hna German instead and she was there and gave us a couple of referrals. I've almost lost hope with her, but we keep going back because she keeps referring her friends and family members.

We took Hna Zarate home and then went to Chelo's birthday party (the girl who got baptized) to drop off our progress record to Hno Morales. They gave us food before we could tell them we were fasting, so we just took it with us for later. haha.

We taught Norgia next and had an incredible lesson. I am nearly to the end of my rope with her, so I told Hna Mendoza this was going to be an ultimatem lesson. Do or die. haha jk. But really. It started out with me teaching while Hna Mendoza distracted the kids. But then they started watching Harry Potter so we taught together. We used some blocks to explain the restoration. We were really blunt with her an djust said that no other church has the authority, so if she wants access to the atonement, she needs to be baptized by the proper authority. Then we invited her to be baptized and discussed some of her concerns and she told us that she knows she needs to be baptized, she just has some vices she needs to drop (smoking) so we encouraged her that she could do that and be prepared by august 21 and she agreed to that as a baptismal date. It was a great lesson. At the end we both hugged her and then she gave me and extra hug and told hna Mendoza "isn't this girl just great. She is soooo patient" haha. I have been visiting her for quite a while now.

Sunday we went to church and none of our investigators came, which was sad, but Daniel and Cleo came, which was excellent. We spent most of sunday school talking to the boys that need to serve missions and telling them while they should (because they all always skip sunday school). After church we went home and ate and prepared a list of people to be visited during a blitz. Then we went to see Olga and her daughter's family was there who is mormon, so we talked to them for a bit and also talked to Olga. Then we went to see Linda Torres, because we haven't seen her in forever. On our way there we randomly ran into Carlos (that guy who was more interested in the sisters than the church) so that was awkward. Then we ran into Hna German who was so excited to tell us that she just found a job. We found Linda and Luis, and they were having a carne asada, so we joined them for a bit before heading home.

Monday was unfortunately not the most productive day becuase no one was home; but, we were in the battalion that night and it was way busy, so that was fun.

Well, I love you all and hope that you have an excellent week!

love,

hna livingston

August 2

Another week come and gone.

On wednesday afternoon Hna Stevens and I went to see Norgia first. We had an appointment with her, but she must have forgotten even though I had confirmed with her just a few hours ago. We walked into the building and there was music BLASTING from the hallway where they live. We rounded the corner and found Norgia sitting in a ball on the floor in the hallway with the music playing from the neighbors house. Norgia was sitting there smoking a cigarette looking like an add for not smoking. It was pretty sad. Definitely not how you want to find one of your investigators. She invited us in and we quickly changed our lesson plan. She had clearly been drinking too and she doesn't handle alcohol very well. We still sat and read with her for about half an hour. We read in alma 34. I don't know how much she comprehended, but we couldn't just leave her like that. I don't think her neighbor is a great influence on her. He always reminds us loudly that he is an athiest when we come by.

After that we taught Alicia about the word of wisdom. She said that she is already living it, but we aren't sure if that is true. SHe is always super funny to teach. From there we went to see Jessica (Blanca's sister). We taught her about the gospel using an object lesson with water, cinnamon, and soap. She liked it. We just need to get her to come to church, but sometimes she goes to stay with her aunt for the weekends.

After that we went to pick up Lupita for a lesson. So earlier in the day I had called Zeus - a little background on him first though. I first met Zeus last august when we found adam; they were roommates. We always wanted to teach zeus, but never had the chance. One day he told us he was moving back to mexico for 7 years or so, so I figured I would never see him again. About a month or so ago Hna S and I went by Adam's randomly and Zeus opened the door! I was shocked! Things hadn't worked out in mexico, so he came back. We told him we'd love to come by sometime and teach him and he said that would be "muy padre" - way cool. We later got his number from Adam because we could never find him, so I called him wed morning. He said that he would love it if we came over that night, so we said we would. We picked up Lupita and went to see him. It was the greatest lesson ever!!!!! We sat down and he said that he wanted us to explain what we did as missionaries - perfect. So we explained and then explained about the book of mormon. After I explained about it I turned to Lupita and asked how it had blessed her life. Lupita is awesome. She just threw down her testimony of how the BoM is true and changed her whole family's life and he could know for himself. Then I shared a scripture from 1 nefi about christ to show that it really does testify of Christ. THen Zeus turned to sis stevens and said he wanted to hear from her too. She then read from the intro of teh BoM and told him to read it and pray about it and he said he would. He had lots of good questions throughout our discussion and it was just a really good lesson. Zeus is also just a super cool man. He is always way excited and super happy and says things like "sale vale" and "que suave/que padre." He's like 32 or something.

To top off the evening, we took Lupita to the church to meet up with her family and Los Ameneyro gave us helotes - corn on the cop covered in mayonaise and cheese and chile. sounds nasty, but it's soooo delicious. Also, Hna Stevens and I were very pleased taht we had met every single goal we set that night. So excellent.

Thursday morning we added a new investigator named Olga. SHe is like 76 years old. Her grandson just got off his missiona and called to come teach her. She seems really sweet, but just a little old and set in her ways. Her only son died 5 years ago and her grandson has told her that the only way to see him again is to get baptized, so she told us maybe one day she will.

After that we ate lunch with Maggie and Hna Zarate. I shared a scripture from alma 5 - the last 2 verses and then they on their own suggested taht they should start visiting less active people to help them come back. So awesome.

That night at the battalion I took a neat tour with sis adams. It was just one man who is in the navy and is thus here away from his family. He related super well to the story and it was just cool to talk to him about that during the tour.

Friday morning I took a tour of YM who were on their high adventure trip from AZ. Later on Elder Stallings brought me a card from them with a gift card to a nearby mexican restaurant called miguel's. They had been asking me where they should eat and I said I hadn't eaten anywhere around here....isn't that just the nicest thing ever?? I thought it was very precious of them.

That night in our area we helped Hna Garcia (Lupita's mom) write her talk for sunday. She asked us to give her some ideas - it was on a house of order. We came up with some good stuff - particularly from this month's ensign. After that we tried to see eric, but he was in the shower and said he did not have time to see us because he was going straight to TJ - or so his brother said.

After that we brought los morales some cookies/talked to hno morales about some of our investigators who need fellowshippers. Then we had dinner with Las Valladarez. She fed us meatballs that were very spicy. I have gotten used to having my nose run while I eat with members. haha. After that our appointment canceled, so we went by los sapon (who still haven't come to church - hna stevens has never met hna sapon). We shouted for a good 5 minutes before priscilla finally came out. She was home alone and said she didn't have a key to open the gate. We talked to her for a few minutes, but it was mostly just awkward. For some reason the girls don't seem to like us anymore, but we will win them back. Hna Stevens and I are good with the YW.

From there we went to see Ana Torres, and good thing we did. We found out she is moving this week, so we are going over to help clean her apartment tomorrow.

Saturday was an excellent day. We had a mission conference with Elder Ballard (because he is Sis Clayton's dad). IT was so good. He talked a lot about working with the ward counsel. We had a question and answer session about the work and that was his response to most questions - "well, have you taken it to your ward counsel?". He also talked a lot about calling down the powers of heaven to help us and to soften the hearts of those we encounter. I will send some notes from it maybe - I have over 10 pages of notes from it.

We were at the battalion in the evening and it was way busy the whole night.

On Sunday we discovered after we got to the church that ward counsel was changed to next week, so we went to see las sapon. Once again Priscilla was home alone. I worry about that girl. We are bringing some YW over tonight to visit them. Hopefully we can get inside.

After that we went to see Norgia to try and get her to come to church. We found her laying in bed eating doritos with the kids (at 10:20 am) and her neighbors were over and he was drinking. It turns out William was fired recently, so I think that explains this behavior (but doesn't excuse it). She said she would come to church and sure enough she did!!!! And I think she had a good experience. She even commented in class.

After church the elders had a baptism and had asked me to play the violin while elder clipp played piano. It went mostly well. We did a medley of 3 songs. While I was playing a little girl came up and was walking very close to me/climbing on teh table where I had put my music. hahaha. It was pretty funny, but I managed ok.

At the battalion that evening I took a fmaily from el salvador through and in the second room they were all laughing soooo hard when I dressed teh grandpa up as the soldier and the grandma up as a laundress. They were laughing so loud apparently you could hear it on the other tours. ahha. They referred at the end though, so Im glad they enjoyed it. The last tour I took that night had one family with 10 children all under 10 years old who ALL wanted to be the soldier. There was one other family and one homeless man also on the tour.

Monday afternoon we had a few miracles. First we managed to catch eric between his shower and leaving for TJ. He is doing the same. He still wants to marry his girlfriend in the temple, so we discussed again what he needs to do to accomplish that. AFter that we were trying to go visit Hna Telles, but I wasn't paying attention for a few minutes and forgot to tell Hna S to turn, so we passed it by several streets, so we tried to see linda first, but she wasn't home, so we went back to hna telles. We asked her about her new neighbor that moved in and she told us to knock on their door, so we said we would. AFter that we got in the car and had a message from hna sevilla. The message said "are you still coming for the FHE right now with samuel? Because he is on his way over." Luckily the Lord worked things out for us because hna telles and hna sevilla live one block apart, so we called her and said yes, we were almost there. We got there and had an amazing lesson with her friend Samuel, who we met a few weeks ago because she invited him to church. He told us he is searching for the truth - for something to make his life better. We said that's what we helped people do - get closer to christ. We taught the whole restoration and even watched the dvd. He loved it all and seems excited to read the BoM. It was pretty incredible. (I had called him a few days ago and he said he couldn't come, but I guess Hna sevilla called him and he said he would, but we didn't know that until right before the lesson, so we weren't prepared at all,but it went perfectly).

After that we were walking back to our car and Hna Telles was outside and so was her neighbor, so she told us to talk to him. We did and it turns out he is a christian preacher who is NOT INTERESTED in learning about mormons. haha. Then as we kept walking to the car a man came out of teh next house (where there is a huge virgin mary on the porch). I didn't really want to talk to him after being rejected, but we did, and he was SO NICE and told us to come over on wednesday and he would have his daughters there too to listen. WHAT? such a miracles. God just worked all of teh timing and locations out for us. haha.

After that we went to see daniel and Cleo. They haven't come to church in over a month. I called daniel that mrning to see why they didn't come and he said "because we didn't feel like it, we were just lazy". UNACCEPTABLE. So we went over and daniel wasn't there yet. We talked to cleo and she said that she didn't feel good yesterday but she told daniel to go and he said he felt lazy, so he didn't. We were sitting there when daniel came in. He walked in and we noticed that he was wearing a diamond earring in one ear. Hna S and I both looked at each other with horrified expressions. THen cleo noticed and said, what is that? And he was like, what? You don't like it? I was pretty horrified that daniel had changed or something, but then he started laughing and pulled it oof his ear - it was just a sticker or something. few. haha. We ate with them and then read from elder perry's talk on sabbath day and teh sacrament. Daniel said he knew he needed to come to church and would come next week. Hna Stevens and I will make sure of that though. haha.

Well, that's about it for this week!!! I hope that all is well at home. I love you all!!!!!!!!
Love

hna livingston

ps happy birthday next week dad!!!!!!