half way through transfer

Another week come and gone. We are halfway through the transfer, which is crazy. It has flown by so far.

This week was pretty good, but nothing too exciting happened. There were some funny things though.

You may remember my mentioning the Torres family before. They are less active and I love them. haha. Linda is my age and Luis is like 27 or something and he is crazy. Well, they invited us over for dinner on Thursday, so we happily went. She fed us enchiladas and meat and macaroni. It was all very delicious. Luis declined eating with us though, but partway through dinner he came into the kitchen and tried to sneakily get something from on top of the fridge, but failed at the sneaky part because it was obviously a pack of ciggarets. Oh Luis. After we finished eating we talked to Linda for a long time. We started reading in enos with her and I asked her if her sould has ever hungered, and she said yes and explained how on sunday when they go to the swap meet (instead of church...because Luis likes to) she always sees happy families coming out of church or playing at the park and she wishes she had that. SO SAD! Anyways, she told us more about her life, which is a rather sad story, and she ended up talking for so long that we missed our group meeting at the battalion (like district meetings, but for how to improve the battalion).

Anyways, so to help Linda we decided that on sunday we would go by their place before church and offer to walk with her to church. We showed up and luis answered the door (he had obviously just gotten out of bed) ... so he opened the door and then immediately closed it. hahaha. Then he opened it again and said "HERMANAS" long and drawn out (how he always greets us). So linda was still asleep but he told us to go wake her up, but we declined and just told him to get ready and when she woke up to bring her to church. he said he would, but of course they never came. Maybe next week.

On Friday we had a good lesson with Eric (the less active who was in the hospital). He said he was definitely going to come to church. We helped him to make a plan of how he was going to turn his life around. He needs to not go to Tijuana anymore, he needs to read in the BOM everyday, he needs to pray everyday, and he needs to come to church. (These were things he came up with with our guidance). We were all excited that he was going to come, he even said he was going to go to the young single adults activity, so we called the guy in charge and told him to call him and everything. Then on sunday, he never showed up. We talked to Giovani (the kid in charge of the YSA) and he said that eric had said he would come to the activity, but never did. LAME. On monday we went to see eric, but his brother said he hasn't seen him since saturday. Aka he is in Tijuana. SO LAME. we're pretty mad at him, but hopefully he will come this week.

On saturday we went to a farewell party for Becky Morales (a 23 year old girl in our ward who we're good pals with who is heading out on a mission in 3 weeks...she's going to Austin Texas.) It was pretty awesome. She had just gone through the temple and everything and is so excited to go. She is the first girl missionary this ward has sent off in at lesat 18 years (that's how far back teh bishopric can remember I guess). SO the ward is really excited. We're hoping this sparks some interest in helping us.

You are probably wondering what has been happening with Adam. NOTHING. He has officially disappeared again. Well, not totally. We talked to him on the phone on friday and he said to come sunday and he said he's been reading in the bom. So when we were on our way over on sunday we got a message from him saying not to come now bcause he was really "disorganized". So that was weird. We went anyways, haha, but his roommate, zeus, said he was asleep. So we don't know what's going on with him, but the last time he disappeared for a month when we found him he had taught himself the restauration, so hopefully he is learning about the plan of salvation r something now. haha.

Yesterday we had some pretty funny things happen, all at one house. I don't know if I've mentioned Blanca before, but she was a referral from the elders because she had a crush on one of them. She is 16. So we've been teaching her and her sister, Jessica (13) and her uncle, Filemon. We've been trying to add their cousin, Gerardo. Well yesterday when we went they were all there...Blanca, Jessica, Filemon, Gerardo, and Old Blanca (their crazy grandma, who is a SUPER less active member). Somewho Old blanca started telling us stories, that she seemed to think were related, but really weren't. The first story was about an old woman carrying a taco in her purse (that's all I remember from it). SHe did really dramatic actions as she told the story and got up and was acting everything out. The second story involved a boy in a taco shop who hid a taco to give to his mom and the owner caught him and then said that was fine, he could give anything to his mom. The third story was about her giving an old man a glass of water and then turning around to set down the cup and turning back and he had disappered. (I do remember now that this was all triggered by soemone saying that you should never refuse anyone who comes to your door because they could be sent by God). The last story was my favorite. I thought I misunderstood it at first, but I clarified with Hna De la Cruz after and it was right. She told us something about someone making a taco and setting it down and then i started moving around by itself. THE TACO WAS MOVING!!!!! hahaha. ANd she was swinging her arms all around to show how it was buzzing around the place. hahahahahahaa. We actually started laughing during this one, but the thing is, it was a serious story. hahahaa. Filemon was taking it very seriously, Gerardo looked like he wanted to laugh, i couldn't see the to girls from where I was sitting, but Hna D was about to die from wanting to laugh. hahahaha. It was way funny. After she finished telling the stories Filemon looked around really seriously and asked if anyone else had an experience to share. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Luckily no one did.

Eventually we managed to teach a smidge about the restauration and give them a copy of the movie. Then they decided that we needed to try these tacos they had made. They were shrimp tacos and would have been really dilicious if they weren't so SPICY. HOLY COW. I thought I had tasted spicy things before, but I had not. haha. Hna D doesn't really like spicy things either (which is more surprising because she is Mexican), but oh boy. We were both near tears and our noses were running. hahaha. She gave us 2 at first, so we ate them, and then she gave us each a THIRD. Oh my goodness. I thought I was giong to die; my mouth was on fire. Oh, and to top it off, they gave us sprite to drink with it. haha. Guess what I have learned on my mission. Soda does not help to cool down your mouth when it is on fire. hahaha. It was pretty funny though.

Last night we also visited adriana again finally. She was way happy (sometimes she is rather depressed, so that was really good). Her brother wants to come to church, so that's exciting. We have an appointment to teach him and her, so that should be cool.

Well, that's most of what I can think of for this week. haha.

I hope that you are all doing well. Thanksgiving is coming up, so that's exciting. The senior couples are planning a dinner for us at the battalion in the afternoon and that night a family has invited all of the missionaries in the ward over to eat (10 of us). So it should be a fun day.

I hope you all have a good start to the holiday season. Make a gingerbread house for me!!! Oh, and if you get a chance, I wouldn't mind a nice christmas cd. of uplifting music. : )

Well, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love,

hna livingston

Happy Half Birthday to ME!

Well, I guess it has been another week since I am emailing you again, but it went by so fast it's hard to say.

First off, Happy half birthday to me!!!!!!! Also, happy less than one year left in the mission. Crazy huh? Time is just flying by.

So this week we had some good things happening. The other sisters in our ward had a baptism on wed, so we invited Adam and Martha to come, and SURPRISE, they did! So that was awesome. Adam liked it so much he was crying during it. haha. he's a rather sensitive guy. Also, they managed to meet a ton of people from the ward, so that was awesome. We also learned some valuable information. A man in the ward asked martha if she was Adam's wife, and she got kind of mad about it and said no. Well, it turns out (we learned this later from Cesar's wife) that Adam said his wife is in Mexico. Yeah, so it appears that Adam is already married, but is living with martha out here. so lame. So tonight we will be addressing the law of chastity. woohooooooooooo. So that should be fun. haha. On Sunday Adam came to church though, and stayed all 3 hours, so that was AWESOME. We haven't gotten to talk to him since then, so we hope he liked it. But he was making comments and giving answers in sunday school, so he seemed to be pretty comfortable. So hopefully he will continue progressing and can get baptized this month (asuming things go well with tonight's lesson).

We added 3 new investigators this week, Blanca (16), her sister Jessica (13) and Filemon (their uncle). Their grandma is a member, but is super less active and kind of crazy. They were a referral from the elders because apparently blanca had a crush on one of them (I believe it, when we came she was like, when is Elder Gardner coming back? hahahaha) But they seem pretty cool. Their dad was recently paralyzed from the waist down, and their mom died several years ago, so they have a real need for the gospel.

On Friday we went to see one of the members in our area to see if she needed help with the thanksgiving activity the ward is having. She said she wants the missionaries to put on some sort of play or skit or dramatic reading that explains the first thanksgiving. If you have any ideas, that would be great, because we are drawing a blank on this one. haha. She was asking if we can wear our pioneer dresses though. haha. So it will probably end up being pretty funny.

Friday night I had a cool experience at the Battalion. I gave a tour, that started with just one girl in it, named Rebecca. She was probably near my age, maybe a smidge older. A family ended up joining during the intro part. I finished the tour and then took their pictures and the family left. The girl was hanging around though, so I started talking to her more. Turns out that she is from new mexico, but joined the navy about a year ago and just recently was sent to the navy base here. She services helicopters. We kept talking about the navy and whatnot and then I told her about gold panning outside, so we went out there. She panned for some gold and then somehow it came up that she doesn't drink or smoke or anything like that, so I was like, hey, neither do mormons. So we talked a little bit about why and things like that and then I was like, hey, if you want a book of mormon, you can fill out that card and we can get you one. And then she was like, actually I have one, so I was like cool! And she said, I have a quad. So I was surprised and said, how did that come about? and she said that her parents were members and forced her to be baptized and she has always resented that and she left the church a long time ago because her dad is an alcholic and her mom left him and married a horrible man. Basically she just told me all about her life. Then she said that she has recently come to realize that she thinks the only reason she has resented the church was because she associated it with her parents. So I asked if she had been reading in the BOM and she said yes. So I asked if she watned to come to church tomorrow and she said yes. I helped her look up where the nearest chapel was on her phone and then asked if she wanted to leave her info so I could be in tough with her. She said something about changing email addresses, so she didn't want to give it to me or whatever and then said she needed to leave. As I turned to walk away I remembered that I had a copy of the talke "come unto me with full purpose of heart and I shall heal you" in my pocket. (from the priesthood session of general conference). For some reason I had been reading it during the tour (in the parts where the movie plays), but I had never done that before. But the talk was perfect for her. SO I turend around and ran after her and gave her the talk and told her to read it and to go to church tomorrow, and she said she would.

It was a pretty cool experience. I have never felt after a tour like it was important that I give the tour, rather than someone else. But this time I think it was, not because of me or anything, but because I randomly had that talk in my pocket and I think she needed to read it. You should all read it btw. It was really good. It talked about how it's never too late to be healed by christ, we just need to come unto him and he can heal us.

Sunday was Justin's birthday (Magda's son), so we made him cupcakes on saturday while we weekly planned. We were planning to take them over sunday night. Sunday turned out to be a very busy day, starting with Adam coming to church, then we were at the battalion, then we were in our area. We had a lesson planned with Jose/Rosalba and we had even found a couple to come with us, the Navarros. They drove over and met us there and then it turned out that Rosalba had guests over, so she was busy, so that was rather obnoxious. Especially since she said she had gotten our message, but was too busy to call us and tell us ahead of time.

After that we went to try to find this woman, Arminda, who Hna Mortensen had added one day while we were on exchanges, so I had never met her before. We went to her house, but she wasnt there, so we called her. She was super excited on the phone and said she was at her brother's house with the trampoline and cake and pinata, so to come there. Obviously we knew that she had mixed us up with someone else, but we chose to use this to our advantage, so we went to her brother's house. Sure enough there was a birthday party happening. hahaa. When we got there she was like, oh my, I thought you were someone else on the phone, but she invited us to eat cake with them, so we accepted. It was really good cake...tres leches. haha. We talked to some of her friends there, and it turns out one had been meeting with the missionaries and then moved, so now she wasn't. we got her info and called the elders later, and they were like AWESOME, because they had been thinking of her but had no way to get in contact with her since she had moved, so that was cool. We also managed to set up an appointment for later in the week with Arminda. So it was fate that we needed to be at that birthday party.

Then we went to see Eric Robles (who was in the hospital a few weeks ago) because he had called us earlier asking us to come over (and I've learned as amissionary that when someone calls, and it's rare, you go, haha). We got there and his brothers were all watching amovie in the living room, so we went outside to talk to him because he didn't want to talk in front of them (he's the only member in his family). He told us that he broke up with his girlfriend and he wants to come back to church and that he keeps thiking of the blessing the elders gave him and how it said he would make a full recovery, but he couldn't remember if it said he had to do something so that he could recover. I told him what I remembered from the blessing .. that it was according to his faith, so if he exercised his faith and turned his life around, I knew he would recover fully. He told us basically his whole life story and kept crying throughout it (which was unusual to see, because he's a pretty tough looking guy). He told us about finding the church and how much it meant to him,but how he fell away and wants to come back. I told him about how when we were in the hospital with him I could feel God's love for him so strongly and I knew that God wanted him to come back and was just waiting for him with open arms. We talked about the atonement and how Christ is waiting there to heal us when we come to him. I was wishing I had another copy of that talk I gave to that girl at the mobat, luckily, I had printed one for hna de la cruz to read, and she had it with her, so we gave it to him and read part of it with him, and he really liked it. (I have decided to print a hundred copies of it and keep them with me just in case, haha). But it was a really good experience. He is such a good guy and if he can just turn his life around, he could really do some amazing things. He's young enough that he could still go on a mission if he wanted to, and I know he wanted to before he went inactive. So pray for him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully he will come to church this sunday. I think he will though. He said he is going to stop going to Tijuana on weekends, which would be a huge help.

So after all that, we had a message on our phone saying that magda wouldn't be home tonight because they took justin to dinner for his birthday. So we tried to go anyways to drop off the cupcakes, but no one was there. So we gave some of the cupcakes to zeus, adam's roommmate, because adam wasn't home, and we are planning to bring some to justin tomorrow.

Yesterday was zone conference, which was AMAZING. It was all about the atonement and helping us understand it better so that we can teach better. He taught us a lot about hebrew and the ancient tabernacle. It's some juicy stuff. I'll write you a letter with more about that later.

Just know that I love you all!!! I hope that things continue to go well for all of you. You are amazing! God loves you so much!!!!!! And so do I!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love,

Hna Livingston

about a year to go...

Well I have made it into my third transfer. Also, I only have about a year and a week left in the mission. Crazy how time goes.

So I guess you are all wondering who my new companion is. I was too, but then I found out. haha. Her name is Hna De La Cruz. And yes, she is a native spanish speaker. : ) She was born in Chihuahua, but raised in Tijuana, but her family lives in Salt Lake now, so she speaks excellent english (though she prefers spanish for everything). She is awesome. So far we have been working together really well. Oh, and she came to my area in Barrio 20, which I was pretty sure would happen, so no surprises there. We were the only spanish sisters to be changed (besides the trio she left). Some of the english sisters at the batallion were changed and we got a new elder in our district, but there weren't too many changes this transfer. I hear the mission department is pushing for companionships to stay together longer, so we'll most likely be together through all the holidays.

This week we met with Adam and Martha twice, and things are going so well with them. On Wednesday (Hna D and my first day together) we had an appointment with them. We went over and read 2 nephi 31 with them and invited them to be baptized. We got pretty much the same response as last time, that he would like to, but he wants to read more to be sure and won't set a date. Martha wasn't quite as sure. We tried really hard to have him set a date, just as a goal, but he wouldn't. We had planned to go back on Saturday, but he called and canceled, but said that he was planning on coming to church and that he wanted to talk to us about what's holding him back from being baptized, so we were really excited.

On Sunday, he did not come. We were pretty sad, but oh well. We called to invite him to the fireside our ward was having, but he didn't answer, so we just left a message. On Monday we decided we were just going to try to show up at his house, so we planned on going over about 4 times so that we would be sure to catch him. We went over at about 6:30 and martha opened the door and adam quickly started clearing the table off, ran and got their book of mormons and they told us to sit down, it was just like if they had planned on us coming. So we sat down and we asked if they had read the bom and they said no. GAHHHHHHHH. They said that they read the pamphlet on the restauration though, but it's just so frustrating that people are always willing to read about the book of mormon and watch movies about it, but when it comes to actually reading it, they just don't. We kept our cool though and started our lesson (we had planned on reading Alma 32 with them and it was PERFECT). We started in verse 26 or so and read to the end, stopping to discuss it. We were mostly just trying to show them HOW to study the BoM. It was a perfect chapter though, we talked a lot about faith, and Adam told us about some experiences he had had to strengthen his faith in Christ, so we were like THAT IS GREAT! But, there is still more. So we talked about how the book of mormon is the seed we want them to experiment on and we just kept emphasizing that they have to DO something. Adam started crying several times during the lesson. It was so great. Somewhere toward the end of the chapter Martha's daughter came over, so she talked to her for a minute and Adam was like, so do you want to know what I was going to tell you yesterday about what's holding me back from getting baptized, and we were like, no thanks. JK YES! haha. So he told us that when his sons were born he baptized them catholic, just because that's what his family had been doing for years, it's just what they all did. And now he is worried about telling them that he baptized them into the wrong church, so he wants to be positive before he tells them. haha. We were worried it was going to be something way worse. We asked him to read 1 nephi 8 this week (and read part of it then about Lehi partaking of the fruit and wanting his sons to partake of it too). At the end of the lesson we asked martha to pray. She has always declined, and once again said no. We talked for awhile about prayer and how it's really simple, just a conversation with your father in heaven. Adam started telling us about a friend he had in Tijuana, who when he prayed, he could tell that he was really talking to God. He started to really cry while he told the story. He is so great. Anyways, it ended up that Hna De La Cruz prayed, but it was still really good.

As we were about to leave they asked if we had eaten, we hadn't, so they gave us mole. When we sat down to eat, Martha said, oh fine I guess I will pray. haha. So she said the prayer. It was great. We ate and chatted with them and it was just a really good night. That ended up being the only lesson we taught all day, but it was so great. I hope that they actually read this week, but I have an inkling that he especially is starting to realize how important it is that he dos read.

Other than that we have mostly just been seeing a bunch of people so that Hna D can get to know the ward and our area. I think we are going to find a lot of success together. Hna D is a really good teacher, plus people love her because she is Mexican, so it's an instant connection. haha. I've noticed that people tend to aim their talking at her now, but that's ok. It's good because she can explain things really well since she has a much larger vocabulary, and I pick up on new words that she uses. With Hna Mortensen she pretty much had a routine of things she said, so there wasn't as much vocabulary and things to learn from her, so it's going to be really good.

On Sunday, like I mentioned, we had a fireside. It was our ward mission leader's idea. We're still not sure why he decided to do it on Halloween...there wasn't a super good turn out, but we were there to support. The missionaries were asked to do the musical number, so Hna De La Cruz and Werner sang with Elder Burnell and Linnemyer while Elder Sudwell (our new elder from the mtc) played the piano and Hna Latu and I did a duet on the violin. People loved it. Magda bore her testimony at the fireside, which was great, and the Morales' daughter, Becky, spoke. She is leaving on a mission in december. It was a good fireside. We were supposed to be in before dark on halloween unless we had a lesson or something, so we headed back to the battalion afterward to catch the end of the halloween party they were having there. We all went into the campfire room and Elder Evans (the director) read from Isaiah and we sang how firm a foundation (which is part of the tour). IT was awesome. Before we got theere they had had a talent show, so too bad we missed that, but we were glad to support Magdalena and Hno Morales.

Basically life is good here. It sounds like things are going well at home. When everything is put back together I want to see pictures of the house!!! I hope you all had a happy halloween!!!! My costume consisted of a pioneer dress for part of the day and missionary clothes for the rest. haha. I love you all!!!!

love

hna livingston

Quite a week!

Well, this was quite a week. It was probaly the best week of my mission so far, mostly because Magda, Chris, and Justin got baptized. It was also kind of a strange week because Hna Mortensen was getting ready to head home. I dropped her off at the airport this morning and am once again a solo sister. haha, actually I'm just hanging with some other sisters for the day because transfers aren't until tomorrow.

So last tuesday Magda, Justin, and Chris had their baptismal interviews and everything went perfectly. Then we couldn't see them on Wed, but on Thursday we went over and showed them a clip from these missionary training dvds that has a baptism filmed so that they could see what what going to happen and know what to expect. They all seemed really excited about getting baptized, especially Magda.

Friday was the big day. In the morning Hna M had her departure activities (aka going to the temple with Pres. Donaldson and talking about dating and stuff like that haha), so I went with Hna Johnson and Lee for the morning to their area. They went to the batallion at 3 and I waited there for Hna M to get back. Showed up at about 3:45 so we rushed off to the church, where the elders were waiting, filling up the font for us because that font takes 2 hours to fill up. haha luckily we found that out the night before, or that would have been bad news. We got there and made sure that everything was ready and Magda, Justin and Chris got there at about 5 (when it was supposed to start...but that's no surprise in the latin culture). They changed into their jumpsuits and we took a couple pictures. Two of the sisters who taught her before were able to come to the baptism, so that was nice. We got started around 5:30 with the service. We had been worried that people wouldn't come because it was kind of last minute and they couldn't announce it in church, but so many people came. It was perfect.

There was a prayer, by Maria Rivas, who has come with us to visit them before, and then a talk by Hna Morales, who came to a lesson with Jorge and Magda at the beginning with her husband, our ward mission leader. Her talk was perfect. She said that she had been praying since the first time they met that Magda would choose to get baptized and then she talked about how she looks forward to seeing her and her husband go to the temple together and how wonderful marriage is. It was perfect. Magda was crying by the end of it. Then after the talk we did the musical number, and yes, I played the violin. I played "cuando me bautice" aka When I am baptized...the rainbow one that megan played at Emily's baptism. But I played it and the sisters sang. It went really well. I could see Magda while I was playing and she was crying again.

After that was the actual baptism. Magda went first, then Chris, then Justin, and Hno Morales baptized them. It was so great. We stood off to the side of the font at the top of the stairs, and the spirit was so strong. It was amazing.

While they changed Hna M and I showed a couple of clips from the special features of Joy to the World and then we bore our testimonies. Then Magda bore her testimony. It was so great, she just said over and over how happy she was that they could get baptized and how it took her going through something really difficult to realize that this is what God wanted her to do, but she was so happy she did it. It was fantastic.

Then the meeting ended (there was a slight confusion there about her being confirmed, I think the bishop forgot to communicate that to his counselor who was conducting) so after the closing prayer she was confirmed, which was really nice. The boys were confirmed in sacrament meeting the next day.

It was such an amazing experience to take part in. I am so glad I had the opportunity to teach them. THey are a great family. I hope I stay in the area and can continue to work with them. They live in the same apartment complex as Adam, so hopefully she can just come along to the lessons with him.

Jorge has his court date set for November 9 now I think, so after then he will probably be sent back to Mexico, and then who knows what will happen, but I feel very confident that no matter what happens he will be baptized soon and then will be able to go to the temple in a little over a year. The timing should work out just perfectly that it will be right after I get home, so hopefully I could attend their sealing. That would be just amazing.

The baptism was kind of the main focus of the week, but we also taught Adam, and hopefully he and his girlfriend, Martha, will have a baptismal date soon. Last time we were over it was just Martha there and she just talked to us about how she just wants to know, like Joseph Smith did, which path is the one God wants her on, so that's a good sign. She just needs to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and she will know.

Things have been good at the batallion...for one, I saw Greg there. haha. I'm sure he already told you all about it, but I had to switch shifts on saturday, so I wasn't there when he came, but the sisters called us and told us there was something at the batallion for us, so we went over, and there was greg wearing a straw hat as a disguise. haha. pretty funny. It was fun to see him and nice to meet Melissa. They came back at 3 so I could give them a tour, which was fun. I will include a photo from the experience.

Sunday night (Hna M's last night in our area) we went to a ward activity that was awesome. It was an iron rod activity, and they blindfolded everyong and had them walk through the church holding onto a rope. There were rooms with different temptations and people trying to get people to let go of the rod. That was an understatement though. Only one person made it safely through. People were literally being yanked off of the rod and dragged into the rooms. hahaha it was way funny. I wish I had had my camera with me. But in the different rooms they were taught how to better hold to the rod and then they were allowed to return and made it to the tree of life and got to partake of the fruit (a snickers bar). THe young women sang and hna M played the piano. IT was a way fun activity. It was planned by the young women and turned out really well.

Then yesterday we went to our area in the morning and visited a couple of people. WE didn't have a car, so we had to walk, so we really only saw like 2 people. THen the other sisters (Latu and Werner) picked us up and we went out to lunch with our district since it was Hna M's last day in the mission. WE went to Mimi's and it was really run. We have a really great district. Then we were at the batallion. I just gave one tour last night, and it was to 2 people from Thailand and one from Korea. They were hilarious. They were teenagers probably and in the outfitting room they had us pose in pictures with them and made us stand in some funny michael jackson like pose. hahaha. (I gave the tour with hna johnson). We asked them to email us the picture, so I hope they do. haha.

Then the Stutz (the senior couple who was on) bought pizza to celebrate hna MOrtensen, so that was fun. After we finished eating, she brought hna M outside where a bunch of people from our ward had come to surprise her. It was really fun. They brought food and we ate and talked and laughed and it was so fun. All the missionaries from our district came too.

Basically it was a really good week and I am excited to see what happens tomorrow with transfers. I can't believe I've already been out for 5 months today!!!!! and in less than 2 weeks I will only have a year left. Craziness.

I hope that everything is wonderful at home. I love you all!!!!!!! Thanks for your support!!!!

love,

hna livingston

p.s. I am sending another email in a second with pictures, don't you worry!

Greg visits the mormon battalion!

and look what he found!!!!

p-day at the zoo and best week yet!

What a week. Honestly I don't even remember what happened at the beginning of the week, so much has happened.

Well, actually now that I think about it, I do remember going to the zoo last week on p-day. It was pretty fun. Lots of animals, I'll attach some pictures for you.

But more importantly, the last 2 days have probably been the best 2 of my mission. I'll start with sunday.

Actually, I have to backtrack a bit. On Friday we knocked on Adam's door for the hundredth time, and he answered! That was awesome. We scheduled an appointment for sunday night and invited him to church. On Sunday morning we were driving to his apartment to knock on his door to remind him about church when we got a phone call and it was from Magdalena. She said she randomly got work off and wanted to come to church. We immediately ran over to her apartment (luckily it's just upstairs from adam). We were trying to find her a ride because with Jorge gone she can't drive. We couldn't get anyone to come get her, but she said she would just walk (it's like a 20ish minute walk probably), so we said ok and drove to the church and waited for them. Sure enough they came in like 5 minutes after the meeting started. YAY. It was a really good meeting, the first talk on tithing, the second on keeping the commandments and then the bishop spoke for a few minute at the end about the importance of following the prophet. Oh, and also a woman got confirmed, and in the blessing was promised protection for her family and things like that. Basically it was awesome. They had to leave after sacrament meeting because someone was giving them a ride somewhere so they needed to be back, but that was ok.

After church we were at the batallion and it was super busy because everyone from utah and arizona was visiting for fall break. After the batallion we were back in our area. We had a dinner appointment with Hna Sevilla, one of the ward missionaries, so we asked her to come with us to our appointment with Adam, and she agreed. We have never taken her with us before, but turns out that she is excellent.

We went to Adam's and chatted with him at first about what he's been up to the last month or so since we'd seen him. He said that Martha's (his girlfriend, who thankfully he does not live with) daughters had been having some health problems so they have been gone a ton, but he had watched the Restoration movie 4 or 5 times, and he really liked it. He then explained to us how Joseph smith came to be a prophet and how important the book of mormon was. We were just nodding and agreeing. Then we taught him the plan of salvation and invited him to be baptized and he said YES. We suggested a date, and he said he wanted to read a little more before he committed, we reminded him that he only has to read a part and pray to know it's true, so he said he would. We have an appointment with him tonight, so we'll see how things go.

After that we went upstairs to see magdalena. We had planned this whole lesson out about the children of israel being blessed even when they struggled with keeping some of the commandments, but when they tried they were blessed, and they were even more blessed when they were obedient, and this was all because of the covenant God had made with them. We talked about when they were bitten by the snakes and just had to look at the serpant on the staff to live, and how that's how easy baptism was, but through it we can be saved. We then invited her to be baptized and she said yes. We were surprised so Hna Mortensen suggested november 6th and she said yes, that she and the boys wanted to be baptized then. We were dumbfounded and just promised her a ton of blessings and then left. We were SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!

Then we tried to visit someone else, but they weren't home, so we took Hna Sevilla home and then decided to try to visit a potential, Ramona. I was driving, and on our way there, the phone rang and hna M answered it, it was Eric Robles (one of our less actives who we have tried to visit at least once a week, but have only managed to find him twice my whole mission). He said he was in the hospital and asked if we could come, so we said yes and asked if he wanted the elders to give him a blessing and he said yes, so we called the elders and met them at a recent converts house and they followed us to the hospital. It is always a stressful experience driving while someone is following you and you don't actually know where you are going. hahaha. especially if the place you are going is the hospital. Luckily we arrvied safely not too long after (probably at like 9 oclock). We ran into the emergency area and asked where he was, they sent us up to the trauma section. They said it was just a big room with a bunch of beds. Now, as you may know I do not like blood, so that was not what I wanted to hear. haha. I had an image in my mind from the movie pearl harbor of people just missing limbs and bleeding all over the place. haha. Luckily it wasn't quite like that. We went in and saw him and he looked terrible. He was laying there with a neck brace and seemed pretty out of it, just really confused about everything. We told him the elders were here and would give him a blessing, so they did. It was AMAZING. The spirit was soooooo strong. It was such a beautiful blessing, they promised him that he would be healed according to his own faith and that he could be spiritually healed too. It was such an amazing experience. Then we shared a scripture, Ether 12:27 and headed out. We didn't get home until about 10 o clock. Man I was tired. It was a very long day.

We went back yesterday to see Eric again, and he is looking much better. He said that anytime he notices that he is feeling a little better he thinks about the blessing. We shared a scripture with him and then he prayed at the end. It was probably one of the best prayers I've ever heard. It lasted about 5 minutes and he asked that God could help him change his life and recover both temporally and spiritually. He is such a good guy, he just needs a little help in getting back on the right path. But he is so funny. He wouldn't tell us what happened because he said, in spanish "di otra historia aqui" aka I gave another story here. haha. As if half the nurses and doctors around us don't speak spanish. haha. He's a good kid though, I hope he can really turn his life around because of this.

After that we went to help out in Elder Gardner's area (in our district) so we knocked some doors for him and visited some formers. We only got a chance to visit 2 because they both let us in and talked to us for awhile. haha. He said he has never been able to find any of them, so I guess people just like sisters better. haha. So that was good. Then we went to see Magdalena.

We asked her the baptismal questions to make sure she was ready. When we got to the one about the law of chastity we were just super blunt and asked if she was planning on marrying Jorge when they were back together. She looked at us and just said yes, I'm going to marry him. WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??! She said that her answer came while she was in church, she just knew that she wanted to marry him now and that God wanted her to, and so she was going to. It was that easy. haha. Once people use their agency, things can just work out. So we asked if she wanted to be baptized sooner (because hna M wants to be there and she leaves in one week) she asked if she could be baptized tomorrow (aka today) and we said that might be a little soon, so how about friday. She said that would be perfect. While we were there Jorge even called (from the detention center) she said that we were there and he said to tell us hi and that he loves us, haha so cute (he was on speaker phone) and then she told him that she and justin and chris were going to get baptized, and he was really excited for them. She asked if we could baptize him there, but we aren't allowed to visit jails, so he''ll have to wait a bit, but that's ok. So basically, now we are rushing aroudn trying to get everything set for their baptism on Friday night at 5. We are super excited. It is amazing how everything has just worked out perfectly and from the trial of Jorge being deported has come this wonderful blessing. This is definitely Heavenly Father's work and I am so glad to be a part of it.

Well, I hope that everything is going so well at home. I attached a couple pictures from the zoo, I figured you probably haven't even ever seen Hna Mortensen, and you might like to, so she's in a couple of them.

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

love,

hna livingston

two weeks left in the transfer...

Well, it appears to be tuesday again. Just 2 weeks left in the transfer. Crazy. With Hna Mortensen going home I'm the only one who knows for sure that I will have a new companion. We have a trio though, so I am kind of guessing that I will just be with one of them....but which one is the question. Maybe I'll have some more rumors next week after everyone has had their interview.

So this week has been a crazy one. Tons of horrible things have been happening to all of our investigators and members. Last tuesday we had a dinner appointment with Magdalena and Jorge. It was great. They gave us arroz con leche, aka milk with rice. Kind of like a combo between rice pudding and rice cereal. It was lovely. Jorge had this book sitting out called "difficult, but not impossible" we asked what it was and he said taht it was a book from his english class and he had written one of the pages. So we read his page and it was all about how much he loves his family. It was really precious. Then we talked a lot about learning english and he showed us a bunch of the books he had given to magda to help her learn english. They were pretty funny. Basically it was just a really fun night. They are so awesome. The next time we saw them was Thursday. We went over because Magda called us to cancel coming to the batallion on Friday, so we went over to see what had happened. We walked in and Justin (the 9 year old) was standing there just sobbing. We asked what was wrong, and Magda started to tear up as she told us that the police had come at 7 that morning and taken Jorge. I guess a neighbor or someone told the police that jorge was helping illegals into the country (which Magda says is not true), and so they came and took him. They haven't heard from him since. They are going to try to go see him today (he is in a detention center still) to find out if he is going to be staying, going back to mexico, going to try to come back or what. It's a pretty unfortunate situation because Jorge is just about the nicest guy I've ever met. On Saturday we were on exchanges, so I wasn't there, but Hna Mortensen went with Hna Lee and she said that Magda told them that they are doing ok, she has been praying a ton and reading in the book of mormon, and Saturday morning she woke up early for work and was praying and she said taht she heard a voice, a man's voice, but it was really sweet and loving, and it told her that her family would be together again and everything would work out. I wish I had been there to hear her describe it, but we went over last night, and she seems to be doing ok. She is a really strong woman because she's been through so much, but I was takling with her while Hna M was helping Justin with his homework a little bit and she told me that she knew everything would work out and that God was in this and maybe Jorge just needs more faith and he'll gain it from this experience. We asked her if she is going to get married when she sees jorge again and she essentially said maybe, but this maybe sounded more hopeful than the other ones we've heard. SO maybe she just needed this to realize how much she loves Jorge and doesn't want to be separated from him.

The night before we discovered Jorge had been deported we went to visit Ana Torres. She was just getting in her car when we got there and asked us to come back in half an hour. SOmething seemed kind of strange about the situation, so we said we would. We went to visit someone else and came back half an hour later. She wasn't back yet, so we sat in the car and waited for a bit, which was strange because we don't normally do that. But 10 minutes later we saw her walking down the street holding her daughter, melanie, who is almost 2. She was just sobbing (Ana, not melanie), we went over and hugged her and walked her to her apartment and asked her what was wrong. She said we didn't want to know. But sure enough, she still told us. She is pregnant and the man left the picture. It's really sad becuase this is the same thing that happened with Melanie. She was thinking of moving to LA because she didnt want anyone to know. We've visited her since though, and she is doing much better now and is just going to move to a different apartment within San Diego.

The day after finding out about Ana we went to visit Linda Torres (Ana's sister in law). Linda told us that the man who was renting a room in their apartment just left suddenly so they didn't have money to pay for their rent. SHe told us all about her life and how hard it has been living in all these different places and how she just wants to stay, so they were looking for someone to rent their room. We went back a couple days later and they had found someone, so things are looking up for them. They are one of my favorite families, so I"m glad they won't be moving again. They are so funny, we visited them last night and Linda, who has been entranced by my hair for sometime, was petting my hair last night and asking her husband if he liked it. Hopefully she doesn't try to dye hers blonde. haha.

The other horrible thing that happened to someone was we went to visit Beatriz, a less active who we can never find, and she was randomly home, so we talked with her and she said that she thinks she has breast cancer, but she doesn't have insurance. We randomly ran into her again yesterday, and she is doing ok. She has a doctors appointment set up for this week, so hopefully everything will work out fine for her. But we visited her right before finding out that Jorge had been deported, so it was just a lot of horrible things right in a row. But everything seems to be turning out ok so far. When we saw her yesterday, she was so funny, she was telling us how she loves to dance (she's probably in her late 30's) and how she does not aprove of how people dance nowadays. But she was showing how she likes to dance, using me as her partner, and she is about half my size. haha. it was pretty funny.

This week some awesome thigns happened too. We visited Adriana, (the 16 year old less active) and when we got there the family was painting their kitchen, so we helped. Her family aren't members, so we always try to talk with them. They loved that we were helping and it was really fun. The older brother even asked us how conference was because we had invited him to come with adriana. It was awesome. And the kitchen turned out great. Plus, we visited a different less active yesterday and told her about helping them paint their kitchen, and she was like PERFECT! I need help painting my bedroom. So we are scheduled to paint it with her on Thursday. haha. This woman is so less active she has joined another church, but we won't give up. haha

The exchange we did on Saturday was pretty fun. I was with Hna Johnson in her area. We were at the batallion in the morning, which was good. I gave a bunch of tours to elders and sisters in my district and their investigators, so hopefully that will help them out. Then in the evening we tried to visit a ton of people, but basically no one was home. haah. But we did get good milkshakes for dinner somewhere, so it was all worth it. haha jk.

Well, life is good. Despite all the horrible things that are happening to people, I'm positive that God is looking out for them and everything will work out. Besides, you receive the witness after the trial of your faith right? So hopefully these trials will bring some increased faith to these wonderful people. IT's crazy how much I love these people, but I really just want to hang out with them all the time. I want to adopt Linda and Luis' children, or at least babysit for them so they can get out and do somthign, unfortunately that is not allowed, so I'll have to come back and do that. haha.

The house is looking good from what I've seen. Good luck with everything! I love you all!!!

love

hna livingston

Four Month Mark!

Hola familia!

So, on Sunday I hit my 4 month mark. It was also the one month left mark for sis. mortensen, so that was kind of funny.

So this week was not the most exciting in city heights, but we did manage to have a good lesson with Rosalba (the wife of Jose 1) and her nephew, Juan. We went over planning on dropping them, but we talked to her and she was pretty interested and we talked a lot about the book of mormon and how you can pray to know it's true. She and Juan (who is like 17) both said they would pray about it. We're going back tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

I had a good experience at the Batallion this week. I gave a tour with Hna Evans ( who came out with me). It was a good tour with a bunch of people. At the end we somehow got comments from every single person in the tour (we have a comment spot on the referral card), which doesn't usually happen. One of the couples we knew weren't members, and he had puth is address but hadn't marked the box saying he wanted something, so I asked him if he wanted anything and he said no, he was catholic. I kept talking to him a bit and somehow family history came up, so we talked about that. I asked if he wanted any more info about doing family history because the church has a lot of resources, he said yes. So I got him a paper about it and asked if it would be ok if the missionaries came by and explained a little more, and he said that would be fine. So that was cool.

This week I finished the book or mormon (which I started sometime in august) and started it in Spanish. I'm hoping to finish it in spanish by the end of november. But it's been coming along just fine. I'm marking some different things this time, including references to missionary work and being a good missionary and verses about the atonement and things like that.

We hadn't heard from Daniel and Cleo in forever, so we went over to their house one day to set up an appointment for later. We talked to Daniel and he said he didn't think his wife was interested, so we probably shouldn't come back. That was kind of disappointing, but oh well. Some other missionaries will find their name in our area book one day and go back. Later that night in planning, we ended up dropping most of the rest of our investigators. We still have magda and jorge and adam and martha, and jose and rosalba but that's pretty much it. haha. But we couldn't ever find most of the other people. So we're trying to find some new people in these coming weeks, but we have some good potentials, so we are hopeful.

We were helping the ward out this week by contacting a bunch of people in the ward who no one knows if they are active or even live there anymore. On our way to contact one woman, there were two men sitting on their porch drinking, and they asked us what we were doing. We told the we were missionaries and they asked if they could come to our church (well first they wanted to know if it was in spanish). They were just super excited about everything, it was really funny. They were obviously drunk. One had the most ridiculous mustache - I wish I had a picture, it for real curled up at the ends. haha. It was a funny experience. Unfortunately they did not come to church, but we gave their name to the elders in their area, so hopefully they at least have a fun time contacting them.

I got to see most of women's conference, which was great. I missed most of the first talk because I was at the batallion and I was taking a tour, but I loved president Monson's talk. It was excellent. I'm excited for conference this week and should be able to see most of the sessions (whenever I'm not at the batallion).

Working at the batallion is pretty funny. We meet the funniest people. I gave a tour wtih Sis Adams to several people, including three old men who were veterans from the army. They were very exciting by the outfitting room and were explaining how things haven't changed much as far as what they carry. Just modernized a bit. Outside in gold panning we were talking to them, trying to see if we could send the missionaries, and I was talking to Al, and he was saying how much he loved mormons and how great they are and how we need more people who are brought up like them. He wasn't interested in receiving anything though, I guess he has a few mormon neighbors who visit him a bunch. haha. He was a way nice guy. He kept talking about his angel wife and told me that when she came I should look at her face because I would see that she was an angel. Sure enough, when they met up, he brought me over and aked me if she didn't look like an angel.

Yesterday we had MTE (missionary training exchange) so we were in a meeting with president from 9-1 and then we went on splits kind of for the rest of the day. (kind of because most people go in a group of three, 2 companions and one extra person to help practice what we learned), but some people are left over, so I was just basically on splits with Hna Nielsen, so came just 2 transfers before me. We went together to my area first and we tried to visit some people, but for the most part no one was home. We went to see Linda Torres, a less active, and she was there and gave us some water (because it was probably 10000 degrees outside). We were takling to her and I was explaining about general conference when Hna nielsen ran outside and threw up. I'm just glad she made it outside. haha. It was pretty funny in retrospect. She wasn't feeling to good so we came back to her apartment and she took a nap and then threw up few more times, so we ended up staying there the rest of the night, so I had some time to study. I'm in 2 nephi now in the libro de mormon and I finished reading Acts and am in Romans in the bible. I felt bad for hna nielsen, but it sure makes for a rather funny story. haha.

So things are going well. Magdalena and Jorge are supposedly coming to the batallion tonight and we are going to watch the joseph smith movie with them, and we are bringing Adriana (2 birds with one stone), so that should be good. We want them to understand what people are willing to go through and do when they really know the book of mormon is true and then commit them to pray again to know it's true and see what they need to do because of that knowledge. Hopefully it works out. Also, we are planning for the temple lesson on Friday (they had to cancel last friday) so hopefully that will go well. We have the marriage papers all printed out for them and everything.

Well, I hope all is well with all of you. I hear that mom is haning out with grandma, so I hope they are having fun together. Matthew - good job on breaking 6 minutes and good luck at your next race! Emily - keep being the cutest and write me a letter when you get a chance!!!!!! Oh, and someone should send me a picture of the house when it all gets finished or during the process or whatever. I need to be able to recognize it in 14 months or so. haha

Love you all!!!!

love

hna livingston

Photos and the latest from Hermana Livingston

Well, one transfer down, 11 or so to go. haha. (technically transfers are tomorrow though, so I don't know still if I'm staying or going...but if I had to guess, I'd say I'll be staying with Hna Mortensen because she only has one transfer left in the mission).

So last p-day we had a kebab party for labor day and to celebrate all of the birthdays in september. It was pretty fun. We have a grill and a grassy space behind the batallion where we had it.

The update on Magdalena and Jorge for the week is that we had an awesome lesson with them the other day. We watched "how rare a posession"...that movie about the man in italy who finds the book of mormon without a cover and starts preaching from it. Anyways he has tons of obstacles for years before he can finally get baptized. at the end Magda said that they just need to have more faith. we were like...uhhh yeah. haha. But she still doesn't want to get married. grrrrrrr. We have an AWESOME lesson planned for tonight though about lehi's vision of the tree of life. Apparently Jorge has read 1 nephi 11 three times because he thinks it is so interesting but doesn't fully understand it. So we have made visual aids and are going to emphasize the fruit being baptism (as a way of using the atonement) and focus on how lehi wanted his whole family to partake of it...aka they should get married. Then for the next lesson we are plannin on taking them to the temple and teaching them there about eternal families. Hopefully the spirit will just overwhelm them there and they will want to get married. Well, Jorge wants to get married, we just need Magda on board.

This week I was the senior companion, so that was interesting. Mostly I just had to decide everything we did.

One night we had dinner with a woman in the ward, hna Sevilla, from Nicaragua. She made us food from her country, which included boiled bananas. It was interesting, but also good. For dessert she gave us coconut ice cream, which made me with I had a chocolate coconut gelato milkshake from whole foods.

As for Daniel and Cleo, we didn't really get to teach them this week because they ended up canceling on us. But it involved a funny story. On tuesday he called us and invited us over to celebrate his birthday with them the next day, so we said sure and were planning on still teaching them then. On Wed we called to see if we could come earlier because our coordination meeting was canceled. He said he actually wanted us to meet them at a restaurant, so we were like, ok. Then he called back and said his wife didn't want to come, but could we still meet him, so we said no because that would be super awkward. haha. Just picture 2 sister missionaries with a mexican man out to eat at a japanese restaurant to celebrate his birthday. Kind of strange. haha. We're planning on seeing them again this week though.

We visit this less active woman, Ana Torres, every once in a while. She is awesome and really strong in teh faith, but works on sundays so she can't come to church. She is funny though, her daughter had just gotten back from mexico, so she was showing us all the things her mom had sent with her. Anywyas, she hasn't seen her mom for 9 years, since she's been in the states, so she was saying how much she missed her. It made me glad I'm just gone a year and a half. Also, she said she wanted to take us to mexico after our missions. haha. she is funny.

One day this week hna mortensen and I went to visit this senior missionary, elder Bradshaw. His wife died in the MTC so his mission call got changed to here and he just had surgery, so we are taking turns visiting him while he recovers. Anyways, while we were there he had us pick some oranges from his orange trees. It was pretty cool, he had this "picker' like a claw with a basket on the end of a long stick that we used to pick the oranges. Guess I'm really in california. haha

The mormon batallion sisters rotate being at the temple. Since there isn't a visitor's center we just sit outside and talk to people who come. While we were sitting there I felt something land in my hair so I reached up to brush it away. Turns out it was a bee. and it stung my hand. WHAT? haha It was kind of ridiculous, but not a big deal really. I mean it was uncomfortable, but mostly just funny. We did get one referral while we were there though. so that was cool. Also, the scaffolding is down now , so I will take some pics next time I'm there.

On friday we had an AWESOME ward activity. unfortunately none of our investigators came, but we (as a district) had 15 investigators there total, so it was still really good. We had it here at the batallion and had food in teh back and then came in and watched on teh way home...en camino a casa. haha. it was way funnier in spanish. but it was so good. At the end this recent convert shared his tesitomony and invited everyone there who wasn't baptized to be baptized and see the wonderful change in their lives. I wish jorge/magda had come, but oh well. Our less active, Adriana came, so that was really good. I was in my pioneer get up at the party and the counselor in the bishopric came up to me and said "que le paso" or what happened to you? hahah, pointing to my dress. It was kind of funny. We also played this game where we tied balloons to people's ankles and they ran around and tried to pop them. It was way funny, some of the adults were getting way into it. haha

On sunday there was a fireside (in english, so we didn't have investigators there), but hna mortensen was asked to play the piano, which meant I had to sing in the choir. hahaha. it was a way good fireseide though. Several recent converts bore their testimonies and then our mission president spoke.

So I was thinking the other day about Our Town (I'm SO GLAD i got to see that before coming on the mission). I was thinking about that end scene and how that's how it's going to be when we get to the celestial kingdom. We think we can see and smell and hear things now, but everything is going to be sooooo much better once we're there. Cool huh?

Lately I have been thinking a lot about my circle of concern vs. my circle of control. I've been trying to only worry about the things I can control, because I see a lot of the sisters here get really discouraged by things they can't control, which is lame because there is nothing they can do about it. It has been working well so far. For example, I do everything I can to get our investigators to come to church, including going to their house 20 minutes before it starts to remind them, but when they don't come, I just move on and don't dwell on it except to think about what else we can do to get them to come next time.

Well, that's about it for the week. I do have some photos to send though. Hopefully you will enjoy them. I though you'd like to see more of what the batallion is like, so Hna Evans helped me out and took some photos of me.

love you all!!
hna livingston

p.s.

The pictures:

they follow the order of the tour. We start with the introduction, with the pictures, then the enlistmen room, where they watch a movie. Then the outfitting room where I talk about the uniforms and supplies and the book of mormon. I have to open the window to talk to some of the characters who come. Then the campfire room is another movie. And the courthouse is another room and then we get to bear testimony and talk about whatever we want. ENJOY!!!!!!

another week come and gone...

Well, another week come and gone. I have one more week left in the transfer. Crazy huh? Also, I hit my hundredth day in the mission this week. I was hoping there would be a party like in elementary school, but no such luck.

So this week I hit Alma in the Book of Mormon, I'm about halfway through it now. It's been great to read as a missionary because Alma/Amulek/sons of mosiah are all pretty stellar missionaries.

This week was a major highlight as far as food went. We had several excellent dinner appointments. One was at this lady's taco shop that she owns and basically we and the other sisters from the ward went and just ordered whatever we wanted for free. Basically it was an ideal situation. Mexican food is so wonderful. I had some carne asada tacos and horchata.

Later in the week we had dinner with the Silva family, he is the second counselor in the bishopric and is from Cuba, so he is a little challenging to understand. Turns out in Cuba they almost always drop the "s" from words, in addition to several other parts of the word. But the dinner was amazing. We had black beans and rice (my favorite) and some meat...maybe pork...and watermelon juice (which I had never had before, but was quite refreshing). It was excellent food and to finish it all off we had choco tacos. haha.

So things with Adan are looking pretty good. We went on Wednesday to teach him and we brought a woman from the ward with us, Maria Rivas, in case his girlfriend wasn't there. Turns out she was so we just taught them both. Maria and Marta (the gf) hit it off very well. We were there for at least an hour and a half because they were just talking and talking. We did manage to teach the first lesson before they went off talking though, and they both were really into it. Marta was saying how she has been trying to figure out which path is the correct one to Christ, so hopefully we can help her out with that. Adan is so funny though, at about 8:50 we were like, oh, we need to leave, so we had him pray, and it was an excellent prayer he offered. Then we got up to leave and he got this look of horror and said that we still had to eat dinner. haha. turns out he had made us dinner, but we really did have to go, so he just gave us some to take with us and then they walked us out to our car. haha. He is a super nice guy. We were supposed to teach him again on Sunday, but he called just before we were headed over and had to cancel because him and Marta had to go to the hospital because her daughter had had a baby and there had been some complications, so that was sad to hear.

Something kind of awesome that I found out this week, so the director's wife at the Mormon battalion, Sis. Evans, she went to East high, and so I asked if she knew any Weilenmanns, and she said yes, her parents (the Cannons) were best friends with Milt and his family. haha. So she grew up knowing them really well. She said she remembered little Melissa and that she was about Martha or "Maggie's" age. So that was kind of fun. She said she could see the resemblance in me to the Weilenmanns, so that was fun to hear. But I guess her dad and Grandpa were planning on buying the land for the ranch together she was saying, but then her dad fell in love with land nearby, but somewhere else and then g-pa bought the ranch. She said she knew Diane pretty well too and that she was always so nice and welcoming to her. Anyways, I thought that was fun to hear about that and thought you'd like to know. So her maiden name is Cannon and she said Elaine cannon's husband was her dad's cousin or something I think.

So this week we baked some cakes for a couple of our investigators. It was several members of the Jimenez family's birthday this month, so we baked a cake and brought it over, but they weren't there, so we left it with the son. We came back later to make sure they got it, and it was already gone. i guess the boy ate half the cake and then the girls came home and Vicky ate the other half. hahaha. (it was just one round pan, but still...haha).

The other cake was for Magdalena and Jorge, we were going to incorporate it in the lesson and somehow make them want to get married, but they canceled on us, so we gave it to cleo and daniel instead. haha. they were really excited about it. When we were teaching Cleo and Daniel, they said that I looked just like his boss, which was kind of funny, especially since they said his boss is like 40....but they said they think she would have looked like me when she was younger. But anyways they thought it was really funny. They are coming along well. Daniel told us that he realized the importance of this, so he wants to take it slow so that he fully understands everything. We are trying to get them a date though, so hopefully we can next lesson. He is so funny, he always has super random questions, but you can tell he's thought about them a lot so we take them seriously. But he always says...que opinan uds sobre........la navidad, la cremacion, la muerte. (what is your opinion of...christmas, cremation, death) haha. he's funny.

So this sunday was fast sunday and I figured out something awesome. It is much easier to fast from noon to noon than from 5 to 5 or so. This was probably the first time I have ever actually fasted a full 24 hours and it wasn't so bad. This way I can eat right when I get home from church, but have still gone 24 hours. I would recommend it.

On Monday....oh yea, HAPPY LABOR DAY...it was super busy at the battalion. Sunday too. We were giving tours every 15 minutes, and they were big tours of 20 + people. I gave one yesterday that had several asian people in it. One of them turned to me during the beginning part of the tour that's a movie and said he didn't remember this story from the Book of Mormon. I explained that all this was happening much later than the BOM. In fact, the Bom was already published when this was happening to the pioneers. It was kind of funny though. He was a member from China living in northern California now. After the tour, one of the asian men (from a diff group...there was a family and then 4 friends) asked to take his picture with me, so that was awkward, because then they all wanted there picture with me. So somewhere in the world there are several pictures of me in a pioneer dress. haha. I did get one of them to refer himself though, so it was all worth it. haha

Well, that's most of what happened this week. It went by quickly though. But I hope everything is great at home! I love you all!!!! Good luck with school!!!!
love,

hna livingston