May 24th

Well, I am guessing that you all want to know what happened with Cleo, so I will just cut to the chase: yes, she got baptized and Daniel baptized her. It was amazing. More on that in a second.

I'll just go in order of the week.

Tuesday night we had a good lesson with Daniel and Cleo. We read in the book of mormon with her and she is so smart and easy to teach. After we read they wanted to give us dinner, so we ate with them, which was super fun.

Wednesday morning we went over to Cleo's again and taught her all of the commandments. Again, she was so willing to live all of them and it was really easy to explain them to her becuase she is so open to everything now. It was awesome. After that we helped them cook some hot dogs wrapped in bacon, which we ate together with tomatoes and avocado on top. Very fancy hot dogs. haha. After that we ran over to Adalberta's and taught the restoration. I had kind of gotten the idea from her that she wasn't interested anymore, but she was actually really into it and we taught it all in 40 minutes because we were running late to serve at the temple at 5. We were at the temple from 5-dusk, around 7:15 or so, then we headed over to see los sapon. We taught the plan of salvation and finally discovered why the girls want to wait to get baptized. They want their dad to be there, so I hope he will be deported quickly so that he can come back quickly, or we can help them see just how important baptism is so they will want to go ahead and get baptized sooner. They are super cute girls.

Thursday we had zone conference, which was amazing. Maybe I will copy my notes and send them to you. We watched a devotional from elder Holland in the MTC and he talked about why Preach My Gospel came about. He said it was because a lot of return missionaries were going less active, so they made PMG to convert the missionaries so that they could then convert other people. Pretty cool. You should all study it. We also just talked about how to better help the ward councel do missionary work. It was way good. Kind of sad, because it was pres donaldson's last zone conference. He goes home at the end of this next transfer.

Friday morning Hna D had her departure activities: aka going to the temple with pres. donaldson after he talks about dating and what not (she gave me the lo-down after). One other sister is leaving from the battalion too, so her comp, Sis. Nelson came with me because we needed to see Cleo. Sis Nelson doesn't speak spanish at all though, so I thought it was going to be a rough day. it actually went super well. We went to see Norgia first because she speaks some english. We taught her the best lesson I have ever had with her. Somehow none of the kids were there to distract us and Norgia was super focused and we read in moroni 10:32 and then 3 nefi 9:14 or something about coming unto christ to be healed. She really connected with it finally. It was way good.

After that we went to see Cleo and I helped her plan her baptism. I asked her if she wanted Daniel to baptize her and she got sooo excited! She hadn't known that he could, so I explained that he had the priesthood and she nearly started crying she was so excited. She said who better to baptize me than my husband? They are so cute. We also read the bom with her and it was just way fun to talk to her. I discovered that she and Daniel got married when she was 16!!! So young! But they are so perfect for each other.

After that we went to see Hna German and we taught her the word of wisdom. She loved it. She was a drug addict, but has been clean for 7 years, so she really liked learning about it. I gave her a pamphlet and she said that she would give it to her neice, who is trying to quit drugs. She wants us to teach her neice too. So awesome.

That evening I gave a tour with Sis. Lee to a man from india. He literally started dancing in one of the rooms where one of the characters is playing the fiddle. It was pretty hilarious.

Friday we found out last minute that the bishop was having a party and since we as missionaries don't have the greatest relationship with him, we decided to drop by to say hi after we found out we were invited. We stopped by and discovered it was actually his daughter's 15th birthday party ... that got lost in the message to all of us somehow, but it was fine. We ate a tiny bit because we already had a dinner appointment with Daniel and Cleo. We were talking to Hno Morales at the party and somehow he had heard about Daniel and Cleo inviting all of the missionaries over and so he invited himself too. haha. (he is the ward mission leader). He followed us over to Daniels and it was way fun. It was a sort of good bye dinner for Hna D. We had Cervice, which was really good. It was just fun to be there and see Cleo so excited for her baptism and everything. Daniel was pretty nervous about baptizing her and said no at first, but I convinced him to, telling him that it's not hard - they let 16 year olds baptize other people.

Sunday was amazing. Cleo and Daniel were early to church looking very spiffy. Daniel got a new suit. He passed the sacrament during sacrament meeting for the first time, which was super exciting to see. After church Cleo got BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! It was so excellent. For the musical number I played Lead Kindly Light and the missionaries sang. It turned out well. We stood on the stairs in the font to watch, which was special. They were so cute together in the font. When Cleo gets nervous she starts laughing, so she started laughing super hard right before when they were there in the water, but she managed to calm down and Daniel baptized her. The first time she didn't go under all the way, so he did it again and it was perfect!!!!!!!!!! I still can't believe that they are both baptized.

After teh baptism we went to see Hna German. She made us Posoli (a sort of soup) becuase Hna D was leaving, so that was fun. Her son was there with us, and he is super involved at his church, the rock, where they worship by watching christian band concerts pretty much, so he was passionately talking about that the whole time. Then we read with her in the BOM.

After that we had a ward fireside. Hna Latu and I did a violin duet of the spirit of God while the missionaries sang. It was a pretty good fireside, but there weren't a ton of people there.

Monday was Hna D's last day, so after the battalion we went to see Linda. She is having a rough time because Luis is being ridiculous as always. He crashed the car the other day driving drunk. She said she was thinking of leaving him, but she has nowhere to go. She said that she is going to start coming to church more regularly though, so that will really help her.

Next we saw Cleo and Daniel. Daniel was fixing his car, so we just taught Cleo for a bit. Then we said good bye to both of them and ran over to Los Morales. They had printed a picture for each of us from their Sealing, which we went to in December, so that was so fun to see. I love los morales. They are just the greatest family ever.

After that we went to a branch party for Hna D's old area and then we went to the battalion so that everyone could say goodbye.

This morning Hna Adams/Lee helped me take her to the airport. Daniel called in the morning asking which terminal she was leaving from, and he met us there to tell her goodbye, so that was pretty precious. It's sad that she is gone, but the work goes on! I told her to call you guys after she is home, so hopefully she does!!!!!!!

Well, I love you all!! I hope you have a great week! I'm excited to see the invitation!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Less than a month!!

love

hna livingston

May 17th

Well it has been a pretty fantastic week here in san diego. I'll just go through it day by day.

So on Wednesday we were at the battalion and then we had the evening in our area. We had a dinner appointment with Hna Avila, who is probably in her 60's, but she is a pretty stylish and cool lady. While we were there she showed us the flowers her son sent her for mother's day. Then she showed us the flowers she got from a secret admirer. She said that he has been giving her flowers about once a month for the past year and a half!!!!!!!! What????? She just barely found out a couple of weeks ago who he is. It's one of ther neighbors named carlos. Creepy. haha.

After dinner we had an appointment with Amelia. She gave me a cute necklace for my birthday since she couldn't come to the party, so that was super nice. Then her husband wanted to take a picture of us with the necklace so he brought out a way fance camera like the one dad has. We asked him if he liked photography and then learned that that is what he does for work - he is a photographer for quinceaneras and stuff like that. That led to him telling us all about his camera and showing us several examples of his work and then bringing out his huge flash (again, like the one dad has) and demonstrating how it worked so well by taking a million pictures of us with the flash at different angles. haha. It was good though, because we got to know him better. We want to start teaching him too. He left right before we were able to actually start teaching though, but we had an ok lesson with Amelia. She is way chatty, so it is a little difficult to teach her sometimes. She had lots of questions about resurrection verses reincarnation and things like that. Finally we just had to leave because we had an appointment we were already half an hour late for and we were supposed to pick up a member at the church to go with us. As we got up to leave, she made us stay to try the choco-flan she had just made (aka half flan half chocolate cake. It's not terrible, but it's not my favorite. The flan is just such an interesting texture).

We ran from her house to the church (literally ran - she lives on the same block as the church). We went into the relief society room to find sis. Rivas. She was in the middle of learning the hula. No joke. The other two sisters in the ward, sis latu and memea are both polynesian, so they are teaching the RS the hula to perform on father's day. We went ahead and called adan, and he didn't answer, so we just told hna rivas to stay and not worry about it because we were already so late. It was pretty hilarious to watch all of these middle age/old hispanic women trying to shake their hips. So glad we got to stop by.

Thursday was mostly uneventful. No one was home in the morning, so we had time to stop by mcdonalds and try the new jalepeno mcchicken sandwich. A year ago I would have never tried that. It was good though. Then we were at the battalion and we had a HUGE group of Young Single Adults from price utah come through. We're talking like a couple hundred. I gave two of their tours and lets just say I am not looking forward to returning to that aspect of life. haha. There was a lot of snuggling happening throughout the tour. I did select one couple to dress up as a soldier and laundress though, so that was funny.

Friday was an excellent day. In the morning I gave a tour to one of the funniest british couples I have ever met. He was telling me that since he actually group up in america, but his parents were british, he can do a good american accent - but he said he doesn't bother usually because for example at the airport things get done a lot faster for him when he says "excuse me" in a british accent. haha.

That evening we had the ward mother's day party. It was EXCELLENT. We should have a ward mother's day party at home. We had tons of investigators there, which was exciting. Hna German came and brought her daughter and her friend Alicia and her two daughters. Daniel came with Cleo and the whole fam. The WHOLE Torres family came - Linda/Luis and the girls, Ana Torres, their other sister Lupe, and his other brother, who i don't know. Ana had her baby this week, so he was super cute to see. It was an awesome party. The YM/YW did mexican folkloric dancing, which was super fun to see. I have some photos I will attach. Also the primary performed several numbers. Daniel/Cleo's daughter, Daniela, was even up there singing in one of the songs and Cleo looked like she was about to burst she was so proud. It was adorable. It has been so fun to be in barrio 20 for sooo long and get to know the people so well. It will be like leaving my family all over again if I ever get transferred. I love those people.

Saturday I was on exchanges with Hna Smith (the one from college station). We had a good day set up, but pretty much no one was home when they said they would be. Typical. We did manage to see William and Norgia (I like to go there on exhanges to shock the other person...haha). William was ridiculous as always. Their apartment was getting fumigated so we just set up a time to come back later.

We saw Cleo too and had a great lesson on the plan of salvation and the gospel. She said she still wants to get baptized on saturday. Daniel was there too. He was so funny - when we mentioned the 21 he was like, wait, that's when we are having cerviche!!! (he invited all of the missionaries over to eat cerviche that day). We told him not to worry we would have the baptism at 5 and come to eat right after. haha. But really, why was that his initial reaction? What a funny guy. Unfortunately they didn't come to church on sunday because Daniel hurt his back playing soccer with all of the men in the ward on saturday to celebrate the restoration of the priesthood. IT's ok though, we are just going to try to move the baptism to sunday instead. Keep praying though!!!!!

On Sunday none of our investigators came to church, which was sad, but oh well. Hna Sapon came, but the girls didn't wake up in time so she just left them at home. She looked really happy though still. There was a pretty heated discussion in relief society about missionary work, which was the lesson topic. A lot of people in the ward have very strong opinions and since most are 1st generation members, sometimes those opinions differ drastically. haha. It was still good; I just felt bad for the teacher.

Yesterday we were at the battalion in the morning and things were super slow. That led to my getting some excellent pictures of me panning for gold and also reading the second half of 3 nephi. haha.

I got a call from Salvador, a referral I got a few weeks ago. He told me to tell the sisters that he would be waiting at 5 tonight for them to come - but he couldn't get ahold of them. I told him their number again, and it turns out he had it wrong, so he did manage to get ahold of them. I texted sis werner (who was in barrio 20 with me for forever) and told her that he called me and she said they were all set to go over that night at 6 and he said he would have his whole family ready to listen. Sure enough, she called me last night and said that the lesson was amazing. the whole family was there except one daughter who was at the doctor because she is about to have a baby. I hope that he gets baptized and that I can go. he is awesome. He calls me once or twice a week and always says that the tour changed his life. So cool.

Last night we had an appointment with Hna Veracruz. We talked about how important it is to choose to follow chirst TODAY. aka to get baptized soon. She agreed, but in the sense that other people should choose to follow christ today, not her. haha. Oh well, we tried. I'm hoping that my next companion has the secret touch to get her baptized.

Later that night we had an appointment with los alcocer. If I said that amelia was chatty, Raul is about 10 times more chatty. We were there for 2 1/2 hours, but we did manage to teach the restoration. He is a Jehovah's witness and she is a 7th day adventist. Quite a mix. haha. They liked everything we taught though, which surprised me. They agreed to read in the book of mormon, so hopefully they really will.

I think that's about it for this week. I love you all!!!!!! I'm glad the invitations are finished and you successfully took an engagement photo. I hope you all have a great week!!!!

love

hna livingston

May 10th

Well, it was fun to talk to you all on sunday! I will probably just tell you about my whole week in chronological order though, so sorry if there is some repeats.

We got an exciting phone call from Adam last tuesday. Well, he wasn't excited about the news but we were. He and Martha had a fight and she moved out. We are hoping this is permanent so that he can get baptized after we teach him some more, but we will see. We didn't have time to see him last week because we were so busy preparing Hna Sapon for her baptism.

We had a good lesson with Amelia. We were planning to talk about the plan of salvation, but when Hna D asked her to pray she went off for about half an hour about why she doesn't want to pray yet or come to church. SHe had a horrible experience previously in her life with joining a church and really believing it and then finding out that she had been deceived. She is reading in the book of mormon though and she loves it, so it shouldn't be too long before she comes around. She was in 1 nefi chapter 7 last week. After teaching Amelia we taught los Sapon the word of wisdom. The girls weren't there when we taught it the first time. They agreed to live it. When we talked about how important it is to take care of our bodies because they are a gift from God, Martha asked if tanning was ok and then asked if we thought that maybe Michael Jackson had gone a little too far in damaging his body. haha. She is so funny but so sincere. As of Tuesday we were still planning on the girls getting baptized with their mom, but that didn't happen.

We had our first district meeting since Elder Au and Reagan left on Wednesday, so that was a little strange. We are down to just 6 missionaries: 2 elders and 4 sisters. Kind of odd. haha. But it's good. We all serve in the same ward, by the way, I don't know if you already knew that. THere used to be 11 missionaries in the ward back in my second transfer, so we have really cut back. We divided up their area between the three of us and we got the part where Linda Torres lives (obviously we already visit her, so that's good). After that we went to visit Hna Garduno, who just had her baby. The baby is SUPER cute. Too bad we can't hold babies. Hna Garduno looked like she was doing well. We talked about the baby being blessed, so that should help them come to church in a few weeks. Also Hna Garduno and her husband gave us a very detailed description of their experience with the c-section, which included him almost fainting. haha. I was close to fainting as he described the blood spurting out, but I managed to hang in there. Luckily I don't understand all of the medical terms in spanish. Hna D looked a little more horrified than I was, so I was ok with that. haha

On Thursday we saw Marisela again for the first time in forever. SHe is pretty much the same, except they are about to lose their house so they will be moving soon. I'm pretty sure her "husband" will be actually leaving her soon. He currently lives in a trailer behind the house. She still continues strong in her faith though and we are hoping she will come to the mother's day party this week. (p.s. happy mother's day!!!!! It's may 10 in Mexico. haha)

We went to see Efren, who we contacted last week and had set up an appointment with. We knocked on the door and could hear someone moving inside. THen we saw the door knocker move as someone checked through the peep hole, but the door didn't open. We knocked a few more times and then Hna D called him. We heard the phone ring inside and then he answered and told us he was at work and wouldn't be home until SUPER late. haha. So I guess we won't be teaching him any time soon.

We managed to find Eric that night. He was just about to leave when we got there, but he stayed and talked to us for a bit. He said that he was going to the barber shop...we assumed to get his hair cut, but he said it was to get his eyebrows done. hahahahaha. I wish I had a picture of him. He usually has these little slits in his eye brows. Not like slits, but just like a stripe where the hair is missing. He is such a funny guy. Unfortunately he is not doing so well. He had scratch marks on his face and he said it was from when he came home drunk one night and his girlfriend scratched his face - not good. We asked him if he was happy and he said no. Duh Eric!!! Come to church! So hopefully he will come around again soon.

After that we had lunch with the RS president. Hna Tapia (who got baptized on saturday with Hna Sapon) and her daughter were there. Karen (the daughter, who is 16) was telling us about a new dance move that is all the rage called the shuffle. She demonstrated it to us. Does matthew know it yet?

We saw los Sapon that night and Hna Sapon said that she changed her mind and wanted the girls to wait to get baptized until they knew more. We re-taught the restoration and explained about the book of mormon again and the girls said they understood better after that, so we will see what happens. Hopefully they will get baptized within the next month.

Friday we were at the temple - don't worry I remembered to wear sunscreen this time. THere were a couple weddings happening. A limo pulled up around 12 and we assumed it was with one of the wedding parties, but the people who got out were the JONAS BROTHERS!!!!!! jk. They were dressed like tourists (like hawaiian shirts and everything). The woman came over and talked to us because she loves missionaries. I asked her about the limo and she said they weren't super rich or anything, it belonged to her company and they just wanted to chat on the way down to san diego, so they took the limo. haha. That sounds like a good deal to me. She gave us each a 7 up from the limo, so that was pretty cool. Then we took a picture in front of the limo with the temple in the background. Hna D was embarrased at first, but I told her she would want the picture later, so she did it too.

Daniel came to the temple while we were there so that he could by the doctrine and covenants and pearl of great price at the distribution center. He is just awesome. He told us he was going to need a bag to carry all of his books. Sure enough on sunday he had a nice new briefcase style bag to carry his books in. haha.

After the temple we went to teach Norgia. We watched the restoration with her on a little portable dvd player. I noticed that William was playing Uno on the computer while we watched the movie. I hope my life never quite gets to that point. I mean I love uno, but I'm guessing it's a lot more fun to play it with people. Norgia really liked the movie and said she would read in the book of mormon in chapter two.

Next we went to see cleo and daniel. We watched the testaments with them, but Daniel had to leave part way through so that he could go out with the elders. That was fine though because we really came for Cleo. She LOVED the movie, especially when Christ came. We asked her after if she wanted to learn more and she said yes, so we set up an appointment for monday to come teach just her. Also, she mentioned that Daniel wants to get married in the temple and she thinks it would be nice too. yessssssss.

On Saturday we did some weekly planning and prepared the program for the baptism that night. Hna Sapon had her interview scheduled for 5:30 and the baptism started at 6. Just in case, we made two versions of the program - one with both names and one just with Hna Tapia. After that we wanted to go get some lunch because we were going to start our fast at 3 (we had stake conference last week so it was fast sunday this sunday). We decided to go get california burritos becuase neither of us had had one and Hna D is getting low on time in san diego. We called Lupita (one of the YW) to see if she was working (she works at a taco shop) but she wasn't. She told us to come over and she would come to lunch with us though, so that was even better. We drove to her house and then walked to a taco shop and she insisted on buying us claifornia burritos and horchata. SHe is just adorable. I will include a photo. THe burritos were delicious (it's like chicken and pico de gallo and guacamole and french fries). It was way fun to hear all about her plans for prom and eveything. She is a super cool girl.

Next we picked up Hna Ameneyro to come with us to a lesson with a man named Manuel who we contacted in a store last p-day. He wasn't there so she came with us to see Veronica instead. We got to her complex and there were a bunch of kids who told us to be careful becuase there was a snake in the bush in front of her apartment. We quickly walked by safely and knocked on the door. SHe let us in but she was in the middle of dying her hair so she had a plastic bag on her head. As we tried to teach her there were lots of screams outside when the snake was found and killed. ALso she kept getting phone calls from mexico because her son was going to visit his uncle and was getting picked up in tijuana but had a suitcase with like $3,000 in it so she was worried about him being attacked and killed. IT was a rather stressful/funny lesson. haha.

Manuel called us as we were leaving Veronica's and said he was home now and sorry he wasn't before his phone had been stolen and he had gone to recover it. We went over to invite him to the baptism. He said he would come and his uncle would come too. I figured they probably wouldn't really, I mean we had JUST met him. But he came and brought his uncle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So cool.

We went over to the church to practice the musical number with the young women. I played I'm trying to be like Jesus and WHen I am Baptized and they sang. It was good. At 5:30 hna sapon had her interview and then quickly changed for the baptism at 6. Hno Morales baptized her. The baptism was PERFECT! Most of the ward came because Hna Tapia had been attending the ward faithfully for over a year and was finally getting baptized. Hna Tapia was baptized first and then Hna Sapon. We watched from the steps inside the font, so that was great. She was baptized but she kicked her foot up so she had to be baptized 4 times before she went under all the way. WHen she bore her testimony after she said that as soon as she was baptized she just wished that she could be baptized again, so she considered herself lucky that she got to be baptized 4 times. haha. She is awesome.

Sunday was fun. All of the mom's got roses from the young men. Luis and Linda Torres came for sacrament meeting, which was exciting. The highlight was definitely talking to all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After that I was at the battalion. I was standing at the front when none other than Brigham Young himself walked in. Not literally, but from the JS movie/the mormon battalion movie. I greeted him and sent him and his buds on a tour. THen I gave the next tour and after my tour I was out at gold panning when he came out, so I had a nice little conversation with him. I asked if he and the guy who plays Joseph Smith are good friends in real life and he said yes. It turns out that he is actually the one who produced the battalion film so he told me some about casting the characters and whatnot. He was a really nice guy.

Yesterday was as you may know MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for the package. It was an excellent day. I woke up and exercised and then Hna D made me french toast while I showered. I opened my presents and I LOVE them all. In fact I had tried on the white shirt at h and m the week before. haha. I wanted to get it but picked another one to get with Grandma's money (which I wore on my birthday). The plaid skirt is AMAZING!!!!!!!!. After we studied and everything we headed over to Linda's and watched the restoration with her. She gave me an old photo album for my birthday. SHe is so adorable. (not like a photo album full of old pictures, but like a used photo album. But I love it). After that we tried to go see a less active in the elder's area, but we couldn't find the house.

Next we had an appointment with Cleo. It was AMAZING. We taught the restoration and everything just clicked. It turns out that Hno Hernandez had gone over the night before and talked to her about the book of mormon, so it was really easy to teach her. SHe said that she has noticed such a change in daniel that she wants to get baptized!!!!! We invited her for the 21 of May and she said YES!!!! talk about a happy birthday!!!!!! That is Hna D's last saturday, so she will see her confirmed too.

After that we went to an appoinmtnet with a contact, Yadira, and we added her as an investigator. SHe is super nice and has some adorable children.

NExt we tried a few people who weren't home and then went to Hna Rivas' for what I was told was an FHE with the cano family. IT was actually an FHE/surprize birthday party for me that Hna D had planned with a bunch of people from the ward. Hna/Hno Morales were ther, Hna Galvas, Hna Rivas, and Daniel and Cleo and their whole family. It was so fun. We had carnitas (pork tacos) which is one of my favorite things. Daniel brought a cake that said "Hna Livingston" on top - spelled right and everything. (usually they forget the g). It was a tres leches cake with chocolate frosting. It was soooo fun. So it was definitely a good birthday. I will send some photos.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. I hope that all is going well at home and that Greg and Melissa manage to take an engagement photo.

I love you all!!!!

love

hna livingston

May 3rd

Well, it's official, our mission has expanded. We got 2 new stakes, so we had an extra transfer meeting on monday, but no worries, my life is still the same. haha. We did lose 3 people from our district, so now we have 2 sets of sisters and 1 set of elders. Kind of strange, but should be good. I'm not exactly sure how we will divide up the new boundaries yet.

As I told you last week, elder Perry came, so we took most of our preparation on thursday, which made the week go by super fast. On Wednesday we were at the temple from 11-5. I remembered to wear sunscreen on my face and neck, but didn't think about my legs or arms. oops. haha. Now I have a nice tan on the front of my legs below my knees. haha. Wednesday night wasn't too eventful, mostly just a few canceled appointments.

So thursday was our p-day until 4. Hna D wanted to go look for an outfit to wear home (since she returns in 3 weeks). We found her a good dress at ross. I also managed to find 3 new skirts, which was exciting. One of them was just $6 so that was super exciting. haha.

That night we tried to contact a referral named Juan, who lives in the same complex as Daniel and Cleo. Turned out that he lives in the same apartment as a former where we made a contact named Efren several months ago. As we drove there we saw Cleo walking up the street, but continued on our way to contact Juan. he wasn't there though, so we quickly left and "ran into" cleo outside. She invited us over, so we went over and Daniel gave us each a HUGE piece of watermelon. We are talking like half of a huge watermelon (but not actually half, still a skinny piece, but a half circle). I felt like a cartoon character trying to eat it, but it was really good, epecially since it was so hot outside. We chatted with them for a bit and Cleo said that she really enjoyed church. They also told us that they want to invite all of the missionaries over for cerveche, which should be fun. I think Cleo is slowly warming up to the church. We are jsut biding our time. haha.

Later in the evening our appointment canceled, so we came to try to contact Juan again. He wasn't there again, so we randomly decided to stop by Adam's. If you'll recall, we used to teach adam and martha a ton, but they have an issue with the law of chastity, and we haven't really been able to teach them since we taught them about it. Well we went by and Adam let us in (martha was in the bedroom) and we talked with him for a bit. He told us that he still wanted to have a party and invite all of the neighborhood kids over to watch the testaments or the restoration. He is such a funny guy. We chatted about what he's been up to - mostly just working - and then he mentioned that that morning he had randomly thought of joseph smith and included him in his prayer that morning. Martha suddenly left, so we had to quickly leave. Adam prayed before we left though, and he said in his prayer that he thought our coming now was an answer to his prayer from that morning. Pretty cool. Hopefully we can start teaching him again and this time he will be ready to be baptized.

On Friday we had the morning in our area, so we went to see Linda. We had planned to talk about the sacrament, but once we got started she asked us what she was supposed to do if when she got to heaven God told her nice try, but that she had been in the wrong choice. This led to us talking about the book of mormon. By the end of our discussion she agreed to read it where she had left off - 1 nefi 3 (we read 1 and 2 with her before). Linda is so adorable. I just love visiting her. Especially since she is open again to coming to church and reading in the BoM and whatnot. She is so funny though. She spends a lot of time at home with just the girls, so I think she gets pretty lonely. She kept asking us what we were going to do for lunch and if we had anything after this. Finally she just got up and made us each a sandwich with some pasta and a glass of chocolate milk. So adorable.

Friday night was an exciting night. Los Sapon came to the mormon battalion and we gave them a tour. It was teh girls' first time there. After the tour we talked to hna sapon about her baptism and when it should be and suggested again that the girls get baptized with her. She agreed and they are all going to get baptized on Saturday night!!!!!!!!!! We are so excited. Right after they left I went to the resource room and a tour was just getting out and it was President Donaldson with an area 70 and Elder Robbins (of the 70 who spoke in conference on being vs doing). Obviously I went in and hung around the camera and got to take their picture. haha. Then I told pres. Donaldson that we just had 3 agree to a baptismal date. He was excited and told the general authorities and they were also excited. SO that was way cool.

On Saturday there was a cinco de mayo celebration in old town. Tons of people came and so we gave several spanish tours that weekend. It was way fun though. By the way: the reason we celebrate 5 de mayo in the US (they don't really celebrate it in mexico) is because there was a battle in Puebla, Mexico against the french and mexico won, thus thwarting france's plans of taking over the US through Mexico. I just learned that on saturday.

That afternoon we tried again to contact Juan. We got there at the perfect time. Efren was in the hallway because he was moving a new bed into the apartment. He told us that juan moved to tijuana yesterday, but he told us to come over on thursday to teach him, so that was awesome.

After that we tried to see several other people, who weren't home, so we went over to los Torres because it was Noemi's 2nd birthday so we brought her cookies. I also brought linda some sweaters that other sisters had left when they went home and i had worn a couple times but didn't really need. She is always asking us where we get our clothes, so I figured she would like them. It turns out that they were having a carne asada for her birthday and invited us to stay and eat, which we did. They also had a pinata, which was way fun to see. I will send a couple pictures. We saw Ana Torres there too, which was great. SHe is going to have her baby May 20, so that is exciting.

On Sunday we had stake conference and Elder Grow of the 70 came to speak. We had a spanish session at 1 and all but one of the talks were in spanish (the one was translated) so that was nice. It was really good. Daniel sang in the choir and Cleo came. SInce daniel came early to practice, Cleo's jehova's witness friend gave her a ride and stayed for the whole meeting. SO COOL!!!!! Los Sapon came too, so that was really good.

Yesterday I had a cool experience at the mormon battalion. I gave a tour with Sis Smith and at the end a woman asked us a bunch of questions about the BoM so we pretty much just taught her all about it right then. She said she really wanted a copy, so we went ahead and got her a copy and gave it to her right then and we will send the missionaries too. It was really cool though. I have realized since being on my mission that I LOVE the book of mormon so much and if people will just actually read it, they will love it too.

Well, that's about it for this week. Thanks for the birthday wishes. I am excited to talk with you on sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you all!!!

love

hna livingston

April 26th

Sorry this email is a lot later than usual...there is a good reason for the delay: Elder Perry came to visit our mission today. More on that later though.

So last week we met with Amelia and had a good lesson in which she asked us lots of questions about the book of mormon, which was good because that meant that she had actually read it! She read the intro and all of the testimonies and even the first chapter, so that was awesome. We also got to know her husband a little better so hopefully we can start teaching him too soon.

On Thursday I was on exchanges with Hna Lee in her area. We were at the battalion in the morning and had a really awesome experience. I was standing in the front entry area when a couple came in who spoke spanish, so I stuck them in the theater to wait for the next tour in spanish. While they were in there a mexican man who looked like he was on his lunch break during work (which he was) peeked in. I told him we were about to do a tour in spanish and he said he wanted to come but he was going to go get his friend to come too, so I waited for him before starting the tour. It turns out that his friend was a big black guy, who only spoke some spanish, but he came along and really enjoyed it. The Mexican man's name was Salvador. All 4 of the people loved the tour. Hna Lee came with me for it. At the end we passed out the referral cards and salvador said that he was interested, but that he didn't have his glasses, so he couldn't fill it out. The man next to him (in the couple) asked him if he had ever learned from missionaries in his home, he said no. So the man just took his referral card from him and said "what's your address" and then filled it out for him and gave it to us. The black man also filled out his card - referring himself and a friend, so that was awesome. Even more awesome is that I talked to Salvador after the tour and he said that he has family that are members and that they told him he should look into the church. He said he is catholic, but not really happy with it, so he wants to change religions. He asked for the address of teh church closest to him. I didn't know it, so I got his number and said I would call. I called him and gave him the address and he told me thank you for the tour, it changed his life. Then I figured out what missionaries would visit him and it turns out that it is sis. Werner, who just left my district after being together the whole mission, so I called her and told her about him and they are going to go visit him tonight!!!! So awesome.

We had a training by Bro Lusvardi, who is in charge of all visitors centers/historic sites this week. He came one morning and talked to us about the site. It was cool to hear some behind the scenes stuff and see how important all of the details in the site were when they were making it. He gave us lots of good advice. Then he followed me and sis kennington on a tour, which was a little intimidating, but oh well. haha.

Daniel came to the battalion this week after work one day. He brought us some sweet bread (something from a mexican bakery) and then he watched the testaments. He told me that Cleo was "sentida" with me and sis de la cruz. I didn't know what that meant, so I asked him if it was good and he said no. He said it is like being mad, but not really mand, but kind of sad. Still because we wouldn't hold her baby. So that was sad to hear, but good to hear that Daniel is planning on inviting some more friends to come to the battalion. He said he had some friends who were catholic, but he knew that we could straighten that out. haha.

On saturday we had an easter activity that we have been planning for a while. It was an easter egg hunt for the primary and it was way fun. I have some pictures from it I will send later. Daniel and Cleo came with all of their kids and cleo loved it!!!!!! IT was perfect because her main issue is that Christ told the children to come unto him and so she is bothered that we wouldn't hold fatima. So i think this helped her see that children are important in the gospel. Amelia came with her boys too, which was way exciting. Maybe the most exciting for me (besides Cleo coming) was that Linda Torres came with her girls. She walked all the way to the chapel by herself with the girls in a stroller. It turns out that her and Luis are thinking of separating, which is sad, but I'm sure glad that she was able to come. The girls seemed to really enjoy it.

After the easter egg hunt we had some food and then turned on the prince of egypt for people to watch, while we went to a play practice for our next activity. I don't think I mentioned this before, but the elder's quorum president planned this huge activity and invited the mission president and stake president. Hardly anyone came to the first practices, so Hno Dantes decided to change the whole activity. It was originally going to be 4 rooms with peter james and john in one room explaining the gospel, Joseph Smith in another, talking about the restoration, and Christ in another talking about his gospel. Hno Dantes changed it into a play about Joseph Smith. It actually turned out really well, except that it was on easter, so that was strange. haha. I will explain more in a second.

Easter Sunday was really good. The relief society president made each of the missionaries a little easter bag with some candy, so that was really sweet of her. Cleo came with Daniel to church!!!!!!!! And all of the kids!!!! It was really exciting. She seemed to really like it. Before all of that though, we went to try and get Linda to come to church. We rang the doorbell about 7 times before luis answered looking very unhappy to see us. He let us in and told us to go wake linda up, then he laid back down on the couch. We went in and woke linda up and helped the girls get ready and then walked to church with her, so I was really glad she came. It was a really good sacrament meeting that was really focused on the savior and the atonement, so that was great. Daniel said that Cleo really liked it and is planning on coming more. Also he told us that she said that we are welcome to come over whenever now, so that is really exciting.

That afternoon we served at the mormon battalion until 6:30, when someone came to take over for us so that we could go to our activity: the play about joseph smith. The play escalated to being pretty intense. It started out with a scene with Joseph Smith (Elder Lewis) giving a sermon to a bunch of us (missionaries and members). Then he had to leave because his son was sick and needed a blessing. In the next scene a mob came to attack and was beating up Elder Lewis. Hno Dantes has quite the imagination. He wanted it to be really realistic, so they poured chocolate over elder lewis and then put feathers all over him. Yup, they tarred and feathered him. It was pretty ridiculous, but the members loved it. haha. Then in the next scene we were all sad because Joseph's son had died, but then Joseph came in and gave another sermon on the resurrection. It was pretty intense.

After the play the stake president spoke. He started otu saying that he thought he was going to be sharing an easter message, but was grateful for the opportunity to testify of Joseph Smith. Then out mission president spoke and did a good job tying the two together. Over all the activity was a success. We didn't invite too many nonmembers because we were worried about it being about joseph smith on easter, but los sapon came and they seemed to like it. Mostly it was just hilarious for all of us to watch elder lewis get tarred and feathered with chocolate. I wish I had a picture of it.

Yesterday we had a miracle happen. A long time ago Eric brought a friend to church and we tried to go teach him, but he was always busy. He called us last week saying that he was going through some difficult things and that eric took him to the church to get a blessing and that helped, so now he wants us to teach him. We went on monday and he is soooo ready. We taught about the gospel and how Christ can help us with anything. Then we introduced the book of mormon. At first he said he didn't want a copy, that he wasn't ready for it. Then we explained more about it and why we wanted him to read it - that it would bring peace into his life. He practically begged us to give it to him then. We read the intro with him and then he pretty much testified to us that he already knew the bookw as true and that it would help him. I can't wait for him to actually read it!

Last night Daniel invited us to a seafood restaurant. Well, he actually invited us about a week ago, but we went last night. It was an all you can eat seafood/sushi buffet. It was way fun. We are talking all you can eat lobster and a variety of other things. haha. Dad would have really liked it I think. haha. It was fun to just chat with him though, and at the end he told us thank you so much for all that we had done for him and his family. He is such a nice guy. I was very full after the experience because I knew that it was on teh expensive side so we were trying to eat as much as we could.

Today we had an awesoem experience. Elder Perry came and spoke to our mission and the Carlsbad mission. It was way good. Elder Perry is awesome. You know that voice he gets when he is passionate about things? Well, it's way better in real life up close. Also, I get the feeling that he must be hilarious. He said that he is now in charge of the public relations, which he said is the "worst position in the church" haha. He mentioned that braodway is doing a play on the book of mormon, so I need someone to look that up and tell me more about that. haha. He said "it's not exactly what we would have written" but that they are grateful for the publicity. haha. Then he just talked about the restoration of the gospel and especially the priesthood and how important it is to share this message. He talked about how Christ really is the head of the church and how only the senior apostle can use all the keys of the priesthood. He said that Christ controls who the next prophet is because when there is a vacancy in the 12 the prophet spends hours and days seeking revelation to know who the new apostle should be and then that person takes the #12 spot. As people die, they move up. He said that God controls who lives and who dies, so he is in charge of who leads the church. I've never heard it explained quite like that before. He told us not to waste time and to be diligent!!! He also told us to work closely with the wards and we would be blessed. It was a really good meeting.

Also, there are some exciting things happening her in San Diego. Our mission is expanding. Carlsbad found out about it today, but we have known for awhile. We are taking over two of their stakes next week, so there will be lots of changes coming up. I know that our ward is losing a set of missionaries, and I have it on good authority that it is not me. I'm pretty sure it is elder reagan and au. It's exciting though, because we have a lot of missionaries - more than we need for the stakes we have. But there is going to be a lot of whitewashing going on in the next few weeks.

I got the easter package you sent today!!! Thank you! It was perfect timing because today is our investigator, Veronica's, birthday, so we made her cookies with one of the mixes. Also, I got a bunch of letters from the achievement day girls in the ward!!! I am excited to meet all of them one day. They were very nice cards. The leader - I don't remember her name, came through on sunday, but I wasn't here, but sis. Smith told me about her visit and she said that my little sister Emily loves me a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I already knew that.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. Hopefully Hna Sapon will get baptized this sunday. If not this one, the next one (it's stake conference this weekend, which makes things a little more complicated).

I love you all! I'm glad that you all had a fun weekend together!!! Happy Easter!!!!

Love

Hna Livingston

April 19th

Well, you are probably wondering if I was transferred....................................nope. haha. Everything in my life remained exactly the same. I am still with Hna D in Barrio 20. I figured that's what would happen and frankly, that is what I wanted to happen, so I am happy about it. This is Hna D's last transfer, so It's pretty safe to bet I will stay at least one more transfer to take over the area again. We did get 5 new sisters at the mormon battalion though, so that's been fun to start getting to know them. I was in one of 3 companionships that didn't change. Everyone else either was transferred or got a new companion. haha.

We had some good things happen this week, but just so you aren't anxiously waiting: no wedding and no baptism. But things are going to work out great.

I enjoyed seeing the burtons on Tuesday night. I just had time to say hi before heading out though, so hopefully they enjoyed the tour.

Tuesday night we taught Amelia and it was a really good lesson. It was a long lesson though. haha. We taught the restoration and focused a lot on christ's ministry. She was suruprised to learn that the book of mormon is a record of the people here in america. But she was excited to read it and I have it on good authority that she has started it. (She told us and said that she has some questions - usually when people say they have no questions it means they didn't read it or didn't understand it at all).

We have continued teaching Veronica. Let me tell you, she is a fun one to visit. SHe is so excited about everything we talk about! WHen we went on wednesday she had just read the intro and the testimonies at the start of the book of mormon. She loved Joseph Smith's testimony and explanation of how he got the plates. She is hilarious. We finished teaching teh plan of salvation, which was easy because she read the pamphlet, then we taught the gospel and she is still excited for her baptism and wants her daughter to get baptized. We just need to actually teach her daughter. She is never there when we are. She is having a rough time financially though, so if you can please keep Veronica in your prayers. She has a week to come up with the money for her rent before they kick her out and she doesn't have a job. She came to church on sunday though and continues loving it. Also, her bed is in the living room and it has a camp rock blanket. So everytime we go to visit I get to see the jobros. haha.

Daniel came to the battalion this week and brought some friends. It was a family with 3 kids, who were all hilarious. They LOVED the tour and want to come back to watch the testaments. He told us he wants missionaries to go teach them (they live outside of our ward). So that is awesome to see him doing missionary work. More on him in a minute.

We found 2 new investigators this week. One is named Rosa, and we found her from the same list of names that we found Veronica with. She is a little skeptical though. Our first meeting with her went well, but we saw her again yesterday and it was one of the worst lessons ever. She is just a huge skeptic and is really into logic so she had so many questions and comments that the lesson just got out of control. She asked us at one point if we do human sacrifices in the temple, so we told her no and explained a little about temples. Then she got really hung up on the fact that the temple in san diego is sooo fancy and why doesn't our church spend that money on helping people who are starving in africa instead of building temples. It was a little frustrating to hear her say things like that, but obviously she just doesn't understand why we have temples. She said that she was going to ask her pastor about joseph smith, so who knows where things will go with that conversation.

We had a great lesson with Los Sapon earlier last week. We taught tithing and fasting to them. Hno Sapon was being so funny. He had just gotten this new computer carrying type bag. A dell one. He got it at a yard sale for $5, but it was in really nice condition. Anyways, he showed it to us and was really excited about it. Then he set it on the table. In the middle of the lesson he picked it up and put it on his lap and kept stroking it. haha. Then he put it on while he was sitting down. At that point we all just started laughing, especially Hna Sapon. haha. He was just so proud of his new bag. It was like a little kid with a new toy. He is so funny. They had an appointment to get their marriage license on Wed, but more on that in a second.

We added another new investigator named Adalberta. She is the cousin of a less active, who told us to go visit her. SHe seems really open and says she wants to get closer to christ, she jsut doesn't have a car. SO hopefully this will help the less active and her to both come to church.

Have you all heard about the new Joseph Smith movie? It is like 60 % new footage. ANyways, we saw it and it's way good. We watched it with Luis and two of this friends this week. It is aimed at people who are not members of the church and is super good. I hear you can see it online or something. Check it out. Or maybe they have it at the DC visitor's center. You could call and ask. I know they are showing it at the legacy theater.

Amelia came to the mormon battalion and brought her two sons and her sister. THey all LOVED it. They are going to come back and bring her husband.

This week on one of my tours I got a comment card that said that the woman's son now had a testimony of tithing because he knew that part of the money went to fund the mormon battalion historic site and let kids look for gold and he LOVED coming there. haha. So that was kind of funny.

Sunday was a great day. Blanca came to church. I don't know why she doesn't jst get baptized. She loves coming to church and everything. She just likes the ability to be rebelious I think. But she is great. Veronica came too, but she came an hour late because her sister was coming to take her daughter to LA. She sure loves church though. After church we ate with Los Ameneyro, who are such an awesome family. He is the 2nd counselor in the bishopric and they really support us missionaries (the bishop doesn't quite as much, so we all LOVE Hno Ameneyro). We talked for a while about how we can gain more of teh bishop's trust and get ward members more involved. They gave us some ideas and then said that on monday they wanted to have either los sapon over for an FHE or daniel, whoever could, so we said that was awesome and we would help out.

That night we went to the ward's choir practice for stake conference. It was hilarious. I don't know if you have ever heard a group of mexicans sing, but most of them seem to be tone deaf, so it was pretty funny. Hno Hernandez, who is conducting, was having auditions for a solo, which was very entertaining. I did not try out. haha.

Right after that we had a ward fireside, which was SO GOOD. Daniel was the first speaker and Cleo and the whole family came, which was amazing, since they didn't even come to his baptism. She seemed to like it and the ward was super welcoming. Daniel's talk was great. He started off by talking about easter and what it means and shared a scripture from teh BOM (which I had shared with him the last time we had taught him) and then he talked about how he came to join the church. He said that he had a lot of quesitons in the beginning but las hermanas (us) told him to just read the book of mormon and pray about it and he would know, so that's what he did and he got his answer. At the very end he said that most of all he wanted to thank his wife for supporting him and being there tonight. It was so amazing to hear him speak. ALso, he wore a white shirt and tie and a suit jacket. So awesome.

The rest of the fireside was good too, but Daniel was the highlight for me. Hna D and I gave him a journal we had gotten him with some pictures of his baptism and whatnot glued in and a note from each of us. He called us the next morning and left a message saying that he loved the journal and he said at least 3 times in the message that he loved Hna D and I as "hermanas" and that we would definitely stay in touch after our missions. It was pretty precious.

Yesterday we had a full day in our area and we had a ton of appointments lined up, but most of them canceled. We taught Hna Veracruz though. We read 2 nefi 31 with her and then she asked us a question about mosiah 5 - the last verse - about being sealed to christ. We talked about taking his name upon us and read the sacrament prayers. It was a way good lesson, but still no committment to get baptized. One day.

In the evening we went to see los sapon because they didnt come to church and they weren't answering their phone. We went over at like 6:30 and ended up staying with them the rest of the night. It turns out that the reason they didn't come to church is because Hno Sapon got taken by the police saturday night. He is going to be deported, but since he is from guatemala, it's a way longer process. Hna Sapon (or I guess I should say Hna Lucas, since they aren't married and obviously won't be for a long time) seemed surprisingly ok with it. SHe said this has happened before and he came back like 8 months later. SHe has a job and everything, so they will be ok. She said that she is hoping this will help him realize how important his family is and make him stop drinking, because he hadn't really stopped even though he acted like he did. So ti's bitter sweet - good that she can get baptized now without any problems, but sad of course because he was taken.

THis is an oddly familiar story to me - you may remember magda and jorge. I was thinking about it and I just can't imagine living my life with the fear that I could be taken by the police or my husband or dad or anyone in my family. That would be pretty scary. We couldn't get ahold of the ameneyros, so we just did the FHE with them at their house. WE made cookies with each of the ingredients representing a step in teh gospel. They loved it. Especially the girls. Hna sapon said she can't get baptized this sunday because she has something she has to do, but she wants to get baptized on may 1. We asked the girsl if they wanted to get baptized too and they both said yes, but hna sapon wants them to wait longer to be sure they want to. We are going to have hna morales talk to her to help her see that they should just all get baptized together since the girls want to and everything.

So things are going well here in Barrio 20. We just found out this morning some way good news. Hno Ameneyro called and said that they had daniel over for an FHE last night and Cleo and the fam came. They talked about the plan of salvation and eternal marriage and cleo loved it. They said that she said that she didn't have a religion so she just was going to follow Daniel pretty much. They are so funny though, Hno ameneyro said that they were sooooo sorry, they forgot to ask her if she wanted to take the missionary lessons. THey said they would talk to her and get back to us. haha. They are so awesome. So hopefully Cleo is warming up to the idea of learning more and eventually baptism.

I hope that things are well at home!!! I love you all!!

love,

hna livingston

April 12th

Well, another transfer is come and gone. We said farewell to 5 sisters at the mormon battalion last night and we are expecting their replacements tomorrow. So who knows if I will be transferred or not. I am guessing no since this is Hna D's last transfer, but we will see.

This week we had a few miracles happen that were pretty awesome. On wednesday a bunch of our appointments canceled so we went to see people on this list of potentials that we have from a zone blitz forever ago - so mostly names that came from knocking doors and stuff. We tried a few with no success and then came to this one named veronica. We went to her apartment and knocked on the door and she answered and we asked for Veronica and she said hang on just a second and went to put on a sweater. Then she came back and was super excited and said that she had just talked to her mormon friend in las vegas this morning for an hour and told him that she wanted to change her church and he told her to go to his church, but she didn't know where the closest one was, so she was going to look it up online, but then we came. haha. SO that was pretty amazing.

She let us in and we talked for a bit about church and she said that she didn't like her church becuase no one seemed to care about her at all even though she had gone there for 7 years. She had gotten sick a while ago and no one called her, but people from other churches did. She said that she was planning on coming to our church on sunday and that her daughter would come with her. Her daughter, Maria, came out and we met her and she was excited to come to our church. she is 13. It turns out that one of her friends is mormon. We looked her friend up on the ward list and it turns out that she is a less active - the sister of Chris Garcia, who we met the other day when he was walking home from school by eric's house. God sure does know how to set things up!

We saw Veronica again on saturday and taught her the restoration. Maria wasn't there because her brother wanted her to practice singing with his christian band (he goes to a church called the Rock and is very prominent in it). It was a good lesson though and Veronica is just SOOO EXCITED about everything. haha. They really did come to church on sunday, which was pretty amazing. Oh, and we invited her to be baptized and she said yes. Someone was confirmed on sunday and she told us that she is sooo excited to get baptized may 1. Her and her daughter. Too bad we haven't even gotten to ask her daughter if she wants to yet. haha.

On Thursday Hna D had another training meeting, so I went with Sis. Monarrez again. We went to my area first for an appointment with Norgia. When we got there a random woman answered the door and told us that norgia was in teh bedroom talking to her husband. They came out after a couple minutes. I guess that they had just barely had a little spat because William told noriga that she was starving him to death and she took offense and said their marriage was a mistake and he took offense to that. So we just stood there kind of awkwardly for a bit. It turns out that the random woman (who william works with) is mormon, but not active. She told them that this was a good church to look into, so that was cool. We ended up just setting up another appointment because clearly it was a bad time.

We tried a million other people in my area and in her area, but literally no one was home, or if they were, they were busy. haha. Just one of those days. But we got a delicious lunch at las cuatro milpas, so it's all good.

We went to see Jonathan the other day and we dropped off a copy of the testaments since his mom wasn't home. We came back on friday and he wasn't there, but his mom let us in and told us that Jonathan had been taken by the police the night before because he had been drinking and he was still on parole. SHe started crying while she was telling us about it. It was so sad because you can tell that jonathan is a good kid who just hangs out around people who are not a good influence. We gave her a book of mormon and she actually read it! So that is awesome. Hopefully they will both want to be baptized now. But jonathan doesn't ahve a baptismal date anymore since he didn't come to church this sunday.

We saw Los Sapon on saturday. We didn't take the moraleses this time because we wanted to get through the lesson a little faster and they are all super chatty together. haha. We taught the law of chastity, which was crucial because they are not married. They agreed that they would get married and we are now in the process of helping them do that this week, so hopefully she will still get baptized thsi sunday, otherwise if this takes longer we will just wait until next week. SO pray for them!!! But they are sooo awesome.

The Venegas family invited all of the missionaries over on saturday for dinner, so that was fun. They gave us each a plate of nachos that probably could have fed 3 people. haha. I didn't manage to finish mine because we had had district lunch at panda express earlier. haha.

On Sunday Daniel was asked to say the prayer in sacrament meeting. I wish you could have seen him. He wore a light blue button up shirt with a pink tie. I have never seen him wear a tie before. I do not think it is common in the mexican culture. He was looking pretty slick though. And he said a good prayer. It's so fun to see him progressing along in the gospel!!!

Yesterday wasn't too eventful. We spent the morning planning and stuff and then were at the battalion in the evening. I gave several tours to families from utah, since they are on spring break now. That night we had a farewell get together for those leaving, which included the senior couple, the Ricks (who might be my favorite senior couple here if I had to choose.) So that was sad, but also awesome. Elder ricks had composed a poem with a couple lines about each of us sisters, which was adorable. it is so fun serving at the mormon battalion with all these sisters and senior couples. I can definitely see a need for more senior couples serving missions!!

Well, that's about it for this week. Next weeks email should be exciting - hopefully including a wedding and baptism!!!!!

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

love,

hna livingston

April 5th

This week was pretty excellent. I am going to just go through it chonologically for convenience.

Tuesday night we headed to our area at 6, but there was a soccer game - mexico vs venezuela I believe, and so because of that there was TERRIBLE traffic on the freeway. Had we known that we would have gone another way. Usually it takes us 20 or so minutes to get to our area, but that night it took us over an hour. Yikes. That meant that we missed our appointment with Jonathan and just had to go straight to see los Sapon. It ended up being a really good lesson though. We taught the plan of salvation and then focused on how baptism is important in this life. When we were talking about baptism Hna Sapon expressed concern about not knowing enough to be baptized. For this very reason I carry a photo of our family after Emily's baptism in my scriptures. I showed it to her and then talked about how what God wants for us to be baptized is to become like children and be willing, not to know everything. After that we invited her to be baptized and she said yes. She has a date for the 17th of april. Then we turned to Martha (16) and invited her, and she said YES! She said that that was all she wanted - to get closer to God. SHe was so excited. Pricila wasn't there, so she doesn't have a date yet, but I think she will get baptized with them.

Wednesday we went to see Lourdes. We talked about prayer and then a little bit about baptism. She had studied with the missionaries in utah. She said that she didn't want to get baptized because she knew she had to get married first. Her reasoning was that they have been living in "deathly sin" as she called it for so long that why would they change now. haha. That doesn't really make sense, but oh well. We invited her to pray about it, so we will see what happens there.

After that we were going to go to burger king for dinner because we had some coupons for free chicken nuggets, but eric had called and left a message so we called him back and he said it would be better if we came right then, so we went to see him instead of eating. We sat outside since it was a nice day and we were chatting when a kid walked by down the sidewalk and eric said hi to him and then told us that he was from the church. we had never seen him before, but eric told him that he would give him a ride home, so Chris, the boy, came over and talked with us for a bit first. His family are all members except his dad, who he stays with on weekends, hence why we didn't know him, he doesn't come to church. His whole family is less active. Eric told us that he would be willing to go visit them with us, so that was cool. THen they had to leave so he could give him a ride home.

Next we decided to see Jonathan instead of going to BK again. We sat outside with him since his mom wasn't home. The lesson started out pretty horribly. We were trying to teach the restoration, but he didn't seem very interested or anything. Finally we just abandoned the lesson and started asking him questions and stuff. Eventually we asked him if he felt like he had done too many bad things to ever feel peace, and he said yes. SO we told him that he could always be forgiven and compared it to a chalkboard covered with marks that can be washed clean with baptism. Then he was flipping through the restoration pamphlet and saw the picture of the first vision and he asked if that really happened. We said yes. He said that he believed it. Then we talked about baptism some more and how the restoration allows us to be baptized and be clean again. We invited him to be baptized on the 24th and he said yes!!!!! So the lesson turned out to be awesome. Jonathan is such a good guy, but he seems to have had a rough and rebelious life. But he is a good kid deep down, you can just tell.

After that we went to contact a woman, named Amelia. I can't remember if I mentioned before about when we were planning at teh church and a woman came wanting to make a donation, but she wasn't a member. Well that happened, so she eventually made the donation and we got her address from teh bishopric and went to see her. They let us right in. She was there and her husband and an old couple and her brother in law/sister (her sister married her husband's brother). It turns out that her bro in law/sister were recently baptized in tijuana. We talked for a bit about missionaries and what we do. Then we gave her a copy of finding faith in christ to thank her for her donation. We set up a time to come back. Right before we left the bro in law said that he would like a copy of finding faith in christ too, so we told him to come with us to the car and we would get him one. He and his wife came and once we were out there they told us that they really wanted amelia and her husband to get baptized, but they were stubborn but that we should just drop by on fridays because they were always there and never busy. So perfect that they were there when we came!!!!

On thursday I was on exchanges with Sis Adams and we were in my area. We taught Blanca and brought Lupita with us. It was a great lesson. We read the talk "Your happily ever after" by pres uchtdorf with them. If you haven't read it and you are a girl, you should read it. It talks about how adversity is necessary for every princess to get her happily ever after. We asked blanca if she had been through something hard and she said yes. We asked if she had overcome it and she said no. We asked what it was and she said when her mom died. Now I knew her mom had died bcause her dad had told me, but I had never heard BLanca talk about it, so it was good to hear her open up. She said that she thought that she would overcome it when she was a mom and had kids, which is her dream. She is so awesome. It was a great lesson.

Later that night we saw Norgia. Now Sis. Adams was the one who was with me when we had that hilarious experience with Norgia and William trying to hook up the dvd player. This time when we went William was passed out on the bed with his shirt off and the kids were running wild. We sat with norgia and tried to teach her, but the kids wanted to play with us. So sis adams tried to entertain the kids while I tried to teach noriga, but it was pretty much a fail. We read parts of 2 nefi 31, but it wasn't a very good atmosphere for teaching. haha.

On Friday I gave a tour to John Bytheway. Yup. That really happened. I sent a picture to mom - the one of me with another sister and a guy, well the guy is John Bytheway. It was a good tour. I guess that he had been speaking on a cruise and they were now just headed back home. I chatted with him and his wife after the tour for a bit and they were super nice. Also, I was glad to see that he laughed out loud at my joke about their shoes being worn out at the end. I felt very accomplished.

Later that night I gave another tour to a bunch of people and then as an old couple was leaving they waved good bye over the the wall to teh parking lot and I went over to say goodbye and they ended up giving me a refferral while I stood on a bench and talked to them over the wall. It was a good night at the mormon battalion. haha.

Saturday was GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! We were at the battalion during the first session, but I managed to catch it all except Pres Eyring. I really liked elder perry's talk about the sabbath. We ran to the stake center to watch the next session and ended up watching it in spanish with hno sapon and martha and pricila. I'll admit, it is not as fun to watch in spanish. The voices just are not the same. But it was still a good session. I liked the talk about finding gold - since I spend a large portion of my day panning for gold at the battalion. haha.

That afternoon we dropped by Adam's. It's been awhile since we have seen him. They let us in (Martha was there) and we chatted for a bit, but then their friends came over, so we invited them to conference and left.

We saw beatriz and found out that she finally found a job! (She has been looking for several months now). But it's also sad becuase now she can't come to church. I took a photo with her daughter, Orosetmy, so I will send it in a minute. She is adorable and we are good buds.

On our way out from seeing beatriz (who lives in the same complex as norgia) we witnessed a very funny scene. All of noriga's kids came running in to the complex and just behind them, William came walking quickly in carrying Norgia like a baby. It was clear that they had just offically gotten remarried and he was carrying his bride over the threshold. I wish I had a picture of them - but just picture william - who is about matthew's build, very skinny and talk, carrying someone who is more like my build, not fat, but definitely weighs more than wiliam. haha. He looked like he was going to collapse any second. It was really funny.

That night we taught los sapon with los morales. Now, Hno and Hna morales are probably 2 of my favorite people I have met on the mission. THey are hilarious. Hno morales is just like a really big kid sometimes. He is our ward mission leader by the way. He is hilarious though. And his wife is the sweetest little thing, but she is funny too. Anyways, so they came to the lesson with us, and it was really good. We were trying to teach the word of wisdom, but they all kep getting off topic, but that was fine, they are just becoming buds with los sapon. The funniest thing was that at least 6 times during the lesson, hno morales' phone went off really loudly. He acted like he was trying ignore it and then subtly turn it off, but it was so loud. By the 6th time or so we were all just bursting out laughing when it went off. Then Hna D helped him to put it on silent. haha. It was hilarious. By the end hno and hna sapon both agreed to live the word of wisdom.

Sunday we got to watch all of general conference in english. I loved both of the sunday sessions. It was all just great. Hno Sapon watched all 5 sessions of conference - that was more than anyone else in our ward! haha. Hna sapon just watched the sunday ones since she worked on saturday. They are so awesome. SOme elders had a baptism between the two sessions and hna sapon saw it and was so excited for her own baptism. We also had a lunch for all the spanish speakers between the sessions, so that was fun.

After conference we saw Norgia and we brought a board game about prayer to play with the kids. It went pretty well except that Lily was soooooo upset that she didn't win. haha. That night we went to see jonathan to see why he didn't come. When we showed up his family was having a party with all their cousins, so he invited us in and gave us some carne asada and cake, so that was pretty fun. Jonathan said that he would definitely come next sunday. ANd his mom said she would make sure he came.

Monday we saw hna veracruz and discussed conference. SHe watched all the sessions and enjoyed them and said that she believes that pres monson is a prophet. She really is ready to get baptized, she just needs to realize that.

We saw jonathan again and talked about the book of mormon and read the beginning with him. In the intro it talks about christ coming to the americas and he stopped and said that he wishes he had been here. He is such an awesome kid.

Well, that's pretty much it for the week. Things are coming along well here in San Diego. I hope you all have a great day!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!!!!

I love you all

love

hna livingston