Another transfer come and gone...

And Hermana Nielsen is leaving me :( I feel like the one transfer I wasn't ready for some type of a change, one came. I really really hope that I will be able to serve with her again. Transfers were all around kind of crazy this transfer. For the Spanish sisters that transferred, we all just switched. Hermana Nielsen is switching with Hermana Guzman, Hna Lopez with Hna Hernandez, and Hna Bustillo with Hna Anthony. Hna Nielsen is going to the companion she had just before me, so maybe there is hope we can serve together again! Another full-field Spanish sister got transferred to Connecticut, and no one knows why yet. ALSO, they put sisters back on the reservation! Maybe there is hope that I'll get to serve on the res now, I've wanted to as soon as I got my call. Hna Guzman and I don't know if we are going to go back full-field after the pagaent, because we were both full-field this last transfer, so we both still have one more. I have mixed feelings about going back to the VC. I am really excited for the pageant, but I haven't practiced any of the VC teaching skills in 6 weeks. I hope that they will come back quickly.

One thing about going back to the VC is that we won't have such an open schedule to make appts. This is already a busy area, so it will be super busy as a VC area. And we won't have any nights in our area for about 2 weeks. Luckily, there are more missionaries in our ward so the elders can help us out. They will be teaching Laura tomorrow night, because we have to be at the VC, but she has to continue to get all the lessons to be ready for her baptism. She finally came to our ward yesterday, though it was just for sacrament. Then she had to go to her daughter's ward to help with her granddaughter while her daughter taught a lesson. She said she will for sure be there all three hours next week. Maria and Eustaquio also were at church. Maria has been going every week for months, but it has just been recently that Eustaquio has been coming every week. I haven't written about them before, but Maria's son got baptized last year. He is 17, and a great example to his family now. Every since, Maria has known that the church is true, because she saw the change in Jose (evidently he was on the worse end of the spectrum of trouble teenage guys can get into.) However, Eustaquio, while not against them learning, wasn't interested in learning himself. Also, they aren't married, and he is married in Mexico and has to get divorced first (sound familiar? it does to me...) Recently, however, he decided to learn and has been attending church ever since. We of course asked him in our first lesson to read the Book of Mormon. And of course he got opposition right off the bat. He told us in the next lesson that his coworkers, who had never even mentioned the church, started talking about it. His boss said that the Book of Mormon is another Bible and that he shouldn't read it. To that Eustaquio replied "I'll read it first and then I'll let you know if it's true or not." He had only read to the introduction when we last saw him, but he had already gone back to his boss and testified saying that the "Book of Mormon is not another Bible, but a compliment to it." They are just waiting to get enough money to pay for his divorce, and then they will get married and baptized. Also at church was our investigator Salvador. Salvador is a fairly new investigator. He lives with a recent convert who is on fire. The sisters before us dropped a lot of investigators in the trailer park where he lives and when we went back to contact them about half said that Armando is still coming over to visit them every week! He is really great. Salvador, however, is very difficult to teach. He is actually a faithful Catholic and goes every week. Not only that but he actually knows and studies the Bible every day. It is very intimidating to us. However, I have learned a lot from teaching him. I have learned to rely so much on the Spirit and testimony. Right before we started teaching Salvador, we had taught Armando the 1st lesson again so that he could then teach it to his mom. We reviewed with him after the lesson and asked him what he had learned about teaching. It was great to hear his reply. He said that the most important things are to testify a lot, talk about the restoration of the gospel, and use Joseph Smith's own words to describe the first vision. Those are all things that we focus on in mission meetings. And it was interesting the very next day when we went over to teach Salvador, how we really had to rely on those 3 basic but crucial things. However, Salvador is making progress. He sometimes studies with Armando at night, and he said that in all his years studying the Bible he has never understood some of the things that Armando, who has less than one year in the church, can explain to him. That is the beauty of modern revelation and living prophets! Another funny thing about them- when Salvador first found out Armando was Mormon (they work together) he said to him "Armando, I always thought you were more intelligent than that." Armando confidently replied "If I appear at all intelligent, it is because I am a Mormon." The recent converts in our ward are great! We are also teaching the son, Gilberto, of another recent convert, Fransisco. Fransisco and Armando are actually great friends and are both in similar situations. They are both single and each have one son, Gilberto is 8 and Abram (Armando's son) is 6. They sons live with the mothers not too far apart in Phoenix during the week and they drive together every Friday night and Sunday night to pick them up and take them home. The boys had spring break last week so they were with their dads all week. Even though Gilberto is going to be baptized with the other 8-yr-old children, Fransisco wants us to teach him so that he feels more ready. He is such a cute little boy and he loves his dad so much. In our first lesson he turned to him and said "I want to be you when I grow up" and then held his hand. It is so great to see the gospel unifying them. Fransisco works so hard for his son and if he could he would have him live with him all the time, but he works until like 8 at night so he can't. Gilberto's mom has other children and since they all have different fathers they don't have a strong bond. She also smokes, which neither of them like. Gilberto is really great though, and so excited to get baptized. It is really fun to teach little kids, because then we get to pull out all of our missionary tricks!

That's all for this week. Next week I'm sure I'll have tons to tell you about a new companion and... EASTER PAGAENT!

Desde Mesa con amor,
Hermana Ladd