March 31, 2014

Hello family!

 

Hope all is well in the home land. Thank you all so much for keeping me updated and all. I love your emails! This week was a good one here in Rialto. Hermana Lauaki-Sablan and I are always having fun. We picked up a new investigator this week. It is the cousin of a girl we were teaching that ended up moving away so for some reason we had the idea to go back to her house, even though she doesn't live there anymore. Come to find out that her cousin has been waiting for us to come back because he wanted to come to church but he didn't know where the church was! And guess what else! The day we went, his cousin that we were teaching that moved? She had come back to visit just for the day! So she and her cousin sat down for an awesome lesson! So cool.

Then, on Wednesday we had dinner with one of our members and he has been trying to get us to sit down with his daughter. She is less active but said that she didn't want to talk to any missionaries. Well while we were having dinner at her parents house, she just happened to come by. She didn't say much to us while we were eating but Hermana Lauaki-Sablan and I pulled her aside after dinner and just talked to her for a second. Well I guess after we left she told her mom that she really liked us and that she wants to have us over to her house. So we're having dinner with her and her husband tonight! After almost three months here in Rialto we're finally getting to go to her house!

 

I was made the driver again because they don't have Hermana Lauaki-Sablan's paperwork so I am the designated driver. So much for looking at the pretty scenery on the way to our area! We've been walking a lot though! We even walk to church now. All the members see us and try to give us rides. They're the sweetest. Yesterday two people pulled over to talk to us and ask us if we needed a ride. When we said no they ended up giving us granola bars and offered us tacos. It was hilarious and I just love the members here and all their generosity. I might have already mentioned this but Hermana Lauaki-Sablan and I are the first sister missionaries this ward has gotten in over ten years! So they just love us. They really do spoil us. I'm hoping we have at least one more transfer together for three main reasons: 1. WE'RE BEST FRIENDS   2. I want you all to meet her and if we stay together for one more transfer we'll be together for Mother's Day when we Skype home. and 3. We came into the ward together as the first sisters in a loooooong time, so it just won't be the same if one of us leaves! We're getting along really well with the other four elders in our ward too. We struggled a bit last transfer, they were still getting used to having us here, but now we're working well together and having lots of fun! It's a great dynamic.

 

There was an earthquake on Friday. The other two we had while I was here I was asleep for. But this one was the first earthquake I've ever really experienced! We were in a lesson when it happened so I'm sure it made our visit memorable!

Saturday night was a broadcast for women at church. It was really great to hear the messages of the leaders of Relief Society speak to us. I got some really great insights and they shared really good messages. Sunday Hermana Lauaki-Sablan and I taught primary for our ward, we taught, or tried to teach "Jesus Christ is our Savior" to the little kidlets. It was... exhausting. But they told their parents that they had fun!

 

The six of us missionaries have been working really well together and trying our best to help our ward come together and work with more unity. We've been working on that a lot and have had a really good experience with it lately. Our members are responding well to our messages and they're doing more to help each other. On Saturday we had a big service project with one of our members cleaning up his backyard and cutting up branches and trimming trees. It was a lot of work to be done! But we got other members out to help. One even brought water and juice coolers for everyone that was there working!

Our bishop got special permission from our stake president to have General Conference shown at our chapel next weekend and is inviting all the members to come and have a little picnic together between sessions! (there are two 2 hour sessions on both Saturday and Sunday) so I think that is something that will help our ward as well.

 

The other night we were sharing a message with one of our members and when we told them we had to head home, their 3 year old daughter says "Can't you just live here so you don't have to leave?"

 

Sorry this email is so scatter-brained. I just have so many experiences and not enough memory to tell them all. I sure do cherish them though!

I'm LOVING my mission!!! And learning sooooo much. Love and miss you all.

 

Love,

Hermana Granado