Californian A-Venturas: Twenty-second Week in the Field

Hola Everyone!

This week was absolutely crazy with all sorts of weird things happening.....

First of all, President Castro was at our district meeting this week!! He walked in during the opening song and none of us were expecting it! He's is such an inspiring man who is most definitely called of God. During our role play portion, he chose to sit in on mine and another Elder's. He gave so much advice on how to help Linda, one of our investigators, continue to progress.

Yesterday, we had such a miracle! Earlier this week, we were looking for a potential, but he wasn't home. Instead, we talked to his dad who didn't seem interested, but out of no where, his friend, Reuban popped up. He only heard the end of our conversation, but he asked us what church we belonged to and if we had anything, such as a magazine or pamphlet, that we could give him to look at. Without hesitating, we gave him a Restoration pamphlet and tried to start talking to him, but he was too busy right then. He told us to come visit him at his house on Saturday so he could learn more! Of course, we were so excited, but when we went to the appointment, he told us his wife (Sandra) wasn't home so he wanted us to come back yesterday around the same time. We were a little bummed, but over thrilled because he wanted his wife to learn more. When we went to the appointment yesterday, not only were him and his wife there, but his mother-in-law (Celia) and his sister-in-law (Nancy). They all sat there so intently during the entire lesson and asked really good questions. The spirit was really strong the entire time we were there and we could tell that they were so ready to continue hearing more. At the end, we felt prompted to invite them all to be baptized. Celia and Nancy said that they weren't ready, but Reuban and Sandra both said they would! When we tried to commit them to a date, Reuban said that he wanted to learn more still and continue reading the Book of Mormon before he made any commitment, but Sandra said yes right away to December 28th! We were so excited and when we left their house, we felt like we had no idea what just happened. They are so ready for the gospel to be able to bless there lives. Hermana Faletau and I have already offered up so many prayers of thanks for what happened. We've been struggling a little with keeping our investigators interested or having the desire to continue to progress. This was an answer to our prayers for new investigators.

So, Linda isn't doing as well as we thought. We had planned to have a lesson with her later that day after not seeing her for about a week and a half. When we went by, no body was home, so we tried the next day and the next. Every time we've gone by she's never home, which is really unusual because she's always home at the times we've gone. We tried calling and we talked to her husband a few times who said she wasn't home, but when we tried calling yesterday before church, it said that the number was incorrect. We've called the same number multiple times and have always had success. We're starting to think that she's trying to avoid us even though the last time we'd met with her we had such a great lesson. We're constantly praying for her because we know that she's ready.
Hermana Faletau and I had a really interesting experience this week. Late last week, we had been looking for a potential investigator when we met her sister. We were talking to her when a guy in his early 20's (Guillermo) comes and sits down on the couch outside the front door. As we were leaving, he asked us if he could have the same card that we had given to the other woman. Of course we gave him one and then he told us that he used to meet with missionaries last year and was wondering when he could meet with us. We were so excited! Another answer to our prayers! We exchanged numbers and set up a return appointment. Up to this point we thought everything was going to go really well and we'd end up having a new investigator. This is where it started getting a little weird. Later that night, we got a really strange text from him that didn't make any sense, so we thought that he was trying to text someone else. We asked him, but then he started sending a lot more texts that weren't very appropriate. He asked us if we could go out and starting complimenting us and telling us that he couldn't control the way he felt. We were supposed to meet with Guillermo the next day, but we decided to change the appointment so we could find out more information about him before going back to his house. We didn't end up finding anything out, but we still went back to the return appointment. Everything went great and he didn't seem like he was trying to do anything. We committed him to a baptismal date of December 21st too. After the lesson, he sent us some more texts though. We got a little weirded out, so we talked to Elder Watts about it. He then talked to the Elder Eastman and Elder Bate about the situation. Right now, we've been instructed to not make contact with him and have our Branch mission leader meet with him and figure out what's going on. That's where we are on this situation, but I'll keep you updated next week. We just want to make sure that he's able to having a spiritually rewarding experience and not because we're sister missionaries.
On Monday, we got to have dinner with the Parra Family. The branch president and his family are probably some of the sweetest most loving people that I've ever met. They're also some of the most funny people I've ever met. Dinner was great and then we got to talking and they ended up telling us practically their entire life story including how they met, when they dated, how he proposed. The whole shebang! It was really funny how into it they got. Their kids are little angels. There's Joshua who's 9, Jessica who's 7, and finally James who's 5. James is practically a little Mexican version of Ben. No big deal. :)

Yesterday, during church, was the primary program for the branch. I felt like the luckiest person alive to get to go to two with a few months of each other! Little children have such a sweet spirit about them. I wanted to kidnap them all and just take them home with me.

Maria is still doing great, she wasn't at church on Sunday, but her lesson went really well and she prayed for us! She even specifically asked God to help her know if January 25th is the right day for her. It was one of the most sincere prayers that I've ever heard given. I really hope she decides to go for it! (Not only because I want her to be baptized, but because that'll be the one year mark of when I opened my mission call!)

Hermana Faletau and I are having a blast here in Moorpark! It stinks that we only have 2 weeks left of the transfer, but who knows what'll happen. I feel like I'm going to leave, but I really hope not. Everything here is so perfect and the work has picked up so much this transfer. I really want to be here to see the results of all the hard work we've been doing.

Like always, thank you so much for all the love and support!

Con amor,

Hermana Halliday

PS: two weeks ago I got my ears pierced...finally! I'll send a pic.
PSS: Oh! and also last week we got a new car! super nice!! It's a 2014 Chevy Cruze! I absolutely love it and it's definitely nicer than any other car that I've ever driven. :) I hope you're all jealous!