Forty-fifth Week in the Field

Hola Everyone!

On Monday, we were able to visit Reina (a former investigator) and her family. We had tried a few times in the past, but she was never home. This time, when we went by, she actually was home and let us right in. We didn't have a chance to teach a full on lesson, but we did "how to begin teaching" and she opened up a lot. She's a single mom with four kids and really wants her kids to have a foundation in God to help them throughout their lives. I could tell that she really wants help and I know the gospel can help her. We have an appointment set up for today, so hopefully everything will go well with them.

On Tuesday, we had exchanges and I got to work with Hermana Brown. I loved being able to work with her since I got to work so closely with her in the branch in Thousand Oaks. She has such a sweet spirit and loves sharing the gospel with everyone. I could feel the love she has for people in general and for me while we were working. We were able to stop and talk with a young boy (Joseph) who was outside playing basketball. He had seen us walking around and wondered what we were doing and what we talked to people about. It was such a tender mercy that we were able to stop and teach him the Restoration. He has a lot of faith and wants to learn more. He even told us that he wanted to be baptized! We weren't able to set up a definite time to come back, but hopefully this week we'll be able to go back and meet his family as well. I work a lot on trying to talk to everyone while we walked around. I felt like it went pretty well and a lot of miracles happened because of it. 

On Wednesday, we had a mix up with the other Hermanas who got locked out of their apartment, but everything turned out well. They were on exchanges so it was even more hectic.  They ended up coming to our apartment.  Even though there was six of us in our apartment trying to study and get ready, the spirit was there and we were all able to still be productive. I'm just glad that we were able to help out and that we lived so close. As far as the rest of the day goes, we were able to contact another former, Maria, who isn't that interested, but we were able to have a really good conversation with her about the gospel and how it can help her family. She was really friendly and was really willing to listen. 

On Thursday, we were able to meet with Myra and Jose finally! They've been avoiding us for a while, but we were finally able to teach them the Plan of Salvation. Jose understood everything and Myra even helped teach him. Even though she's not a member, she has such a strong testimony of the gospel. The only thing holding her back is that she's still living with her partner. There's a lot more wrapped up into it, but since we couldn't give her advice, we talked to Bishop about it and he's going to take care of it from there. We're still praying for her and hoping that everything will turn out so she can be baptized. 

As far as Gladys and Kassy go, we weren't able to have a lesson with them this week due to scheduling conflicts, but they told us they're still interested. We have to push their baptismal date back because they haven't come to church, but they said they would definitely come this next week. 

On Saturday, we got to go help out with Mormon Helping Hands and clean up a riverbed here in Oxnard. It was great to finally be able to do service since no body ever lets us, but the disappointing thing was that not one single soul from 5th Ward showed up. Everyone that came was from 6th ward. Hermana Reyes and I are trying to help the ward have more enthusiasm by showing them how fun it is to share the gospel.  Hermana Reyes created a sheet that lists ways that the ward members can get more involved in missionary work, so hopefully this week we'll start to get that implemented. 

Later on Saturday, we had a miracle lesson with another former investigator that Hermana Brown and I met on exchanges. When we showed up, he (Jesus) wasn't there at the beginning, but we started out talking with his brother and dad. He then came in and we had an amazing lesson on the first part of the Plan of Salvation and then the Restoration. They have a lot of issues that they're trying to figure out, but the spirit was really strong as we testified and we could tell that they felt it. We have a return appointment on Saturday.

Thanks for all the love and support!

Con amor, 

Hermana Halliday