So much news this week!
We had another baptism. Margarita and her son David got baptized on Saturday. However they were late to church on Sunday so they have to wait til next week to be confirmed. The reason they were late is that Margarita got a job which is a huge blessing, but....
This was a week of miracles. TONS of miracles. We saw a little boy that had been sick with who-knows-what receive a blessing and be completely healed. They went to the doctor and he said that the little boy is perfectly healthy. He is now running around causing a ruckus and constantly reminding me of Grant when he was little. Hna Ghan told his mom that: "This miracle means that the priesthood power is real." "si" "That means that God restored his priesthood to the earth." "si" "That means that Joseph Smith was a prophet." "si" "That means that this church is true." "si" "So when are you getting baptized?" "We're talking about it." That is a miracle in itself. Her husband is a member and she is afraid of water so it has been a struggle to get her to even talk about baptism. We are hoping that all this talk, and the fact that three of their sons want to get baptized, will lead to a service sometime soon. Keep your fingers crossed!
I did hear about the earthquake. It is all anyone has been talking about and praying for. I'm glad Will is okay and I'll pray for Abby.
Guess what?
I fell off my bike and have a huge black and blue bruise on my arm. It was quite funny because I was just getting off the bike and setting it down on the ground. I just kind of went with it. And the bruise is from the softest part of the bike: the seat.
Yes! I almost forgot. They are making a new mission called the New Mexico Farmington Mission. We will be reshuffled in July. And our new mission president is going to be Elder Ellesworth of the Seventy. That change will happen about the same time. How it is going to work is that whoever is up in the area of the new mission when the change happens will be in that mission. So the next transfer will determine who gets switched and who stays.
We did a HUGE service project the other day. You could probably look it up in the news from AZ. It was about 1,500 people and was called something like Clean Up Mesa, or something like that. And we got free t-shirts. That would be on Sat the 27th, so you can look it up. I got a bunch of pictures and will probably have to send you the SD card soon so you don't get too antsy.
Buena suerte! I handed my camera over to Elder Hendrickson and he took a bunch of very fun fotos. Oops, that is Spanish. So I will definitely send out the SD card.
We ate dinner with a very cute little lady the other day. Okay, so we have been eating with cute little old ladies all week. We are sisters and they can't have elders because they are all widows. Anyway, I saw a little poem that I really like in one of their houses.
"Life isn't about waiting
for the storms to pass...
It's about learning to
dance in the rain!"
It's about learning to dance in the rain!
We have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday and
We had more rain this week. It made me really grateful for a car. (Gee, that was boring. ;) )
The Searles sent me the cutest V-day package. It was filled with goodies. I sent them a thank you note this morning. Oh, and the primary sent me a bunch of notes and pictures. I sent them a TY note too. I'll be hanging their pics on the wall with all my other stuff. I'll have to take a picture of that wall. It is almost covered with stuff now. :)
We have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday and yesterday I committed four more people to be baptized. So cool. They will be baptized in March. The 27th I believe.
Oh, I bought a crochet hook today so I can make myself a bag out of the million plastic bags that we have in the apt. I need something less bulky than my backpack to carry around on p-day. I don't carry my scriptures on p-day so I don't need the backpack, but still have enough things that I will want a bag of some sort.
We had another fireside on Sunday and I was able to see Elder Leonard again! He is awesome and I just love him to peices. You know that his trainer got transferred, right? And that now he (his trainer, Elder Schwarze) is my zone leader. Anyway, I was even going to be able to sit with E Leonard, but I ended up sitting on the stand and playing the piano for almost every song. That's a lot because we always do at least half a dozen special musical numbers. I am very grateful for my talent on the piano (most of the time;) ). And we were able, finally, to get a picture of us and our trainers. I am so excited that I get to see him so often. We also saw Hna Voigt at the fireside. That was nice too.
We had some things to give to Hna Voigt that she had left down here. So we made up a bag of that stuff and brought it into the church. However, Hna Ghan through her stuff in there. So, they almost left with our car keys, but we caught them before that. And we got all the way home before we realized that Hna Ghan's planner was also in the bag. Now you have to understand that our whole lives are in our planners. A missionary without his planner cannot function. We keep addresses, phone numbers, and appointments and shopping lists, etc. in there. So, needless to say, Hna Ghan freaked out. Her life was on its way to Payson! And Hna Voigt didn't answer her phone.
And I have one minute left so I will finish the story in my written letter. I hope the suspense doesn't kill you. :)
LOVE LOVE LOVE
Ella
[Here is the rest of the story from a letter written the same day; 23 FEB 10...
So I hope the suspense didn’t kill you. :) I don’t really remember exactly where I was in the story because it was hours ago, so I hope that you get the whole thing. I think I was about…
We figured out that Hna Ghan’s planner had ended up in Payson with Hna Voigt. Well Han Voigt called at about 6:40 the next morning after having received our message. And Han Ghan proceeded to get all of the info, that she had and I didn’t. We then walked out of the house for our morning exercise. Hna Gahn was still on the phone and walked out first. In the panic attack the night before, we had forgotten to lock the door. Hna Gahn discovered this on her way out first and I followed. As soon as the door latched I knew something was wrong. Yes, we locked ourselves out. Luckily we had the phone so we were able to call someone for help. However, the man with the keys lives 45 minutes away. And it started raining. So we sat in our car, which we had also forgotten to lock, luckily. We have learned our lesson and are much more careful. :) We also gave a spare key to the Zone Leaders who live about a four minute stroll away. They live across from the Visitor’s Center.]