Que Onda mi fam?

This week we had exchanges and that’s always a really good opportunity to learn. Sister Madsen is going home in a few months, so she had a lot of experience to share. She’s really good at having a normal conversation with just anyone on the street, and turning it to gospel things. That may not sound like much, but walking up to a complete stranger and engaging them in a conversation and not sounding like a salesperson or a fanatic or like you need directions, is an art…which honestly, I have yet to master. But I’m working on it. And she’s the first sister missionary I’ve met who does that really well.

She also asked a lot of good introspective questions that got me thinking about what I’m doing here and whether I’m meeting the goals I set at the beginning of my mission.

Another really great thing that happened this week is that the ward took ownership, or at least took a step towards owning their own missionary work. They decided the monthly goals for baptism and reactivation in Nov and Dec. That’s a big deal, when the missionaries can say, “So how can we help you reach your baptismal goals?” instead of, “So would you help us with missionary work, pretty pretty pleeease?” They even picked the families that were most likely to reactivate and just needed a nudge, which was great because without us really saying anything, they picked the families we were already planning to see this week.

So, we knock on a less active family’s door yesterday, Sunday, and hear, “It’s the missionaries,” and a few people laugh…and I say, “Opps, are we conflicting with home teachers?” Then I hear the bishop say, “come on up, Sisters!” We walk up their stoop and the bishopric, their home teachers, and a family we had asked to help fellowship them were all crammed into the living room. ? None of the 11 knew the other was coming. They’d all just followed a prompting to go. I love this ward. And the less active family said they might need to come back to church, so it doesn’t get
brought to their living room again. Just the ‘nudge’ they needed.

They actually volunteered after that to go do something fun with us today, so they’re taking us to an outlet mall after we’re done emailing, which to me didn’t sound terribly fun, but my Cali compa was a pretty good sport about mtn biking last week, so I suppose I can pretend I’m excited about scarves as well.

So in Zone Conference last week President Hacking told us not to get or send emails to friends, sooo..Write me! (Mom, you can still forward this one, though) Lisa, my district lives for those comics you send, so keep em comin ? I haven’t got any packages, though both Kellen and Mom, said they sent me one. Maybe President will bring them to interviews tomorrow.

We had 3 investigators at church on Sunday! And a bunch of other people who haven’t been there in forever that we’ve been working with. So that was really exciting. I think it has a lot to do with the season, which is great. We’re working on a Navidad activity, since there aren’t a lot of Spanish-speaking churches or Christmas activities close to here. I think we’ll get a good turn out.

Okay, this is a note for Utah people. So you know Felix? The guy that teaches Salsa at BYU. “Just remember to shimmy.” Apparently, it works, because he and his wife, President Hackings daughter, just had a baby. So President’s got a little chamaco in the family now. Hehehe. Sister Hacking flew down last night and is in Utah right now. It’s her first grandbaby, so she’s really been beaming all week. We’re going to have to teach them some Spanish.

Well, life’s great in the mission field, just doing what I do best. Riding my bike and talking a lot. “Have We Not Reason to Rejoice?” That’s my favorite talk this conference. Because these plain and simple truths do uplift our hearts and minds. Families are forever. Jesus Christ has a perfectly organized church, and it’s here. Everyone’s invited. God loves us. The Book of Mormon is true.

I love you all.

Hermana Deb