I'm training!!! Whoa. Crazy! I'm too young to be a mother! I'm only 6 and a half months old for goodness sake! Hehe. Actually I'm pretty excited. My new compa is a Tongan from New Zealand and think she has extended family here. Well, she's Tongan, she has extended family EVERYWHERE. Our ward is half Polynesian so she'll fit right in. Her name's Sista Faivakaimaono. Say that 10 times fast. I'm glad I've been studying Tongan...I know “kai” means food. I don't if she's Spanish speaking yet. But I'm planning her best first day of the mission ever! It's going to be fun. I'm making a greenie survival kit (toe warmers,etc.) and I think it would be good if we went and taught some of the members and tracted some. Anyway, I figure if I just act confident and pretend I know what I'm doing long enough, it'll come.

Does anyone have some good creative finding ideas? Our ward pretty much takes care of firesides and things like that. There's not really enough Hispanics to teach an English class, nor can we commit that much time from our 3-4 hours daily in the area. I might look into a couple service activities this transfer, but mostly I really just need a new tracting approach. I'm in a rut. Sister Miller and Hansen came up with a survey at one point to go around and give people asking them about their religion, but I really don't know if that's allowed. And they were too wussy to actually try it :-) I think I'm going to try and do some family history this transfer (I say that every transfer).

It's been a good week though. We had 2 investigators come to church! Then we found out neither one is in our area. Actually, we helped one move out of the area. She moved into government housing and as we drove through I kept thinking. “The world works from the outside in, but the Lord works from the inside out.” Don't know who said that. Some general authority or another. But Hawthorne govt housing is this big beautiful compound of brick apt buildings. Super clean and nice. We moved her into a 2-level apartment with 3 bedrooms and wood floors and new everything. Way nicer than where we're staying. BUT, we also got stared/whistled at by her shirtless neighbor for 30 minutes while we carried stuff in. I couldn't help but notice the thug children on the street corner. I've never seen so many old broken down cars in my life. And the lady who was in the office the same time we were, requesting an apt change from the same neighborhood as her ex-husband's crazy axe murderer ex-girlfriend, is like 2 doors down. Eek!

Well at least it looks nice, and at least it's not our area. The elders are going to pick up teaching after tonight. We asked them to give her a home blessing. We'll still drop by and help them get daily contact with her, though. I love the gospel. The Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom are really wonderful things. The commandments work inside out. That apartment complex may look like Zion, but it's really just a big storage unit. A place to put those things that have value, but aren't serving their real purpose at the moment. sigh. We're teaching the Word of
Wisdom tonight. I love repentance. I hope our investigator does too, so she can save that money wasted on cigarettes and get out of storage.

We tracted a lot this last week. Mitt Romney questions opened a couple doors for us, so that was good. Not a whole lot of success, but through trying out some other houses around our referrals we found 3 new potentials to teach and made some appointments. w00t! So, the Church is true. Book of Mormon's the word of God. Straight up testimony, wha'. Pray for my greenie. She's gonna need it :-P

Love ya all,
Hermana Deb

ps Sister Hansen just said she's gonna miss me talking in my sleep, aww.
pps Kellen, Elder Dude is lost in Topeka! sniffle sniffle )-: Will you make me a new one? Por favor con azuca.