This past week I did missionary work!

Hola Amigos!

This past week I did missionary work! Hooray! 

The week went by so quickly that I hardly remember the cool things that happened!

We did start teaching someone who had gone to church a couple of times in the past, but she was never baptized, and she stopped coming. She decided that she did want to be baptized in one of our lessons, so we set it up for June 18th! We had several lessons with her this past week, and she even came to church! Then. After sacrament meeting (the first hour of church), she told us that she didn't want to be baptized. 

It's hard for me to understand why! I'm grateful for our agency, or ability to make our own decisions, but I know how important it is for her to learn and grow and truly come unto Christ! AHH. 

I only have time for that one story. 

And this one. 

I finally received a two month old package from my aunt and uncle. The post office was hiding it from me! It's ok. The cookies are still delicious. 

Keep being Christlike examples! Others see that light in you! 

Hasta Luego,

Hermana Valentine

This week these things happened...

Hola Amigos!

I fell off of my bike this week. Fanny, an elderly lady, always gives us treats after our lessons or service. On Friday, she gave us ice cream popsicles. I can totally ride a bike and eat ice cream. I cannot turn onto a sidewalk while holding ice cream. It was so silly! In my mind I was thinking, "If i drop the ice cream, it's littering. NO ONE WANTS TO BE A LITTER-BUG." So, I held on to what little was left of the ice cream and the handlebars as I hit part of the inclined curb trying to turn onto the sidewalk and fell. Unfortunately, the ice cream hit the ground, too. It's ok because we found a trash can. I didn't want ice cream anyways!

Sister Pierson and I were talking about bread in Spanish one evening just before nightly planning, so of course we wanted some toast. Sister Pierson put bread in the toaster, but just before she started the toaster, the power to part of our apartment complex (including our apartment) went out! Solution: turn on all of the flashlights and bike lights. It didn't help make toast, but it worked really well for light! We decided to just eat bread instead of toast. 

Something cool that happened this week: we invited a member to come with us to an elderly care center to visit a few people who haven't been able to make it to church and to visit an investigator the previous sisters told us about who we hadn't met yet. Her name is Dolores. She is so cool! She has the neatest stories! The best part was the timing, though. She invited us inside, and we saw two bookshelves still in their boxes just waiting to be built. We offered to build them, and she was so struck by our kindness that she needed a tissue. She was super thankful, too! We weren't able to finish, so we came back later that night, and she invited us to come back this week to help her with family history work. And computers. 

Hasta Luego!

Hermana Valetine

I'm holding bread in the photo

This week was super weird!

Hola Amigos,

How is everyone? Good, I'm glad! Unless I shouldn't be glad. Then I won't be.

This week was super weird! It was my first full week on bike, and it
wasn't even terrible!  Unfortunately, I don't have any cool pictures
of Sister Pierson and I on bike, but I promise we are so cool. We have
lights on our bike wheels that change color while we ride, and we have
matching Camelbacks.

One day last week during lunch, we had a "funeral" for a sister who
was going home. We had pizza, watermelon, and some other food I don't
remember. She loved it. Sister Pierson and I bought it would be a
perfect opportunity to show off our interpretive dance skills. I'll
share the video. Pretty much, we should be on So You Think You Can
Dance? when we get home.

I'm not sure if I update you on transfers last week. We are still in
our Spanish ward, but we don't have the Young Single Adult ward
anymore. Now we have an English ward: Mesa 20th. Because our area is
way smaller, we have bikes instead of a car.

The work is going well! We are still teaching Carlos and Yissell, a
brother and sister. They even came to Ezra's baptism. Their
testimonies of the restored gospel are growing like crazy!

My Mother's Day call home was wonderful once we got it all figured out.

Here are some pics for this past week, and, if it works, the promised video:


Sometimes we put raincoats on. 

Right after workouts, we had breakfast with our stake president and his wife (in the photo). Left to right: Sister Pierson, me, Sister Palmer. 

Hasta Luego!

Hermana Valentine

Didn't get married!

Laney had a baptism this week!

Hopefully her letters get longer and not shorter as time goes on or it will only be one word by the end. - Christal

 

 During district meeting, we had to bring a photo of our family and five things that not many people know. I showed a picture of Grandma and Grandpa and talked about my family. Then I showed a pass-along card with a picture of Christ and children and talked about being a convert. I started talking about college. I mentioned the 3-to-1 boy-girl ratio at S&T (I hope that's still right), and the Elder who was writing my fun facts on the board wrote "didn't get married." At the end, another Elder had "$$$$" beside one of points. He said something like, "I don't have money. Can we change that point? I just don't what you using this as a talking point in conversation." 

Naturally, my response was something like, "Join the club! 'Oh, uh, hey Sister Valentine. So, I heard that you didn't get married.'" (Imagine that this ' ' is in a deeper, fake man voice.)

Transfers weren't so bad. I'm still with Sister Pierson and we are keeping our Spanish ward adn our apartment. but we lost a few things in the transfer: the YSA ward and our car. We have 20th ward and bikes. It will be good.

Here's that picture from the baptism! and a few funny ones after we dropped our car off at the mission home and got a ride from some other sisters.

 

(Please don't use this as blackmail. I don't know how I made that face.)

This one is because I want you to know that we don't act too crazy in public: