Hermana Brinkerhoff: Pico De Arana

Hi beautiful family,

Well, you're probably all wondering what the subject line means. Quin? Stace? Who knows if I even spelled that right, but that's all I've been hearing this week. Remember spider alley where we tracted last Sunday during the Zone Blitz? It's possible that one of those nasty things bit me because I noticed on Monday that I had yet another bite on my leg (my mysterious bites from the MTC are starting to go away--hopefully the scarring disappears soon) but this one seemed a little more red. On Tuesday morning I noticed it'd gotten bigger, so I drew a circle around it--I ended up drawing three more circles as the day went on, so after talking to the mission nurse, we decided to go to the "immediate" care. After waiting around for 3 hours, we spent 3 minutes with the doctor who prescribed me an antibiotic and told me to put a warm washcloth on my bite 3 times in the morning and 3 times at night. Well, I think it's beginning to go away now--after a week. The antibiotic (or the bite) makes me feel shaky at times and my arms feel weak (makes it tough to play the piano), and I have constant headaches after taking the medicine. Momma, you forgot there are still spiders in the US. :) And bugs (including bed bugs) love my legs!

Last Monday we moved our whole apartment--it took about 4 hours to move everything, and we had 4 generous elders helping us with the furniture. We moved into a 2-bed, 2-bathroom apartment. It's a nice setup--we're still in the same apartment complex (2 sets of elders live there, too). We have SO MUCH Tupperware, it's ridiculous. Mom, I will return members' Tupperware if we ever take food home. :) But we rarely have dinners with the members so I haven't had to worry about that. The elders in the English ward have dinners all the time and members give them plums and peaches and pears. The sisters in our apartment are English-speaking (1 was called Sign Language and the other is from Samoa) and they bring home cookies all the time. Mom--only the two of them lived in the member's home.

On Wednesday the mission nurse told me to rest and "stay in if we could." Okay... My companion's stomach had been hurting for about a week (she had a stomach bacteria or something), so we were given permission to take a nap. We didn't get any teaching done that day and the next day my companion had a leadership training so I went on splits with the Samoan missionary. Sister Carlos and I had two appointments set up for that day and so I was prepared to make a fool of myself trying to teach two lessons in Spanish by myself. The appointments fell through (tender mercy--bad to say?) and we ended up tracting for about 3.5 hours. We met a few Indian men (both believe in Sikhism) who were interested in learning about Jesus Christ. One of the men, from Punjab, pointed to the picture of Christ on the pass-along card and said, "I love Him. Christianity is beautiful." I showed him a pamphlet on the Gospel of Jesus Christ--he didn't know what baptism looked like--and on the cover of the pamphlet is another picture of Christ. He pointed to the picture again, took the pamphlet, and held it to his heart. I was really touched by this experience--that he realizes that there's something different about Christianity and that he has that much appreciation for someone he's just now learning about. He told us a couple times that he has two copies of the Book of Mormon in his shop (but maybe he meant the Bible).

While we were tracting that day, we also met a man from Jerusalem who told us ALL about the center of Jerusalem and where the roads lead and I don't even know. It was interesting... I knew we weren't going to get anywhere with him because he would talk for 10 minutes after we said anything, so I bore my testimony. He grew quiet, started talking again, and mentioned that our faces were shining. And he pointed out that my face was shining when I bore my testimony. The Holy Ghost really does manifest itself to people when we testify of truths and what we know.

On Friday we met a woman in a parking lot who told us her life story--boy does she have a life story to share. And she said we were the third person she's told about one thing and the first she's told about something else. I don't know what it is but people just open up to us and spill their souls. She told us that she usually checks the mail earlier (that's what she was doing when we met her) but for some reason she chose to go later and she thinks it was to meet us. A lot of people actually recognize the timing of meeting us, but they don't always do something about it even though we teach and testify and invite them to be baptized. Sometimes I just really don't like that people have agency. :) In the MTC we read a quote that goes something like, "I'm tired of walking on 3 feet of seeds and want to start harvesting!" I feel like that sometimes--people mention that we're planting seeds in the hearts of those we come into contact with. Well I don't want to walk on those seeds that we've thrown down but want to find those who are truly ready.

I'm reading the Book of Mormon right now and highlighting everything about Christ (his attributes, words, Atonement) in red and gospel principles and doctines in yellow. I highlight pretty much every page, but that's just how it goes. I've read the beginning of the Book of Mormon so many times, and start over again and read the beginning... :) that I usually tell myself that I'll hit the good parts starting in Mosiah. Wrong--highlighting has helped me slow down and think about the doctrines and principles and Christ in each verse. President gave the books to us to read the first six months of our missions and I read in 2 Nephi 9 today. If you want to learn more about the resurrection and judgment and all of that good stuff, I recommend reading that chapter. When I'm reading the Book of Mormon, the things that stand out the most to me are verses on repentance and baptism which confirms to me that what I'm doing every day is what Heavenly Father wants me to do--declare the first principles and ordinances of the gospel.

In our ward, a lot of the members have never read the Book of Mormon. We started a Book of Mormon Challenge for the month of August to read 30,000 minutes (as a whole). The promised blessings include more peace and tranquility in the home, more love in the family, an added measure of the Spirit and last week during testimony meeting everyone was testifying that the promise was true! Even a recent convert/less active has been reading for 30 minutes each day, even though the goal was 5 minutes (pretty low) each day. I wish our investigators could have been there for that fast and testimony meeting--the Spirit was very strong (even when you can't understand the full message). :)

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers. Thank you, Erin and Malinda, for reminding me that you pray for me every day. I know they're answered!

Kates